“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” – Proverbs 27:17

The other day, I was sitting at my desk and noticed a pick up truck had pulled quickly into our parking lot. The truck had gotten a flat tire and the driver wanted to get off the highway fast to avoid a potential collision. I the watched the gentleman who was driving the truck shaking his head while looking at his tools in the back of the truck. When I went out to speak with him, he explained that he had some tools, but it the right ones to fix his tire. With my truck parked close by, I tried to grab some tools and a jack from there. It turned out that my tools were not the proper ones for his truck either. However, we noticed that if we did some improvising, we could use both my tools and his together and make it work. We had his truck up and tire changed in no time. The gentleman thanked me and he was off again.

Sometimes we are faced with tough situations where the tools we have at our disposal, whether mental, physical, or emotional, aren’t really enough to get us by. In the book of Genesis, God said that it’s not right for man to be alone. He knew that we would often need someone to share in the struggles and also share in the joys of life. In fact, God never made any of us to be completely self sufficient. We all need a helping hand now and then.

No matter who you are or what you know or do, you are valuable to somebody. You may not have found that somebody yet or been exposed to the situation that God has in store for you yet, but stay tuned! The day is coming when you will be the right person, in the right place, at the right time. You probably don’t realize what you bring to the table as a person, but God has a plan for everyone. You are needed and important.

You might be thinking, “What could I possibly offer someone in need? I’m not strong and I don’t have a lot of money.” Let me tell you that your value to this world and especially to God is based on more than just your bank account or your physique. No matter the situation, you may just be the person who makes all the difference. You might be the one with the kind words just when another person’s life is shattered, but they’re too proud to show it. You could be the person who was able to buy a couple of groceries and show love to that homeless guy on the street when no one else would. Your kindness and love can manifest itself into many different forms, but it is still love. And love is straight from God, who is love itself.

God won’t let anything in your past just be for nothing. He will use you, your tired and your brokenness, all the good times and bad times you’ve ever gone through just to help someone through their struggle. God has angels to help, that’s true, but He often does some of His best work though his “angels” here on earth. You and I can change the course of not one one person’s life, but potentially the lives of generations to come, especially when we are showing Jesus to someone for the first time.

In Exodus 17, the Israelites were fighting the Amalekites. When Moses kept his arms outstretched in prayer, the battle went well for Israel, but when his hands dropped, the army of Israel would suffer heavy losses. After a while, Moses’ brother Aaron and his friend Hur helped prop Moses’ hands up until the battle was won. They provided that essential helping hand in the realest sense and so can you. Realize that everyone has that secret struggle that nobody knows about. You may have just gone through something and your advice and strength could help another person through their toughest times. Be there to help hold them up not only with your own prayers, but with your actions as well.

The fresh air that you give someone may be just what it takes to get them back on the right road again. Never miss an opportunity to show somebody the love of Jesus Christ.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Galatians 5:14

On any given Sunday, you can come to a Christian church in America and see some of the best and most Jesus-centric people you’d ever want to meet. It feels great when we’re there. However, I’ve seen those same people get red faced angry at supposed fellow Christians in the parking lot because of bad driving. Honestly, they don’t even need to leave the building to get angry at their fellow man. Try sitting in the seat or pew of a regular attendee. What was to be a joyous day can almost come to blows, all because we get a little inconvenienced.

Jesus said that others will know we are followers of Christ because of our love for our fellow man. Plain and simple, anything you do should be done for the Lord and with reverence to Him. When you show love and respect to your fellow human being, you show it to God. When you harbor hatred and contempt, you are holding that anger and that grudge against God Himself. Jesus said, “’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40

We are supposed to be on the same side, but when we fight amongst ourselves, we are allowing the enemy to overcome us. We must all be of one mind and one body, the body of Christ. Abraham Lincoln in one of his famous speeches said that a house divided cannot stand. He took that right out of the Holy Bible, right out of Jesus’ own mouth. All Christians together constitute the army of the Lord, but when the army is running in all different directions, they can’t fight effectively. Seemingly simple things like a wording choice or revering Saturday versus Sunday has broken apart what should be the strongest alliance ever. As Christians we serve God, but we can’t serve Him when we are putting our own feelings and our own comforts above our fellow man’s. When we are good and faithful servants of Jesus, our comforts and our needs shall be met. I say that our needs would be met so much more abundantly if we would just serve Christ with a pure heart rather than trying to ensure our own wellbeing.

