“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” – Psalm 23:1

 

Psalm 23 is a commonly read scripture. It goes, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters…” If you are not familiar with this verse, I encourage you to please read this. It is beautiful.

 
There is one part that many people read, but don’t clue in on. “You prepare a table in the presence of my enemies.” This is saying that God isn’t going to take your troubles and your enemies away from you completely. Instead, God is going to bless you in the midst of your troubles. Food is meant to sustain you so you can keep up fighting the good fight.

 
Don’t worry when troubles come your way. We all are given problems to fight through. Just know the old saying that if God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. This is one of many scriptures that make that promise.
 

God is for you and not against you. He will not only sustain you, but will make you a champion. Don’t avoid the enemies, because they need to be present for you to eat the banquet that the Lord has in store for you.

 

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH

“The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Job 33:4

 

 

When you walk into a buffet, do the waitresses put on riot helmets? Are you out of breath after putting on socks? Do you put something into your shirt pocket and realize you aren’t wearing a shirt? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have the same problem as millions of Americans, myself included. Of course these are jokes, but after middle age crept in for me – a while ago – I haven’t exactly stayed in the best shape. Most of it has to do with me not keeping my body moving. I’m relatively sedentary most of the day and just don’t get going. This has led to me being out of breath after doing relatively simple things, which annoys me; so I’m going to do something about it and start exercising my body.

 

 

There’s more to life than the body though. Many of us exercise our bodies, but don’t take care of what’s inside. The fact is that you are more than just a body; you are a soul as well. Your soul, your spirit of life within you, was literally God breathed. In the Bible, the Hebrew word used for spirit actually means breath or wind. And just as our bodies can be out of breath when we don’t exercise, our souls can lack as well when we don’t exercise them. When you lift weights, you gain power. When we spend time with Jesus in prayer and the scriptures, we are gaining His mighty power. It’s more than just power to pick up weights, it is power to handle the weight that this stressful world places on you daily.

 

 

Unfortunately, in this life you will have your fair share of battles. One of those battles is finding and making time for Jesus and prayer. I’ve always been a big advocate for a “holy hour” in the morning to start your day. Even if it’s just fifteen minutes or whatever you can give, that time with Christ is time very well spent. It helps you to face those tough times throughout the rest of your day. You know where you stand with the Lord and you know that He will always be near, even if the rest of the world and the rest of your day goes badly.

 

 

When I was young, it was easy to keep healthy because I was always on the move. I was very physically active in my work and play lives. I didn’t have to think about it, I just was fit. Now that I have a physically easier life, it has been easy for me to forget that I need to keep moving. The same goes for many of us in our spiritual lives. When times are hard, it is a common thing for a Christian to pray and read the Bible. We turn to God and we praise Him all the way. However, when times are easy, we often forget to keep giving God the glory and keep moving in our spiritual lives. There gets to be more dust on our Bibles, and a closed Bible is just an open door for the devil to get at you.

 

 

You may be winded and out of breath when you face some stressful activities, but when the stresses of life hit you, don’t be caught without the breath of God strengthening you. The biggest battle you will have is keeping your daily time spent with God, but if you lose that battle, every other battle you face will become a much harder fight.

 

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH

 

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.” Luke 21:3-4

In Luke 21, Jesus saw the wealthy donating some of their surplus money, then he marveled at a poor widow who gave just two coins. Those two coins weren’t much, but they represented her entire livelihood. Jesus was proud of that poor widow because she gave Him all she had out of love.

The fact is that God is God. He created everything and needs for nothing, but He completes His heavenly works through us. We are to be extensions of his guiding and caring hands here on earth. We are to serve Him with all we are, not just what we have materially.

Take a tip from the saints. Most of us can’t do big things for God, so do small things, but with great love. Those small things can include everything you do when you offer them up to God. The Apostle Paul said in the book of Romans to “Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice.” That’s a common theme you’ll see through the Bible. When we are living and acting with God in mind, even when we fall short of our best, it still endears us to God’s heart.

