299 and Counting!

This is officially my 299th blog post, and the statistics that go with it are mind boggling. These numbers have superceded all of my expectations:  Read by over 110 people per week, in over 15 different countries. Gotta love technology!

By the way, where the heck is Belarus? I had  never even heard of Belarus until it showed up on my stats page one day. Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest.

So, a big shout out to those of you in Belarus!

Some of the other countries that have hit on my blog include the aforementioned Russia, Poland, and Lithuania, along with countries like the Philippians, Malaysia, Equador, and China.

 My intentions when first starting my blog in 2009 was to just  encourage one's faith in the Lord and help bring others into knowing the One, True Savior. And what better way than to share amazing stories of God's amazing hand in alot of people's circumstances and lives. Along with other inspirational stories, I've been able to prove that God still does miracles today. He always has and always will.
No where is it ever mentioned in the Bible that God stopped healing or stopped fixing people's dire situations. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

What is really awe inspiring is the fact that I do not advertise or promote my blog aside from FaceBook and having it on Googles Network of Blogs. No ad campaign in magazine articles nor big name websites or on any big name authors blogs. I just do the writing and let God send out His Word. I am very grateful that His Word is getting out there in so many different countries by so many of His servants.

I thought on my 300th blog post I would revisit some of the many miracles I have been writing about the past 3 years.

 So, here's to 300 more blog posts of God's awesomeness!

I Confess

Another one of my favorite Seinfeld scene's is when Jerry goes to confession:

"Tell me your sins, my son."

"Well, I should mention, Father, that I'm Jewish."

"That's no sin."

"Oh, well, good. Anyway, Father, I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Watley. It is my suspicion that he's converted to Judaism purely for the jokes."

"And this offends you as a Jewish person?"

"No. It offends me as a comedian."

When you hear the word confession you immediately associate it with the acknowledgement of something bad. And most of the time you are confessing what you did wrong to either a parent, a legal authority, or a priest.

Now, how about confessing words in the right context? That is something you very rarely hear about or even do. But the Word of God instructs all believers to do this. In fact, throughout the entire Bible you will find scriptures about speaking positively, using God's Word vocally , praying boldly, and confessing God's Word. As you do this, you are simply renewing your mind with the Word of God:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. ( Romans 12:2)

Your struggles will seem obsolete as you concentrate on the goodness of God and His mercy and grace.

It is utterly impossible to walk by faith, as we are instructed to do, without knowing God's Word and simply doing what His Word says:

²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
(James 1:22-24)

It's kind of hard to forget who you are and who God's says you are, when you are daily renewing your mind with the Word of God, and confessing His Word over your situations and speaking His Word in your prayers.
Here is just a small sampling of encouraging Words to use daily, as you begin to hopefully make that choice in confessing right instead of confessing what you've done wrong all the time:

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

And being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
(Phil. 1:6)

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)

And the reason why we should declare God's Word?

So we may boldly say:“The Lord is my helper, I will not fear.What can man do to me." (Hebrews 13:6)

The words you speak are powerful. In fact, God reminds us that His Word is powerful than a two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).
It is such a simple task in reminding ourselves who we are in Christ, and when you speak His Word daily you begin to see the changes in your faith.

If you are living in an area with no access to a Bible and are reading this online, remember to click on my link to biblegateway.com to read more of God's Word on confessing His Word.
The Book of Philippians carries many great verses to strengthen your faith, worthy of confessing!

Heroes

 
The average height of a first grade boy is 4 feet tall. At most levels of competition the height of a basketball hoop is 10 feet tall. And the length from the free throw line to the basket is 13 feet.

On a Friday before Super Bowl Sunday, first grader Blake Harper had a chance to give his entire school the day off after the Super Bowl if he hit a free throw.  Both a seventh and eighth grader missed their opportunity to be a hero when they both missed a 3-point shot. So, up came the first grader, a chance to be a hero. Nothing but net for the kid!

