“Saving us is the greatest and most concrete demonstration of God’s love, the definitive display of His grace throughout time and eternity.” David Jeremiah

Jesus didn’t decide to be born in Bethlehem the moment Adam and Eve messed up.

No, it was long before that point in history. Scripture states that before God ever laid the foundations of the earth, Jesus knew He was coming.

Let that sink in for a moment. Before you ever made a decision to turn away from Him, He turned to you. Before you ever chose to stop loving Him, He loved you.

What mistakes/sins did you make yesterday and will make today that He doesn’t already know about?

He came in a cave to die on a roadway to leave another cave to redeem you!

Rather than wasting time beating yourself up, use it to praise Him for who He is and what He’s done – despite knowing what you would do; and then, return His love by following Him in the moment.

Have a Great Christmas!

“To trust God in the light is nothing. To trust God in the dark is faith.” Charles Spurgeon

“When Helen Keller was nominated for the Nobel Prize, she was asked who had the greatest impact on her life and she said, ‘Annie Sullivan.’

“But Annie said, ‘No Helen. The woman who had the greatest influence on both our lives was a floor maid at the Tewksbury Institute.’”

It was the floor maid who reached out to Annie Sullivan, then housed in a cell at the Institute. No one knew what to do with her as she was quite violent at the time.

What Annie was, was an angry woman who was alone.

The floor maid reached out to Annie through act of kindness – a plate of homemade brownies pushed through her cell door.

From that act, a friendship was born that paved the way for the Staff to discover that Annie was almost blind. They eventually got her help. From there, she mentored Helen Keller.

We don’t know the name of the maid, but she left an indelible impression on the world through brownies.

People need Jesus. And it all can start with a smile, a kind word or an action. Let your light shine. The world can be a pretty dark place.

The true test of your faith is when you don’t understand or feel right and still follow Jesus.

Bad information fed into logic will result in a bad decision. Bad information fed into emotion will led to a bad decision.

Our one true shield against both is faith. Faith in someone who can help you see through bad information to get at the truth of what decision to make whether it feels or looks right to you. Remember, only truth can set you free from the consequences of bad decisions.

You and I don’t know or can see everything. Yet, how many children of God trust their feelings over the facts of Scripture? One writer put it this way, “Emotions neither prove nor disprove facts.”

Tremendous amounts of misinformation are being thrown our direction every day, which means it’s only going to get tougher following Jesus.

I recently struggled with a decision that was both illogical to me as well as something I simply felt was wrong to do. I had plenty of data that all fed this feeling.

Yet, in loving Jesus, I practiced what He’s been showing me: Slow down. Listen. And let God show Himself true and real.

When He finally said what to do. It was faith time. Would I allow the Spirit to enlarge my faith? Did I all of a sudden feel like doing it? No. Did I completely understand it? No.

But out of love, I let the Spirit grow my faith and did it anyway. Only He can see tomorrow.

Fellow Jesus followers, I’m not tooting my own horn. This was a work of God. I need more of them and so do you.

“Even when life may be difficult, we should thank God for all He does for us, which we do not deserve.” Billy Graham

Jesus did a number of things through His death on the cross. He not only brought forgiveness (burnt and sin offering) for what we did to break our relationship with the Father, but He also restored or healed that strained relationship (peace offering).

We’re communicating again. We’re enjoying each other’s company. Bottom line, we’re on good terms with the Father.

Yet, part of the peace offering was a thank offering. And Psalm 50:23 states that one who sacrifices a thank offering, honors God and prepares the way for Him to bring salvation (healing, wholeness) to one’s life.

Being thankful that He forgave and healed our broken relationship, caused by our actions, not His, starts the life changing process, hence the world salvation.

Are we truly grateful that our relationship with God is whole again? Or, do we simply expect God to do His “thing” in our lives?

Life change doesn’t start with us asking for it. It starts with us being thankful for even being able to talk with Him, which we don’t deserve.

“A person without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Proverbs 25:28

One of the ways you know you are walking with Jesus is how you react to life’s circumstances.

The Spirit tells the child of God they will be robbed of joy and left wide open for destruction if they don’t slow down to ask, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” before doing something. And, “Lord, what do you want me to say?” before saying something.

This is goes for both the small and big stuff of life. Your words as well as actions can have eternal value!

A good friend of mine once said, “I didn’t realize until my wife died that I could live with pain and joy at the same time.”

These words then and now were quite profound and touched me deeply. Simply by walking with Jesus and letting His words flow, what seemed small became great in the Spirit’s hands.

You are somebody in Jesus who can do something with both what you say and do, if you slow down and let Him control what comes out of you when squeezed by life.

The world, in which you live, may be going out of control, but, you don’t have to. And because this is true, you can make a big difference with something as small as your words.

Give thanks this is true!