So Much ANGER!!

I watch a lot of videos via You Tube or Facebook. Mostly music or concert videos. Lately though, I've been sucked in by fighting videos. You know the ones, where someone films a fight taking place with their phone. It seems like they are taking place everywhere. Wal-Mart. McDonalds. Football games, both professional and college. Road rage. People fighting in the streets. Even at little league games. I've seen parents fight with each other, or the umpire because of a bad call. Oh man!

My question is, why? Why is everyone so angry? It doesn't seem like it takes a lot anymore to get people to start throwing hands and beating on each other. One car cuts another one off and bam, they are brawling in the road. Swinging fists, tire irons, whatever they can get their hands on. Playing a game and another player bumps into you and it's on! Even the fans in attendance at these games are fighting. They fight the other teams fans, and just this last weekend, I saw fans of one team fighting one another. Wow! So much anger!

It seems like it has only gotten worse the last couple of years. Ever since the pandemic put everyone into solitary confinement, people don't know how to act when they go out in public. It seems like everyone is out for themselves. How dare you interrupt me. Try to get in front of me. Don't you know it's all about me?

Jesus tell us to put others first. He urges us to be kind to each other. Forgive each other.

Ephesians 4:32 Amplified Bible

32 Be kind and helpful to one another, tender-hearted [compassionate, understanding], forgiving one another [readily and freely], just as God in Christ also forgave you.

If we forgave each other for things that have been done against us, what a different world we would live in.

Colossians 3:13 New Living Translation

13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

We need to remember that none of us are perfect. We are all going to mistakes once in a while. It's how we handle those mistakes that will make a difference. Forgive. Move on. If someone cuts you off on the highway, I'm sure that you have done it to someone yourself. That strike or out that a little league umpire missed, will that really set you off? If you think you are so good at it, then why aren't you doing it? 

My point is this. Be kind and forgiving to each other. Everyone has a bad day every now and then.

Hebrews 12:14 New International Version

14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone

One of Jesus' names is The Prince Of Peace. May we all have His peace in us, so we can be an example to others.

Demons Chase.

How many of you remember how it feels to be chased? Chased around the school yard. Being chased while playing tag. Being chased by a chicken, dog, or any other kind of animal. It was exhilarating, fun and sometimes kind of fearful. The thought of being caught. Oh, wow!

How many of us after accepting Jesus into our lives have had past demons come chasing us? Things that we thought that we had long buried when we became believers. 

Then comes some kind of tragedy, loss of life (loved one, friend, etc. etc.), loss of a marriage or relationship, loss of a job, loss of a house. Anything bad happens to us, and all of sudden demons start chasing us again.

Demon alcohol. Don't worry son, just a little drink won't hurt you. I will make all of your pain go away. False statement. Drinking will not take away your pain. It might make you forget what happened momentarily, but in the end, it will still be there.

Demon addiction. Pornography, drugs, gambling. Anything that used to make us feel good in the past will come calling again, if we let it. We revert back to our old selves when things like this happen. It's like a default mechanism. 

When this happens, we feel terrible. Like we let Jesus down. I can't believe I went back to those lifestyle choices, even for a minute. How will Jesus ever forgive me? Good news is, He will! Do you think that He thought that you would never sin or fall down again. He knows that we are still human. 

Look, if we slip once in a while or fall once in a while, we ask for God's forgiveness. We confess what we did, He will forgive us.

1 John 1:9 The Voice

9 But if we own up to our sins, God shows that He is faithful and just by forgiving us of our sins and purifying us from the pollution of all the bad things we have done.

As long as we are still on this side of Heaven, we will sin. Our old demons will come back to haunt us. They will try to trick you and deceive you, but it's all a lie. They'll try to make us think that what we have done is so bad that God could never forgive us or love us anymore. Lies I tell you. Lies!

John 10:29 New Living Translation

29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.

We are God's. No matter how hard our demons try too chase us, we can not be snatched out of His hand.

What a comforting thought. We are victorious in Jesus! 

1 John 5:4 Amplified Bible

4 For everyone born of God is victorious and overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has conquered and overcome the world—our [continuing, persistent] faith [in Jesus the Son of God].

So fear not. We have God on our side. No matter the demons that chase us again and again, God has us in the palm of His hand!

God Bless!

But God..............

 Our daughter bought tickets to see the a cappella group Straight No Chaser as a Christmas gift. The concert was the Friday night before Christmas in Chicago at the Chicago Theater. We made all these plans to head into the city. What time the train would leave. What station we would leave from. Where we were going to have dinner, and then head over to see the Christmas tree at Macy's.

Well, we all know what happened on that weekend. Blizzard 2022. Snow, high winds and bitter cold took hold over our area that weekend. The concert ended up being rescheduled for Jan 5, 2023. It was actually for the better as our daughter caught quite the nasty cold that week leading up to the concert. She probably wouldn't have been able to go, if it hadn't been postponed.

So we had to scrap all the plans that we had made and go back to the drawing board. Although we didn't really like to have to start over.

But God...........

Proverbs 3:5 New Living Translation

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

So the new date was Thursday Jan 5th. I started researching travel times from home to the city. None of us like to drive in and try to find parking. So we were going to take Metra. We settled on a time that we needed to be at the station for when the train left.

My schedule at work that day looked kind of sketchy. Some of the trucks had the possibility of arriving late and throwing the whole plan off schedule.

But God.......... He arranged my calendar like He always does, so that it all worked out to leave work on time.

Next in line was to go home and pick up my wife whom had to drive 30 minutes home herself to be ready.

But God.........She was there waiting for me to arrive and hopped in the van to go pick up my daughter from her job.

We thought that we might run a little late to arrive to pickup our daughter, but we were actually 5 minutes early. She came out, hopped in the van and off we went. We had a narrow window to get to the train station.

But God..........We arrived 30 minutes early. Enough time to figure out where to purchase our parking ticket, and get on the train.

Now if you know me,  I am not a tech kind of guy. The tickets for the concert were on my phone. I bought the train tickets on the Metra app. In the city we used Uber to get around.

But God........All the apps, everything went perfectly. Uber rides were there waiting for us. Able to get into the theater without any issues, and also ride the train. I was amazed at how well it all worked. I am very skeptical about these kinds of things.

So everything was great. The concert was amazing. Not my kind of music, but they could really sing. Dinner, Uber, Metra. Everything went off without a hitch. Well except for one thing. I lost one of my gloves during all the moving around.

So my encouragement to you is this. If something may seem impossible, or slightly impossible, put your trust in God.

Matthew 19:26 New Living Translation

26 Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”

God bless you all.

PK