Don’t think for a second that you in your own life can’t do great things for the Lord. For instance, being an attentive and caring mom is one of the most noble tasks in His kingdom. Offer it up to God. Working hard day in and day out can also be a great task when it’s done to help your family or to help others. Offer it up. Even simply giving someone a sincere compliment or a kind word is a blessing that will reap great rewards. Offer it up. Those things may seem small or average to you, but they resonate in the minds and hearts of those you do them for.

One good thing to remember is that your blessings will be magnified if you do them when it’s not convenient or when you don’t really feel like doing them. Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross, but He did it for the good of everyone. He offered Himself as a sacrifice. Consider your good deeds as a living sacrifice. And like the Nike commercial says, “Just do it.”

And lastly, a passage from 1 Peter 4:12-13 says, “Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad, for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.”

How many of us go through tough times or rough patches in our lives and ask God why? The fact is that there will be suffering in your life. If you haven’t suffered loss or pain yet, just stay tuned. However, it is much better to suffer for the right reasons than the wrong reasons. Don’t give yourself over to sin and suffer for your failings. Instead, give your heart to God and suffer for doing what’s right. Stand up for those who can’t fight for themselves. Speak against evil in all of its forms. Preach the good news of Jesus Christ to this fallen world. Help people at every opportunity, even if they don’t know or don’t care. In the end, it’s really not between you and them anyway. It’s between you and God, so offer it up. Christ offered His work up for those people too, whether they know it, like it, or acknowledge it. He did it out of love and what better reason is there for anything we do?

So when you do anything for the good of others, offer up your heart and all you do to God. I promise that God sees your secret intentions and will reward you for them openly.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“I am the living one. I died, but look–I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.” – Revelation 1:18 NLT

 

 

 

A maintenance man just installed a new doorknob on my office. The key that the guy handed me looked almost like a small saw. It was nothing like my house keys or my truck keys. It was jagged and the teeth seemed about half broke off, but when I tried it, sure enough it worked like it was supposed to. The lock turned and the door opened with no problems. That key was cut and formed to fit exactly how the maker wanted it, and if it was rounded or smooth, it would be useless and wouldn’t work where it was needed.

 

 

 

Sometimes in my own life, I feel like I just get so broken down. My family would tell you that I can be a little rough around the edges. My family and my Lord deserve better out of me than that, but none of us are perfect but Christ Himself. That’s why we need Him so badly. It’s all about continuous improvement of ourselves. God wants us to try to do good here on earth. He wants the best out of us because in His eyes, we are worth it. We are His children, and even when we are not exactly at our best, He still looks at us and says, “This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” How can God say that, especially about people who are inherently broken? The reason is because God doesn’t just see us how we are at this moment; He sees us from a forever type of viewpoint. He sees what we are to become rather than the mess that we act like sometimes.

 

 

 

There’s a reason why we go through our trials. We can’t just be born and just stay there. Our lives were meant to be lived. God wants us to get out there into the world and to grow into the people He created us to be. Make no mistake, this is a fallen world that’s full of evils. We aren’t to partake in those evils, but God knows we will occasionally screw up. It’s going to happen. We make some bad choices now and again, but the Bible says that God will use all things for the good of those who love Him.

 

 

 

Take King David, for example. He’s not exactly portrayed in the best light, but it’s real. The Bible shows David’s good sides and bad sides. Lust, jealousy, and murderous intent does not sound like someone who would be called “a man after God’s own heart,” but he is that man. It’s not how you start, but how you finish that matters. That doesn’t mean that you can just plan to live like you are straight from hell right now and expect to get into Heaven later. You can be forgiven for a life not-to-well-lived, but that is only if you truly want the forgiveness. God knows what is in your heart. It doesn’t mean that He is happy with your actions right now, but it does mean that He will look beyond the ‘now you’ and see the ‘forever you’.

 

 

 

You are shaped by your experiences and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Nothing is for nothing. You will be pressured and cut down by this world, but God allows it. He’s not OK with evil, but He will occasionally allow it to occur in order to bring about a greater good from it. Look at the cross. It was an extreme form of punishment that was reserved for the worst of the worst criminals, and yet we find our Lord Jesus right there. We read in 2 Corinthians that even though Jesus did not sin, He was made to be sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. Through evil, the greatest good, our salvation, came from it.