All first-grader Blake Harper had to do was shoot a free throw to be a hero at his school and be mobbed by hundreds of classmates. An adventure he will most likely remember for the rest of his life. There are many heroes in life to kids, but none so much as the pro athlete.

There are many risks to kids having athletes as heroes, as many athletes have a tendency to fall from grace and disappoint not only children, but adults as well. So, should we say, "Don't trust athletes" ? No, but there are far better choices to choose from, if your looking for a hero. It's only unfortunate that it is the athlete who is in the prime spotlight to become a hero to kids.

In recent weeks Lance Armstrong failed and disappointed millions of fans as an athlete and a hero. All of the accolades of winning 7
Tour de France titles are now diminished to dust, as he finally admitted to investigative authorities of his doping addiction that enhanced his winning those titles. Lance was approached by one child who was his fan, all Lance could tell the kid was,

"Find another hero, kid. Because I am not one."

Such encouraging words to a kid, huh?

Unfortunately those that risk their life everyday for mankind, such as: policemen, firemen, and soldiers, only become heroes to kids when they are closely connected to a specific incident or if they are family members. Again, it all comes down to the almighty spotlight.

In Mercy Me's song You Are I Am, we are reminded of another hero, the One true hero who will never disappoint, and can still move mountains on our behalf:

You're the one who conquers giants


You're the one who calls out kings

You shut the mouths of lions

You tell the dead to breathe

You're the one who walks through fire

You take the orphan's hand

You are the one Messiah

You are I am

You are I am

God can and will always be in the spotlight in people's lives, for good not evil. And this hero is one you can always count on.

Does Your Character Match Lowes?

I never really gave this much thought, until I saw a box of books returned in the warehouse of the company I work for. The customer shipped the books back in a Lowe's Home Improvement Store box with the company's tag line: Never Stop Improving.

Naturally when this tagline first caught my attention, I automatically associated it with one's faith and how we should resemble Lowe's trademark. Though I've been through many battles and can match battle scars with the best of them, one thing always remained: my drive to improve my faith.

I am sure we can all attest that the testing of our faith is never easy, in fact it is a challenge we would just readily dismiss if it were up to us. But without tests and trials how would our faith grow?

Never Stop Improving fits in with so many areas of our life: our careers, relationships, sports, and the aforementioned important area of all, our faith. Having been involved in sports while growing up and in recent years competing in 5K races, I was always one who was driven to succeed. But I think we all have had that edge in one area or another within our life.

So, how do we stay driven in wanting to constantly improve our faith? By realizing that the exercising of our faith builds up other areas that our needed in our daily life. And not to mention, that our wanting to please our Heavenly Father by living out our faith says all the more, "Father, I love you and I trust you."

In 2 Peter 1, the Apostle gives us wisdom in exercising our faith so that we may excel in all areas of our life, and grow in the knowledge of the Lord:

5) For this very reason, adding your diligence (to the divine promises), employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue
(excellence,resolution, Christian energy), and in exercising virtue develop knowledge,

6) And in exercising knowledge develop self-control, and in exercising self-control develop steadfastness(patience) and in exercising steadfastness develop godliness,

7) And in exercising godliness develop brotherly affection, and in exercising brotherly affection develop Christian love.

All these qualities are important, needed, and are what should drive us into the Never Stop Improving attitude of life. For in it there are great rewards:

8) For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful unto the (full personal) knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.


And the results of the building of our faith continually, helps us from free falling:

10) Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure to strengthen your calling and election; for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall.

A good attitude to carry, Never Stop Improving.

For more of God's Word on faith building character in 1 and 2 Peter, and if you don't have access to a Bible where you live, go to
www.biblegateway.com.

Wisdom From a Mother's Stolen Roses

Pick a day, any day, and see if any  moral restitution has made headlines anywhere in the world. I hope there is somebody, somewhere acting out some kind of moral restitution.  Those who are constantly in the spotlight, such as athletes and Hollywood Actors, find themselves always under a microscope in what they do and how they handle mistakes.

