The Sun's Rays

Sunset on the Gulf

My wife and I love to spend time at a jetty in Venice Florida right on the Gulf of Mexico. As you can see they have beautiful sunsets there! This is practically a daily experience seeing such beauty especially when there are some clouds in the sky that reflect the sun's rays.

We get there a little after 1 pm and enjoy the warmth of the sun with the breeze that blows off the water. It's such a peaceful location with no "boom boxes", party people and such. Just people who appreciate the beauty that God created.

There are times in life when you must take some time out and see what God has created. He created many things around the world just for us to enjoy yet we get so "busy" with life, we seldom enjoy these things. Sometimes it takes an event that "wakes us up" to see and experience life outside of our busy world. Remember that God did not make the world busy - we did!

There are many things in life that are right in front of us but we can't see the forest through the trees because of being blinded by life's situations. When the sun's rays are in front of you, you have a hard time seeing because of the intensity of the sun. Therefore, you put on a hat, sunglasses or even raise your hand up to block the sun. When you do that, you can obviously see what in front of you.

God shines His light all the time but it is not blinding yet many cannot see His beauty. As a police officer, I had to investigate crimes which required me to open my eyes to see evidence that might not be easily seen. If I didn't, I could miss valuable clues for evidence.

Take some time soon to look for God's beauty in this world. But to see His beauty, you must drop the world, put on His "Son" glasses, and view what many people never see. Jesus said He is the light of the world. Time is moving on and if you don't take time, time will take you!

Mirror, Mirror

Remember the story of Snow White? There was a part in the movie where the queen asks the mirror, "Who's the fairest in the land? And of course it would answer that she was until one day the mirror tells the queen that Snow White is the fairest in the land! WOW! That makes her extremely mad looking to get rid of Snow White. It's called "growing old".

Yes, believe it or not, the clock does not stop. It keeps on ticking forward. As you get older, you see your body changing into something that you don't like because it doesn't look like it did 30 or more years ago. Life goes on and we all change to some degree, some more, some less.

I am now 65 and don't like it. My mind has not caught up with my physical age. Maybe 45. But God has given us the ability to make choices how we view situations. As a police officer, I was faced with many different scenarios during which I had to make serious decisions in record setting time. But with aging, it just moves along at a turtles pace.

So I stand in front of the mirror gazing at myself and ask God why? God says don't be too concerned about your looks but be more concerned about your heart physically and especially spiritually. This body will eventually die but your spirit goes on forever. Again, God gives us choices, heaven or hell. God does not send people to hell. They send themselves to hell by not obeying what God has asked of us and that is accepting what Jesus did on the cross for us. He paid for our transgressions.

Our physical heart needs the proper nutrients to stay healthy but we live in a world of total junk food. If junk food didn't taste good, no one would eat it. The more junk food we eat, the more the mirror tells the physical truth! We should eat the right foods to stay healthy. But what about staying healthy spiritually?

Spiritual food is the Bible, prayer and fellowship with other Christians. These are the 3 main ingredients for staying healthy with God. But you start with accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and let Him run your life.

I now stand in front of the mirror and ask myself who do I actually see, me or the Jesus in me? I obviously see the physical but am I able to see the spiritual side of me? Mirrors only see a part of you, not the whole. The mirror sees the physical truth but God sees the spiritual truth.

New Years Day 2015

"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also"

—Matthew 6:21

As we enter into a new year, here is something to remember: When it's all said and done, we have three things we can offer God—our treasure, our talent, and our time. Each of these is given to us by God, and each of them should be given back in generous portions.

First, there is our treasure. I urge you to commit yourself to give faithfully and generously to the Lord in this coming year. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:21 NKJV). Whenever we put our money into something, we develop a vested interest in it. It makes sense to us that we would place our treasures where our hearts are. If we love reading books, or being entertained, or the latest technology, we spend our treasure on those things. And if our heart's desires change, that changes where we put our treasure.

But it works the other way too: Where we put our treasures, our heart will follow. Do you want your heart to be in the things of God? Then put your treasures in the things of God! Develop a vested interest in God's kingdom.

The second thing we can give to God is our talent. God has gifted each believer in different ways. Everyone has something to offer for the work of the kingdom. Romans 12 says, "Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us different work to do" (NLT).

Finally, there is our time. Let's say that one day your phone rang and it was the president of the bank that you use. He told you that an anonymous donor who loved you very much had decided to deposit 86,400 pennies into your bank account each and every morning. At first, maybe that didn't seem like a lot. But then you figured out that it was $864 a day. At seven days a week and 52 weeks a year, those pennies add up to almost $315,000 each year! But the bank president added one thing: "The anonymous giver said you must spend all of the money on the day you receive it! No balance will be carried over to the next day. Each evening the bank must cancel whatever sum you failed to use! Remember, what you don't spend is lost."