 

 

 

You may have a hard time at life and feel like you get cut down by everything in this world, but Jesus tells us to take heart, for He has overcome the world. God did not just entrust us with the keys to His kingdom, we actually become the keys when we become more like Christ. Keys symbolize such things as security and freedom, but a key won’t work until it is cut and shaped into its final form. Allow God to form us into what He needs us to become. Embrace the struggle and let the Holy Spirit chip away at your rough edges. Don’t get down on yourself when you make a bad choice, just learn from it and rise above it. One day, you and I will be called to the throne room of Heaven. Thanks be to Jesus Christ, because that door will never be locked.

 

 

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH

 

 

 

“O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. Give the Lord no rest until He completes His work, until He makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.” – Isaiah 62.6-7 NLT
 
There are so many problems in this world. Hunger, war, disease, anger, and the list goes on. Since the time of Adam and Eve, there has been an evil in this world that none of us are immune to. Unfortunately, we all are subject to many of those types of evil.
 
The question gets posed, “What can I do. I have a job, and a family, and obligations, and…and…and…” While I understand not having a moment to yourself, what I don’t understand is why can’t we do more for the kingdom of God in our own everyday lives? At work, at home, or wherever we are, we need to look for more opportunities to do good for others. And whether or not we can do something physically for someone, we can and should always pray for them.
 
If you are a Christian, you have taken on the responsibility of showing Jesus Christ to this fallen world. We need to empower rather than cut down and build up rather than destroy. I once saw a man in a truck stop bathroom who was taking a paper towel and lightly cleaning around the dirty sink. He didn’t work there, so I asked him why he was cleaning. The man replied, “My Savior, Jesus, left this world better than what He found it. I should do the same.” Those words rang in my ears like a church bell.
 
Granted, it’s sometimes hard to model Christ for others, especially when we feel angry or offended by someone, but it is our duty children of the Most High God. And frankly, it is those times when we see someone that is full of anger or sadness that we need to pray for them the most. I know what my Lord and Savior has done for my life; how selfish that would be for me to want to keep the love of God all to myself.
 
Many people work with others and talk with them in the course of their day. You may talk with them for 20 years about their kids, sports teams, their social habits, and a number of other things. The one thing that people seem to have trouble sharing is the word of God. Even if your job banned all religious speech, you can still share the love of Christ through your actions and reactions to business situations. Your faith is something that you should be living out loud. If you are a Christian, you should be the most ethical and most reliable person there. You may not get it all right all the time, but there should still be a certain joy that you bring there. A joy based on your God and not your circumstances. Once people see your joy, they will have no choice but to ask you the reason why.
 
The point is to never give up, no matter what the fight looks like. We as Christians need to walk straighter and hold ourselves to a higher standard than the rest of this world. Even when the devil throws all he has against you, you should be able to look him in the eye and smile, knowing you are protected by the blood of Jesus. When the devil tries to condemn you, know that the King of Kings has already given you His seal of approval. God loves you and wants the best for you and all of His people, so keep fighting the good fight. Model Jesus to everyone and never stop praying for them.
 
No matter the country, color, or circumstances, people are not so different. We all need prayers to not only find Jesus, but to walk with Him closer and closer everyday. We fight against the sin in this world and the wickedness in ourselves, but through God’s saving grace, we shall find our rest with Him in Heaven for all eternity.
 
God’s blessings to you.
 
DH

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23

It was just Halloween a few days ago. I’m not going to get into the origins of Halloween or the old pagan ritual debate. All I’m concerned about is my kids having fun dressing up like dalmation puppy dogs and poo emojis. They did, however, get a lot of good candy that mommy and daddy will “help” them with. 

One of my daughters did complain about it though. She said that she was happy to have the candy, but the happiness didn’t last. The candy would be gone and she would be waiting until next year to get more candy. That got us talking about how sin acts just the same in our lives. 