It’s unfortunate, but truly we are our own worst enemy. Forget about the devil and his minions, we constitute a greater threat against ourselves than Satan ever could. Read the Bible and show me one place where the demons are so busy fighting each other that they forget about trying to steal our souls. It doesn’t happen. They are of one mind and one goal. They don’t start following someone else because they used grape juice instead of wine in a ceremony, but we Christians sure do!

Granted, we will not like everything that our brothers and sisters do, but there needs to be a certain amount of understanding that goes into everyday life. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus left Peter in charge knowing that he had messed up before and will mess up again. Jesus knew that Peter and all of the people who would lead the church would mess up, but that didn’t stop him from still establishing the church. We aren’t always going to get it right. Even if you do happen to find a perfect church, please don’t join it because it will cease to be perfect the moment you walk through that door.

In short, please be kind and understanding with your fellow human being, especially ones in positions of authority. Parents and priests, teachers and police, we are all bound to make mistakes now and then. However, when we can honestly say that what we are doing honors Jesus, we will be more likely to do better in our lives. It still won’t be perfect, but we will at least be fighting for the same cause. You don’t hate someone because they get cancer. You hate the cancer and love the person. The same goes for sin. Love thy neighbor no matter what and fight mightily against what Jesus considers a sin in all of its forms. Hold each other up to the Lord instead of knocking each other down, and together we will be victorious.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

It’s hard to wrap your head around this whole “Jesus thing” sometimes. You can easily get caught up in all of the history in the Bible and some of the confusing rules in the Old Testament. You might even say, “How does that affect me now” or “What can I do to be on God’s good side?”

Here’s a hint: God doesn’t want you to literally get lost in the different translations of the Bible and He doesn’t need all of the little religious details to make our lives meaningful. God wants a relationship with us, pure and simple. To help us into that relationship, there a just a few thing to keep in our minds.

In the beginning, God created the heavens, the earth, and everything in between. I know that because I’m here too. You and I are not here because of some one-in-a-zillion random chance. You and I live because God wants to be loved. And because of that need for love, He gave us the freedom to choose Him or reject Him.

Love is a gift, and a gift that is forced is no gift at all.

As ignorant humans, we often pull away from God’s desires for our lives. We do bad things, called sins. Those sins can’t just disappear, or else what have we learned from them?

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Plain and simple, if you commit evil, you can’t get into Heaven. That’s why there is Jesus.

Jesus is God in human form. Fully God and full man. God lowered Himself from His heavenly throne and was born of the Virgin Mary. She needed to be an untouched virgin to let there be no doubt that it wasn’t of human means, but of God’s.

Jesus was born to not only experience what God’s children experience, but to show us a better way to live the life He’s blessed us with. However, remember earlier when I said that the wages of sin is death. We deserve punishment because of our bad choices, but Jesus took that punishment for you and I on the cross.

Then, just to show that God has power even over death, Jesus rose from the grave. Life, death, and eternity; nothing is too far out of God’s reach because it’s all His.

When we accept Jesus and His finished work on the cross, we are telling Him yes, please take our sins away. He can have them all. All of the sins we’ve done and all we will ever do, He has washed them away by His blood.

In dying, Jesus destroyed our death. In rising, Jesus restored our life.

So remember, please keep Christ first in your life. Let Him go before you in all that you do so that you may prosper in every area. His promise to you is that He will work all things for the good for those who love Him.

Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, because if you do, you will be forgiven of your sins and experience a love so complete and wonderful that it will take all of eternity to show you just how much God truly loves His children.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” – 1 Corinthians 2:1-2

It could be said that the Apostle Paul was the most religiously schooled person of all the apostles.  He learned under highly regarded Jewish leaders, read and memorized many of the scriptures, but to use his words, he counted all of this as garbage when compared to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  To Paul, Jesus was the one and only thing worth knowing.

We, too, should have that aim in our lives.  This world can be a tough one at best.  We are bombarded daily by temptations and evils of all kinds, and if we don’t have our eyes focused on the right things, we can easily succumb to the devil’s wicked ways.  In short, keep your eyes on Jesus.  We can try to be good people and we can even try to be as religious as possible, but unless we have Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are fighting a loosing battle.

