Scraping The Window.

One morning this week I had to scrape the windshield of my van before I could head to work. It is a rare occasion as I usually park in the garage. With our daughter being home from college, I let her park in the garage, and I park either out in the street, or in the drive. As I was scraping, I kept thinking 'I can't wait till I get back in the garage'. Then it hit me. If I'm back in the garage, it means that our daughter has gone back to college. I'm not quite ready for that just yet. So I said to myself, I'll scrape as much as I need and be happy about it. I want to cherish her being here, not to rush the time. It's already going by way to fast as it is. Psalm 127:3 New Living Translation (NLT)3 Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. I thank God everyday for our daughter. She is a definitely a gift to us. So, I'm going to cherish the time that she is here, and keep scraping the windows.

The Greatest Gift.

I've been out Christmas shopping a couple of times this week. Watching people hustle and bustle in search of the perfect gift, I couldn't help but think about God and the perfect gift that He has already given us in His Son, Jesus Christ. John 3:16 New Living Translation (NLT)16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. You see, God's gift will never wear out, rust, or shrink. His gift keeps on giving, for all eternity. The best thing about this gift is that you do not have to go out to the mall, or any shopping center to find it. You don't have to fight the crowds, or look for parking. You can receive this gift right where you are. At home, in your car, wherever you are, Jesus can meet you right there. I wish you a Merry Christmas, and if you haven't already, I pray that you receive the greatest gift ever known to mankind. Jesus Christ.

Transparent.

Well, I finally think that I might have worn out my welcome. People are tired of my blog posts. They aren't reading them anymore. The last post that I posted had a grand total of 10 readers. That's right 10. Wow! That is the lowest total since I started this several years ago. Not going to lie. I was (am) a little bummed. Then I read this. Galatians 1:10 New Living Translation (NLT)10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. I started thinking. Am I writing this blog to please people and draw attention to myself? Or am I writing about what God puts on my heart to share with other people. I would like to always think the latter, but who am I fooling. I know that I have written stuff to be self serving. To say "hey, look at me and what cool stuff I am doing." I have t-shirts that have sayings on them as well, that I find that I'll wear in certain situations when I know people will be around. Just for them to look at my shirt and say "wow, how cool dude." It' a battle of the flesh. Luke 9:23 New Living Translation (NLT)23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. This is what my intentions are for this blog. To give up my own words and what I want to say, and write what The Lord is telling me. I want it to be up lifting and encouraging. Not prideful and selfish. I need to die to myself daily. Pick up my cross and follow Christ! So if I have 1 visitor or 100 visitors to my blog, I am doing it all for the Glory of Jesus!

God & The Stryper Concert.

My brother and I went to see Stryper in concert this past September. My mom gave us the tickets as a Christmas gift. So we had to wait nine months to be able to use them. It was a really long nine months, let me tell you. As I opened the box that my ticket was in, I felt the urge to see if I could get into the venue before the show to pray for & with the band. That's it, just pray. Wasn't looking for autograph's, free tickets, photos or anything else. I had this feeling all the way up to the day of the show. I tried contacting the band. Nothing. I tried contacting their management. Again nothing. Reached out to the venue. You guessed it, nothing. So I'm like "alright God, if you want me to do this, You'll make a way." My brother and I made a plan for the day of the show. It was on a Saturday in St. Charles. Almost our backyard. We decided to get there really early and see what would happen. We walked right into the theater just to see what was going on, we were able to catch some of their sound check. Awesome. They finally kicked us out because they were setting up for the meet and greet. So we went to dinner at the pizza place right across the street. My brother was determined to meet them, in someway, anyway. We finished dinner and then decided to walk around to the back of the theater. There was a van waiting there with a driver-security dude, to take the band back to their hotel before the show. We waited and waited. Finally the band comes spilling out of the back door towards the van. We decide to make a move. We had to go by the van to get into the show anyway. So we started moving that way. As we walked in front of the van the lead singer was sitting in the front seat. He waves to us. We wave back and keep on walking. We get a little way past the van when I take a look back. The side doors are wide open and the guys are there, just chilling. The driver - security dude was nowhere to be found. I turned to keep walking up the sidewalk, when I heard God say "Keven, here is your chance." You wanted this moment, now here it is." So what do you think that I did? Of course I jumped at the chance. God couldn't have made it more perfect. I walk over to them and said hello. You could tell that they were expecting something completely different. An autograph? A picture perhaps? I told them that I am a pastor from just down the road and if I could, I would really like to pray for them. They were all about it. Excited even. I laid my hand on the lead singer, and started praying. I prayed for the band, the show, their guitarist who was ill at the time. I prayed that every note that was played and every word that was sung would point people to Jesus. That was it, simple and to the point. They were very grateful for the prayer. Told them goodbye and then I went on my way. No hidden agenda. Just pray for them and leave. The whole thing was like God saying to me, Isaiah 55:8-9 New Living Translation (NLT)8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. I thought that there would be no way that this would ever happen, with nobody ever getting back to me about my inquiry. But God, He made a way! For that I am thankful, for God is good.
P.S. By the way, we caught a Stryper Bible. Gods way of putting an exclamation point on the night.