Since this post is following the Super Bowl, one athlete that comes to mind is Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, when talking about moral restitution. But in his case, it is how he turned his life around from 13 years ago while at a pre-Super Bowl party where two people were murdered. Even though Lewis was found with the victims blood all over his clothes, the only crime he was convicted of was obstruction of justice. But it now appears Ray Lewis has changed his life around in recent years and has found Jesus, as he now speaks the Word of God constantly.

In Truman Capote's short story Children on Their Birthdays (also a film by the same name), a 13 year old high society girl named Miss Lilly Jane, moves to a small town in Alabama with her mother. Throughout this story set in 1947, the young lass teaches the entire town about life and about being righteous outside of church. I love how she also uses big words that nobody in town understands.

A young lad named Billy Bob tries to woo Miss Lilly Jane with some roses. Only one problem though, he stole those prized roses from his mother's garden. And when Lilly Jane sees Billy Bob getting scolded by his mother, she suggests to Billy Bob to make moral restitution with his mother.

"What's that?" he asks.

Miss Lilly Jane replies, "You have to do something right to cancel the wrong."

As both children decide to sleep on thinking of a resolution, Miss Lilly Jane takes action on her own with the help of her mother.
They sneak off into the evening and needle and thread all of the stolen roses back onto the stems in Billy Bob's mother's garden.

The next morning Billy Bob's mother is amazed at what she finds in her garden, as if some great miracle has taken place. But as she takes a closer look, she notices that the roses were just reattached.

She asks Miss Lilly Jane why she had gone through all that trouble to reattach the roses, Lilly's reply, "It's moral restitution."

"What's that?" the mother asks.

"To cancel out the wrong, we must balance what we ought not to do with what we ought to do", Miss Lilly Jane replies.

Boy, imagine what today would be like if we had a million Miss Lilly Jane's in the world.

It only starts with one. Will you be that person?

You can check out this fantastic film on DVD at your local library. Or you can read the short story in the book: A Tree of Night and Other Stories.

Faith Can Move Rumbling Automobiles

As the snow fell and the wind picked up and the temperature was dropping furiously, my car decided to give me an adventure.
My car is only 8 years old, maintained pretty well, and was giving me a luxurious, comfortable ride all day long. And then evening came and as I began to pull out of the church parking lot one night this week, naturally it had to happen. The service engine light came on as soon as I started the car. And not only that, but the car began to rumble as if it wanted to immediately stall on me.

One would expect that coming out of church that everything should be perfect at that very moment.
 "Hey, I just went to church, everything is going to be perfect for the rest of the day!"

But in reality it is: this is where your faith is tested, outside in the real world. And so our challenge awaits us: Can we take what we have learned in church and use it outside the church?

As I pulled away from my parking spot and moved a couple of feet the car began to hesitate as if wanting to stall. And as this happened I was totally shocked at my instincts. I did not say a word to myself, did not say a prayer, the only thought that came to mind that I can recall was, "Okay, lets do this. Let's just go home."  Now mind you, my destination was about 20-25 minutes away. Needless to say, I made it home without the car even shutting down at stoplights.

When I look back now, I am in awe of my instinct to  just do it.  For one evening my faith was moving mountains. Now if I could just carry that faith with me everyday and in every situation I would be one happy camper.

It is sometimes when we least expect it that our faith will kick in without us ever giving it a second thought. Oh, the possibilities of having that faith all the time. Easier said than done, right?  That is where the importance of: knowing God, knowing how powerful He is, and knowing He cares for us. All He asks of us is that we trust Him, even in the small things.

As I stepped out in faith, my faith was rewarded: I made it home that night, and the cost of repairs the following day was minimal.

Some of the greatest examples of real faith are found in Hebrews chapter 11:

It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.

It is a great chapter to reminds us of others faith and how it worked in some of the darkest situations.

If you would like to familiarize yourself with some of these great stories of faith in Hebrews, go to: www.biblegateway.com