Don’t get me wrong, church and religion is a good thing, but it cannot be the only thing in your life.  You can be a regular at Bible study and may be able to spout off hundreds of verses at will, but my question is, “Are you living those verses?”  The Bible is an important book; really, it is THE most important book.  That being said, it is only a collection of words and stories without the Holy Spirit helping you along.  If you have not accepted Christ and His finished work on the cross, you do not have the “necessary equipment” yet to really understand what the Bible has to say.  It all starts with Jesus Christ.

No level of supposed holiness can save your soul.  No matter what anyone says, paying massive amounts of money to a church will not give you eternal life or get you a better seat in heaven.  Positive thinking is a good thing, but it can’t get you into heaven either.  Facing east five times daily or hopping up and down on one foot singing kumbaya doesn’t get the attention of God any faster.  The one and only bridge between God and man is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, suffered and died on the cross, was buried and raised from the dead to remove your sins so you can get into Heaven.  Strive to know that truth more than anything else.  If you have accepted that, you have been born again and are destined for Heaven.  There’s a lot of other details to this life, but they are just that, details.  Jesus Christ is the source, the center, and the summit of life.  Jesus alone saves us and not the details.

Throughout eternity, God spoke but one word, “Jesus.”  He has nothing more to say.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“And why behold you the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but consider not the beam that is in your own eye?” – Matthew 7:3

During my long work commute a while back, I had a mustang whip past me going who knows how fast. Of course I immediately started chewing them out, even though they couldn’t hear me.  But then, just a few miles down the road, I got behind a big semi doing about 20 under the speed limit in a no passing zone.  After about 10 minutes of getting more and more frustrated, as soon as a passing zone opened up, I floored it and zoomed around the semi.  (Please note that I had a tiny Hyundai Accent and “flooring it” consists of kicking the hamster wheel just a bit harder.)  Later on, as if the Holy Spirit was convicting me, the thought came into my head of, “I wonder what words that semi driver is cursing me with right now.”

I found out a long time ago what a hypocrite is. Unfortunately, I can look into the mirror and see one staring back at me.  I don’t want to be one, but here I am.  I get annoyed at people making bad choices, but then I turn around and make some myself.  I find myself being inconsiderate to other peoples’ feelings when those people aren’t considerate themselves.  I get irritated with people who want the world to cater to them, then I wonder why the world isn’t going exactly my way.

The fact is that, like the Bible says, we focus on the speck in someone else’s eye when we can’t see the beam or plank in our own eye. It’s so easy to point out someone else’s sins, but we seem to go blind to our own.  We hold others to higher standards of what a person and especially what a Christian needs to be, but then we too fall short of that standard.  The simple truth is that, just as in Romans 3:10, “There are none righteous, no, not one.” And again in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  That’s everybody.  ALL have sinned.  Nobody is purely good except Christ Himself and that’s why we need Him.

We are called to be holy people and set apart for the good works of the Lord, but how can we do that if we sin all the time? We will never completely stop sinning, but the point is to try to stop.  To repent means to change your mind.  If you make the conscious decision to try to refrain from evil, you will become more aware of your own faults and will make an effort to not do them.  You are human though and you will have your good and bad moments.  Don’t let that discourage you too much.  It happens to the best of us, but once again, the point is to keep trying.

After each attempt at Christlikeness, there will be a failure, but each time you try you will ‘fail better.’ You aren’t going to be perfect until you get to Heaven, but the point is to try. Each one of us has the capability to become like Christ and don’t stop trying.  Just know that you aren’t there yet and don’t get down on yourself like you are.  You aren’t where Christ is just yet, but you are on the way.

I like the old song that says, “I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.” In short, each one of us is a sinner and knows something about what other people are going through.  If you’ve struggled with alcoholism or drugs, you have a ‘proof of purchase’ that can help connect you with other people who need help.  Not only can you help others, but frankly, you are obligated to help others.  Same goes for just about any sin.  That’s why God kept you around and pulled you through your ordeal, to be a faithful witness to others about God’s love and grace.

So don’t be too harsh on yourself or other people for various shortcomings, but by the same token, don’t just look upon sin and be OK with it either. See things through the eyes of Jesus and he will help you and others to see sin for what it is.  One day, we all will be better for it.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” – John 9:3

In the Gospel of John, Jesus and His disciples come across a man who was blind since birth. Jesus spat on the ground, made some clay, and placed it on the blind man’s eyes. Jesus then told the man to go and wash the clay off in the nearby pool of Siloam. When the man did this, he immediately began to see.