That may sound like fantasy, but here's the reality: Every morning, Someone who loves you very much deposits into your "bank of time" 86,400 seconds, which represent 1,440 minutes, which of course equals 24 hours each and every day. God gives you that much to use each day. Nothing is ever carried over on credit to the next day. There is no such thing as a 27-hour day. It's called time, and you can't escape it. Time is ticking away right now. The Bible tells us to "redeem the time"—to make sacred and wise use of every opportunity.

Offer God your treasure, your talent, and your time. Live this next year as if it were your last, because it could be. Make those minutes count!
 - Excellent words from Greg Laurie.

The Heart Satisfier

As human beings we are created by God to be happy and to feel good about ourselves. As a matter of fact, we must feel good about ourselves, or eventually we will develop some sort of unhealthy, uncontrolled behavior to get the good feelings we crave.

Think about it. A person who is addicted to drugs probably began using them because his pain was so intense he felt compelled to get rid of it, even if only temporarily. The same thing is true of drinking, or using food as a comfort. If we do not get good feelings from the inside, then we attempt to create them through outside means.

God created us that way and He's the only one who can satisfy us. When we go to something other than God to make us feel good about ourselves, we're really just replacing something real with a cheap substitute.

Whatever your emotional needs are today, know that only God can meet them. He is the only lasting source of life. Go to Him today, He's the only One who can satisfy your heart.

Easter and Relationship

32 years ago I made a decision for Jesus Christ because I finally realized that there is a difference between religion and relationship with God. There are no religions in the Bible because they are made by man. God wants a relationship with you and not a religion with you. If God was behind religion he would be multi divided within himself. 

I have been ridiculed by some police officers that I have worked with and by family members because of my stance with Jesus Christ. They look at you cross eyed when you tell them that God talks to you. When you have a relationship with someone, don't you talk to them? What kind of God would not talk to you? God talks to you in many different ways and he will get his message across to you in whatever means he has to if you are listening. If you take time, you will be able to hear his still small voice. 

Easter is not about an egg laying rabbit. Easter is about relationship. It is about God's relationship with his son Jesus and Jesus' relationship with mankind. What Jesus did on the cross can only be comprehended by a relationship with him. All relationships take time. Which relationships in your life are priority? 

As an atheist I only believed in what touched my five senses. Then one day someone asked me if that was true, how do I know I have a brain since I can't see it? We know we have a brain by the product of our thinking. We can't see air yet we know it exists because of wind. We know that God exists because of what he produces and created.

If you died today where would you spend eternity? What would be the basis for your conclusion to that question? If there is a God who created this whole universe, don't you think he can create a relationship with you? A casket is not a place to find out the answer to that question.

This weekend take time to think about your relationship with God. If you're not sure, as I was, just call out to him. It's not about religion, it's about relationship.

Time

Most people to day have some sort of mechanism that can tell them what time it is. Do you remember the song from the group Chicago, "Does anybody really know what time it is?" I believe it was one of their first songs to hit the charts. But the concept was that we are all so busy that we really don't know what time it is in our lives. We're all so busy doing "things" and "stuff" that what really is important in our lives goes by so fast and you can't push the undo button!

The concept of time exists because everything that has life dies so we measure that existence in increments of time. If none of us died, time would have no value. But we will all die eventually, physically speaking, but our spirits live forever. But our physical bodies don't last forever. What would you do if you were told you had only a month or couples of months left to live? What would be your priorities? How would you view the various things in your life?

Conforming to the World

The world - those we know and deal with on a daily basis - is continually trying to conform us to its image. You see it everyday especially on TV and other media!  Hollywood decides what the morals of this country should be. The word conform means "to be similar in form or character; to behave in accordance with prevailing modes or customs." 

Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, ." And 3 John 1:11 says not to imitate what is evil, but to imitate the good things of God.

In James it says, "You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God."

People will always try to fit us into their mold, partly due to their own insecurity. It makes them feel better about what they are doing if they can get someone else to do it too. Very few people have the ability to be who they are and let everybody else be who they are.

Can you imagine how nice the world would be if we would all do that? If each person would be secure in who he is and let others be who they are? Then we would not have to try to conform and be imitations of each other. 

I want to encourage you today to believe you can be an imitator of Christ and break out of the world's mold!