Sin starts off like a roller coaster ride or a scary movie. It gives that quick shot of adrenaline that perks us up, but then afterwards we can’t wait for the next rush. Once wasn’t enough. Like the potato chip commercial says, once you pop, you can’t stop. Flirting with that cute guy or woman at work boosts your ego for a time, but then you want it more and more until before you know it, you’re in the sack with that person and you find your job and marriage fall apart because of it. 

Or maybe your thing is drugs. You start off with a couple of joints here and there just to take the edge off. Before too long, you get into maybe some crystal meth because the easy stuff just wasn’t cutting it anymore. A little bit just isn’t enough, because after a while it ceased to be a rush. 

The Bible says that sin is fun for a season, but it’s a path that leads straight to death. Let’s face it, if sin wasn’t fun, nobody would be doing it. But it is fun sometimes. Doing bad sometimes feels so good, but it never lasts. It always leaves you either feeling like you can’t wait to have more, or it leaves you feeling remorseful and sunken down. That’s why they call it a rush. It’s quick and powerful, but it doesn’t last. 

One thing that does last is love. True love gets you feeling up in the clouds and there’s no love that picks you up like the love of Jesus Christ. That’s one high I’ve been on for many years now and it’s something that I can wait to get someone else into. Even on my bad days, I still get picked up by God’s eternal love for me. 

I told a man that Jesus loves him, to which he replied, “Not after the things I’ve said and done.” I said, “He saw those things, and He knows you need His love now more than ever.” When we are at our lowest, nobody may be able to reach us, but God’s arms are plenty long enough to pull us up out of whatever gutter we may have fallen into. Nothing is beyond God’s reach and outside of His knowledge. He saw what you did and even what you will do, and He loves you anyway. He loves you enough that He sent His only son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die on a cross to pay for your sins. He paid that price freely so that you can be with Him in Heaven for all of eternity one day. All you need to do is admit you are a sinner and accept that free gift from Him. 

I haven’t led the best of lives either. I know I took some wrong turns here and there because of the rush and enticement of sin, but I also know that I have my Heavenly Father on my side through thick and thin. At my worst times, I can still turn to Him for love and support.  Jesus’ arms are stretched out wide enough on that cross to hold me and all of my sins at once. 

God promised in the Bible that He will never leave us or forsake us. He will gladly leave the 99 good sheep to come get that one bad sheep, because He believes in us and loves us so much. We run away because we see greener pastures, but we quickly discover the deceit of sin. That’s when we need Jesus the most and that is precisely when we will find His hand outstretched for us to take ahold of. That rush of doing bad has and will always leave us feeling low, but here is Jesus Christ’s loving arms to pick us up and hold us tight. 

Forgiveness and love is waiting for you. It is God’s gift to you and I. It’s not trick, just the greatest treat you could ever ask for and it’s a love that lasts forever. 

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

“Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” – Psalm 27:14

 

 

We recently moved across the country. Our lives have been a wild ride anyway, but then this opportunity came up and we couldn’t say no. It is always exciting for us to move. The kids get to be the “new kids” in school and my wife and I get to pick out houses. Of course, moving is not all it’s cracked up to be, especially moving over a day’s journey away from our home in Texas. The long car ride, various smells from the back seat, and eating fast food from a drive thru so often that you want to just explode and get it over with. Then, there was the house complications. We thought we had the perfect house a few times, but each time was plagued by problem after problem. Over a month later, after paying through the nose for a hotel all of that time, we finally got into a house that was the best one that we had found yet. God is great every day, isn’t He? Well, I had my doubts now and then during this horrific process, but He came through. He ALWAYS comes through. So why did I doubt?

 

 

While we are in the moment of strife and problems, it’s hard to keep our eyes focused on Jesus. I remind you of a story out in Matthew chapter 14 where Peter is called by Jesus to walk to Him on the water. Because Jesus asked Peter to do it, Peter got out of the boat he was in and started walking across the sea to get to Jesus. He was doing fine for a while, until Peter took his eyes off of Jesus on the other side. When Peter started looking at and being concerned with the huge waves in the ocean, Peter couldn’t do it anymore and started to sink. But just before Peter went under, Jesus grasped his hand and pulled him safely up and away from the water.