That confused me when I was young. Jesus could have snapped His fingers or even just spoke a single word and the man would have gained his sight. So why did Christ go to the trouble of making mud and having the man go and wash himself off?

The reason is that even though the man did not cause his blindness, he needed to be a part of the solution. All of us have our sins and problems in this world. God does occasionally remove a problem from our path without our intervention, but just as any good Father, He wants us to be obedient children. If we continue to get something for nothing, we will begin to be too familiar with just having everything go well. We would become indignant if the slightest thing didn’t go perfectly the way we’d want it to.

There are many times in the Bible that God shows He wants our obedience before He blesses us. His blessings are coming our way; He’s promised health and favor to His people. That being said, He also wants us to appreciate what we get and we do that through fostering a relationship with God first, giving Him our “first fruits”.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Mathew 6:33.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” Romans 8:28

God has plentiful blessings waiting for His children, but we need to first show Him that we are ready for them.  If we show our love for God through obedience, He will in turn fill our cups abundantly.  We can’t earn God’s blessings, but we do show that we appreciate Him by trying to follow His lead. We won’t always get it right, but the point is to try.

Think of it as an investment. You won’t see a return unless you first invest something. The blind man followed Jesus’s instructions as a faith investment. It paid off for him when he gained his sight. Imagine how much your investment will pay off when you invest in your relationship with the Almighty.

So please, don’t just sit there hoping for change. Be ready and willing to be part of that change. Foster your relationship with our Savior and watch His mighty works be made visible through your life as well.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“And I say also to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” – Matthew 16:18

In the Bible, Peter was one of the closest disciples of Jesus Christ. Whenever Jesus would go somewhere to pray or to reveal something special to just a select few, Peter was right there at the top of the list. And when Jesus left His earthly ministry, Peter was the head of the newly established church. Granted, Peter had his failings just as all people do, but the difference was that he kept pushing through them and came out better because of them.

Peter didn’t start out as being called Peter. His name was originally Simon, which actually means ‘hearer or listener’. Peter listened to Jesus and took His teaching to heart. Even when Jesus said that He was going to be offered up and die, Peter rebuked Him saying, “Not so Lord,” even though Christ had a larger plan that needed enacted. By all rights and accounts, Peter loved Jesus. He staked everything on Him. When Jesus asked His disciples if they would leave Him, it was Peter who said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life.”

Not only did Peter believe in Jesus, but Jesus believed in Peter as well. Even though Peter in a moment of weakness denied that he knew Jesus 3 different times, Jesus knew that Peter was the right person to continue His earthly ministry. A little before Christ was taken up to Heaven, Jesus kept asking Peter if he loved Him. More than that, Jesus made sure that Peter would continue Christ’s work to take care of His people. Jesus asked Peter 3 times, “Do you love me?” And each time that Peter affirmed his love, Jesus would tell him to ‘feed His sheep or lambs’, meaning to take care of His people. Jesus knew that Peter could do it, but He really wanted Peter to know that Peter could do it. Three times a denial conquered by three times a confirmation.

One last thing about Simon Peter. Simon was the earthly name that his parents gave him. Peter was the Heavenly name that Jesus gave him. Simon means listener and Peter means rock. In order for you to be firm in your service of the Lord, you first need to listen to Jesus. Once you stand upon God’s solid foundation, you will never be lost again.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” – Romans 14:8

Being a Christian isn’t all happy and rainbows and laughter. There are some great parts to it, but if you think that following Jesus means taking the easy road, you are sadly mistaken. Jesus Himself didn’t take the easy way out and you should be glad He didn’t. Through His suffering and death, He took our sins from us. Through His resurrection, we have life eternal. There was a cost to be paid for our sins and Jesus paid every penny. Now to follow Him and to be partakers in God’s eternal glory, we must believe and receive Jesus and His finished work on that cross. There is no other way to God than through faith in His Son Jesus. That faith does have its own cost in this world.

There’s a lot of people don’t want to come to Christ, because they don’t want to pay the cost involved. Turning away from your sins is tough. Even being willing to turn away from your sins is tough, but it’s Jesus or sin. One or the other. God does not negotiate. You come to God through Jesus and you come to him by grace and by repentance. God created us all and it’s his rules. You come to him his way or not at all. That doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. Some people find it hard to release themselves in their lives and their sins to a Lord wants to take them away. Some people want to sow their wild oats before they come to Christ. They’re afraid they’re not gonna have any more fun. Well yes, sin can be fun for a time, but the ways that seem right to a man leads to death and destruction.