Lukewarm!

Everyday after work, I go for a 2ish mile walk. I walk around our neighborhood, listening to my Ipod and looking around at the scenery. This time of year is really beautiful with the changing colors of the leaves. Today I came across a tree that was still half green and half orange/redish. I looked at it and thought, "man this tree doesn't know what it wants to do. Stay green, or change colors like the rest." It was like it wasn't sure if it wanted to stay in summer mode, or change into fall mode. It made think about what Jesus said about being lukewarm. Revelation 3:15-16 Living Bible (TLB) 15 “I know you well—you are neither hot nor cold; I wish you were one or the other! 16 But since you are merely lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth!" Jesus wants us to be all in, or all out, but not somewhere in the middle. Kind of like some people. They call on The Lord all the time, for everything (HOT). Then you have people who don't call on The Lord at all, thinking that they can do everything themselves (COLD). Then there are the people who bounce back and forth between calling on The Lord only when they need Him, and then leaving Him out of their lives when they think that they don't (LUKEWARM). There are people who come to church occasionally for a few weeks in row, then you don't see them for months at a time. I call those people lukewarm. They're in and then they are out, and then the cycle continues. Jesus wants us to be either hot or cold. He will spit these people out because they are lukewarm. It's almost as if they can not decide if they want to be fully committed to God or not. Kind of like this tree. Half of it looked like it wanted to stay in summer mode, while the other half was getting ready for fall. Can't have it both ways. Same goes for us.

Cherish The Time!

I encountered a father and daughter playing catch softball while walking around our neighborhood tonight. The daughter threw a "wild" one to her dad and it came straight to me. I stopped it, picked it up and threw it back to the dad. That's when God said to me "cherish the moment." Not for me to cherish that moment of returning the softball, but to tell the dad to cherish the moment of playing catch with his daughter. I told the dad that I really miss that. Playing catch with my daughter. You see, she is a junior in college and is not at home any longer. My, how they grow up so quickly. So I started thinking about the things that we used to do together. I used to read to her before bed. The same book every night. I started to skip pages just so I could get through it quicker and be done. Cherish that moment of reading to your child. How I would love to go back and read to her again. No matter how many times she wanted to read the same book, and not skip pages this time. We would watch the same Disney movie over and over and over again. We had to buy the dvd versions because the vhs tapes were wearing out. I can not stand the movie 'Mary Poppins'. But to be able to watch it one more time with her, and not make stupid and dumb comments about it. It was a movie that she loved to watch. Cherish that moment of sitting there, watching your child (children) look at the screen and watch the movie. Oh to play games again, to go the park, push her on the swings, "higher daddy, higher." Chase her around, play hide and seek, or tag. Cherish these moments parents, they will be gone before you know it. Children are a gift from God. Not a nuisance or a bother. May we treat them that way.

Weeping!

This past weekend, my wife and I went down to visit our daughter. On Sunday we were able to attend church with her. From the very first chords of the song 'Holy Spirit' to the last chords of 'The Great I Am', I was weeping the whole time. See, the week before we left for our visit, God did some amazing things in our lives. I mean He is always working in us and through us, but this week was extra blessed. So when the worship band started playing 'The Great I Am', I couldn't help but think back to the previous week and be grateful and thankful for what God had done for us. I have heard this song many times before, in fact it is one of my favorites, but on Sunday, the lyrics really spoke to me and so did God. He kept telling me that "I am the great I AM." I AM your provider. James 1:17 New King James Version (NKJV) 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. We had bought a newer car for our daughter and were delivering it too her. God provided all of the financing, gas and food for our trip. Then He said "I AM your comforter." Philippians 4:19 New King James Version (NKJV)19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He knew that we needed this car, and He gave us comfort that we did the right thing by buying it. "I AM your protector." Psalm 18:2 Good News Translation (GNT)2 The Lord is my protector; he is my strong fortress.My God is my protection,and with him I am safe.He protects me like a shield; he defends me and keeps me safe. A couple of times on our trip, I was almost run off the road by semi-trucks that would swerve into my lane. Thanks be to God, I avoided them every time. Then on the way home we ran into a monsoon. It was raining so hard that we could hardly see. Again, The LORD protected us, and kept us safe. Thank You Jesus! I could go on and on about Him being the Great I AM. No doubt about it. He is greater than anything that I'll (we'll) ever face. He has no equal. He has no rival. He is THE GREAT I AM!!