Dazed and Confused

It's now after Thanksgiving and headed for the Christmas holidays. 2017 has been some year, hasn't it? There has been so much depression, confusion, hatred, in this world from all the events that have occurred. Sometimes you get so burden heavy from all of this that you begin to wonder where is God in all this.

Stress has always been around and will continue because Satan is not going asleep. He prowls around seeking whom he can destroy with his demons. He looks for all the weak links in all of us. We all have them. That's because we are not perfect and need what is NOT perfect for us to be filled with help from God. That's a void only Jesus Christ can fill even though as humans in this world try to fill it with so much other stuff. When we do that, it causes confusion and chaos in our lives. You get to be dazed and confused. As the saying goes, "stuff happens". We can expect that stress will attack us almost any time and probably when we least expect it. As a police officer, I had to be as prepared for what I might encounter out in the street each shift. You just never know what to expect but you had better be ready. That's why training is so important. Officers need the right equipment and must be ready to fire their weapon at a moments notice.

Here's another example. Your out on a boat having a great time when the boat is rocked somehow and you fall overboard! You're splashing around trying to stay afloat when you're thinking, "Why didn't I have my preserver on?" Well, it's the same with everyday life! You know that the potential of some type of stress can happen to you when you leave home if you have not already encountered stress in your home! How do you prepare for stress? It doesn't matter what type of person you are because God says that if you trust in him, let him run your life, he will either get rid of the stress or get you through it and have peace at the end.

35 years ago I gave my life to Jesus Christ and there are no human words can explain the peace that I have experienced through major trials such as divorce and heart attacks. If you have not asked God to run your life, please consider today to do so. Just ask Jesus Christ to run your life and ask him to forgive you for all the sins you have committed. We all have sinned! There are no exceptions except Jesus. I know life is better because I put God in my life as a life preserver.

There's No Cops in Heaven.

Hold it! Before you draw your weapons at me, read on. As a former atheist, becoming a Christian was a big thing. After all, I was a cop packing my Baretta and other weapons to do my job. Each day I faced a myriad of problems that could arise at a split second. I dealt with reality each day. What did I care about heaven or God?

Then came that day when I decided to check this "Jesus thing" out. I had NYPD officers(and others)  telling me about the Bible and what Jesus could do for me. Initially, I told them to put the Bible where the sun don't shine. That did not bother them at all! I thought they were all screwed up! Over a period of time, I began to seriously consider what brother officers were telling me about Jesus Christ until I said the prayer asking Jesus to run my life. To say the least, life changed drastically!

To make a very long period of time shorter, I did a lot of studying and reading the Bible. I listened to many teachers and preachers and realized that the Bible was in fact the inspired word of God. But during this time I came to a very "eye-opening" conclusion. There are many religions and denominations all saying they are going to heaven. People think that because they are nice, they too will see God. But when you read the Bible. you find something of importance that denominations won't tell you. They are not in the Bible!! The names of religions and denominations are all man made up!

Man has given titles to everything not just religion but in all aspects of life. It's not the titles of people who go to heaven but only the people who have given their lives to Jesus Christ irregardless of what title they may have had. So to say that there are no cops in heaven is true because those titles don't exist there. BUT they also don't exist in hell! When you die, those titles either fall off going to heaven or they burn off going to hell! So you can say that Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, etc. all don't go to heaven because it's not their religions that get them there but their relationship God. Have they accepted Jesus as Lord?

The bottom line is that you don't let strangers in your house and neither does God! My badge won't get me to heaven but only my relationship with His son Jesus Christ. Where is your relationship with God? He sent His son down here for a reason! If you died today, where would you spend eternity?