God has laid out exactly what you need to do. They aren’t tough rules, but they will force you to make a choice between the good that the world calls good and the true good that comes from the creator himself. Here’s a hint, only one is the real thing. Jesus says that broad is the path and wide is the gate that leads to destruction and many people who decided that the world’s kind of fun was worth pursuing more than God’s But Jesus says that narrow is the gate and straight is the way that leads to righteousness, peace, and Heaven most of all. There are unfortunately only a small number that choose that path. It’s available to everybody, but not too many people take it. They have questions, they have comments, they have concerns, and they try to reason with their minds rather than their hearts and their souls. Somethings you just can’t reason things out.

I can’t show you God or put him into a test tube or a laboratory and say, “there’s God.” Certain things aren’t going to make sense. I’m a preacher and I don’t understand the whole Bible. But that’s where faith comes in. You’re not gonna understand God‘s ways. His ways are so far above our ways as the heavens are above the earth. You would have to have the mind of God to understand God. If you could, there would be no need for faith because you’d understand everything already. You would know everything and so there wouldn’t be a choice except Heaven which would be the only logical choice.

But faith doesn’t care about logic. Faith is faith. It’s the substance of things not seen and the evidence of things yet to come. You must come to Christ by faith to be saved, not by works lest any man should boast. If you could get there through works, there would be no need for Christ. You could stand in Heaven before God and say, “Look what I did. Hey look at me I’m so wonderful.” God doesn’t want that, just as any father wouldn’t want their child boasting and bragging and making a show of themselves in a bad way. God wants you to be humble. He wants you to understand where you got that breath that you took just now. He wants you to understand that it’s Him who woke you up today, not just your alarm clock. How else should you come to the creator of literally everything, but in humility?

In short, have respect for God because He is God. If a firefighter told you how to get out of a burning building, you wouldn’t second guess him and think he’s lying. You’d follow his directions. Well here we are in the burning building called modern day life. Hell is all around us and God is pointing the way out. What will you do? Will you follow Jesus or follow this world. They both come with a cost to follow them, but one will truly pay off well in the end.

Jesus died for us, now live for Him.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“Love thy neighbor as thyself.” – Mark 12:31

Love is the greatest of God’s creations. Out of love, God made Heaven, the earth, and you. He loves you and wants you to love Him in return. However, when we sin and do evil in our hearts, it takes some of our love and our heart away from God. We no longer have the ability to focus on the Lord and the things that He holds forever dear. We are instead focused on ourselves and our sins which only can make us happy for a short time. We are left longing and being more unsatisfied than before.

Imagine that your heart is a box. You can pack that box with good things or bad things, but either way, there is only so much room in that box. The more of the wrong things you put into your heart, the less room you leave for Jesus. Your heart is made for love, but love for the right things rather than loving sin. Saint Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they rest in the Lord. How true that is!  Our hearts have a need for love that only God can fill. Anything else just isn’t enough. You can’t eat enough food or buy enough things to satisfy yourself. I promise you that it doesn’t work. It isn’t what God had in mind for you when you were created. The Bible says not to focus on the passing things in life, but to keep your eyes fixed on things which are above. One day, the fast cars will rust and the money will be all spent, but what does remain are those things which are done in service of others. God’s love comes from many places, but it is the most apparent when it comes though His servants.

I met a former business man that said no matter how far up the ladder he went, the emptier he felt. While he was working on how much money he could make, his family, his friends, and his home life eventually passed him by. It was the love of the wrong things that led to his pain. This person’s problem was that he focused his love on his own greatness rather than God’s greatness. He let his desire for status get in the way of him caring for his family. He has now turned his eyes to the Lord and has found what he terms as a new lease on life. He’s reconciled with his family and is making up for lost time. He also says that he derives more fulfillment from helping out at a local children’s hospital than he ever did being a boss at a big company. We all have love, but where we put that love can mean the difference between happiness and hurt.

There’s a sign up in our home that reads, “Whatever you do today had better be important, because you are trading a day of your life for it.” You can either positively or negatively affect generations by what you focus on today. If sin rules your life, don’t expect anything positive to come from it. It may be fun for a little while, but it never lasts and you aren’t helping anyone by committing evil. Pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth; these are the so-called seven deadly sins. Notice how all of them come back to ourselves. We become ego-centric and think about our own needs rather than the needs of others, but that’s not why we were made. Ego means Edging God Out. The more your heart seeks after your own comfort and your own pleasure, the less your heart will seek out God. To truly love my wife, I have to want the highest and best thing for her, and that is Jesus Christ.  I want my wife to go to Heaven. I want my kids to go to Heaven. Therefore, I must make some sacrifices to help get them there. My comfort level must be a distant second when compared to the health, safety, and eternal security of my family. Anything less is unacceptable.

All sins start with “I.” It’s a good thing to love yourself, but there is a big problem when that self-love comes between you and God’s love for us all. The devil wants you to be self-focused. If you are experiencing God’s love and showing it to other people, you are taking your soul and the souls of others away from him and handing them back to God. To get right with God and to help serve humanity, pay attention to the needs of others. Put God first, everybody else second, and yourself last. The alphabet is the only place where “I” should come before “U”. Remember that Jesus Christ wasn’t thinking of His own comfort when He died on the cross. He was only concerned with our eternal salvation. Don’t let your anxiety or comfort level get in the way of feeding a homeless person or sharing the Gospel with someone you just met. You are here for a purpose and that purpose is love. Sin is selfish, but true love means caring for others.

The love of God reaches far and wide, but the love of sin dies with that sin. True love can only be given away, not kept for yourself and the more you give, the more you shall receive.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.” – Genesis 45:8

In the book of Genesis, we see a man named Joseph who’s brothers got so jealous of him that they sold him into slavery. You would think that was the end of the story, but God had something different in mind. Joseph was so blessed by God that he not only prospered, but he eventually became the second to Pharaoh and in charge of all Egypt.

This story goes to show that even your worst situations can be used for God’s best work. The Bible says that God works all things for the good of those who love Him. Joseph loved God and followed His word, and that helped him use a string of bad situations as a springboard to a life of great abundance. Was it the best of times, certainly not, but Joseph trusted God and he was generously rewarded for his perseverance.

How many times do we try to control our own lives and destiny, only to get stressed and upset when things don’t go our way? We think we have life figured out and we may even get a little cocky for it, and then all of a sudden life smacks us down a peg or two. The truth is that we will all experience some highs and some lows in this world, but rest assured the God loves His children and has our best interests in mind.

For instance, I remember the funeral for my brother David Lee. He was active in the church and a member of a successful touring gospel quartet. There’s not too many people I know who are any more in love with Jesus than my brother was. And yet, God decided to take my brother home to glory at a young age. It was an incredibly sad time for our family, but yet, in a sense, we were happy for him as well. We trusted God that his passing was for the greater good of things, and it was indeed. The day of his funeral, our brother-in-law Stan was touched by Jesus in a big way. Stan is a really good man, but just being good isn’t going to save you. He had jumped around in religion throughout his life, but never really got to know the real Jesus. That day, the day of my brother’s funeral, Stan was fully introduced to the love and fellowship of Christ thanks to David Lee’s gospel quartet buddies. Stan was moved by the Love and demanded to be baptized on the spot. I know without a doubt that if my brother knew he could help save a soul, especially the soul of our brother-in-law Stan, he would have agreed to passing away so it could happen that day. It’s a good thing to save a life, but the true miracle comes in saving someone’s soul.

God is a God of miracles.

It’s impossible for us to see things from God’s perspective, but if we could, we would agree to some of the bad things occurring because we would know that a greater good would come from them. All the proof I need is in the cross. The worst evil and yet, without Christ’s crucifixion, we would never find forgiveness of our sins. We would never know eternal life without our Heavenly Father who is ready to make those tough decisions for the good of His children.

Praise God each and every day for His blessings. Praise Him for the blessings we know as well as for the innumerable blessing that we don’t even recognize. Everything in your life, good or bad, has been expertly placed by the Master. It may look a little rough now and then, but I promise that when we get to Heaven, we will see the whole picture for what it is. We will know that each thread had to be in a specific place in order to weave the grand tapestry of life. It was all for the greater good and it all came together to make a beautiful life that is worth living.

God’s blessings to you.

DH