 

 

The moral of the story is to keep your eyes on Jesus Christ. During my house hunting experience, I was so overcome with the stress that I felt like I was drowning. My main problem was that I was more focused on my situation than I was on Jesus. I shouldn’t have been talking about how big my problems were, I should have told my problems how big my God is.

 

 

 

Imagine that you can only keep one thing in sight at a time. You can either see your circumstances or you can see your God, but not both. So which one would you pick? This world and these problems are only temporary. It’s not even a blip on the radar screen of time and eternity. No matter how bad things get, realize that God is still on the throne. Like my mom said to me, “I’ve read the back of the book and we win in the end.” I preach the same thing, but unfortunately just like my mom who worried all the time, it’s easy to tell someone to keep their head up during trials, but it’s a whole different thing to practice what you preach. Honestly, if I want to do some confessing right now, I got overwhelmed. I started letting cuss words slip, I was grouchy (or at least grouchier than normal), and I wasn’t exactly a joy to be around. I would take walks with my dog and talk with Jesus, but I would be in such an angry frame of mind that I wasn’t open to listening to Him, I just wanted to vent my own frustrations. And just like the good father that He is, God stood there and listened. He always does no matter what we have to say. Jesus walked with me and let me be the fussy little child that I sometimes am, but if I only would have taken a moment to listen, I would have heard Him say, “You didn’t get this house because I have something better. You just need to be patient with My plans. Trust me, I love you and I want the best for you.”

 

 

Just like Peter and the water, Jesus gave Peter the power to walk on the water as long as Peter kept his eyes and mind fixed on Jesus. God will never call you to do something without giving you the power to do it. God called myself and my family to move across the country and we accepted, but when the storms of life came, I let myself sink rather than keeping my faith firm. I have this dream (nightmare) that has me up in Heaven on my first day there. Jesus is walking with me and showing me all of these wonderful pictures. It turns out that He is showing me all of the great things that I could have experienced during my life had I only waited on His plans to come to pass. But instead, I pushed through for the things that I wanted so bad at the time, not knowing that Christ had something greater than I could have imagined.

 

 

I never want that dream to become a reality. I want all the great things that Jesus has in store for me and I want the same for you, too, as my brother or sister in Christ. So I say please, look at this not so much as a passive guide as it is a stern warning. You are meant for greatness and as a child of God, you have royal blood flowing in your veins. The Bible says we are to wait on the Lord and that’s exactly what we need to do. God loves us so much that He will let us screw up our lives if that is truly our wish. He’s not going to force blessings upon us. We can push something to happen in our lives or we can allow God to work His mighty works. It’s our choice.

 

 

Do not focus on your circumstances more than you focus on Jesus.

 

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH

 

 

I’m deeply troubled by what I read and hear in the news these days. Violence, disease, wars, and all the makings of a real life horror film. It has become a world that exemplifies the fallen nature the Bible says it has. Our country and our world is on the absolute brink of destruction, which begs the question, “So what’s next?”
 
No matter what you see in the news, remember that God wants nothing but love and happiness for us. You and I were made for good things, not this mess that we’ve created for each other. Rest assured that this mess will not go on forever. These circumstances are signs of a very unfortunate age where evil seems to get the upper hand. The enemy’s job is to steal, kill, and destroy, and Satan is very good at his job. However, don’t think that this is the end of times. With each passing day, the end of this era is closer and closer. But just as Jesus Himself said, “And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” (Matthew 24:6)
 
There is a natural ebb and flow that God built into our world. Dark times and bright times. Times of sadness and times of joy. These days of suffering are horrible, but they will soon be followed by gladness. Our future lies in the hope of a tomorrow that does not see darkness. No matter what happens in this fallen and twisted world, know that the sickness of evil will see its end in due time. God has written that these circumstances will come to an end, either by the emergence of prosperous times or by Jesus Christ’s return.
 
When the hatred and insanity of this world seems to overwhelm your mind, rest your heart and soul in the Holy Word of God. Know that these times shall pass. Take heart and stay strong in the Lord. Continue to pursue love with all you have and all you are. Your perseverance will not be in vain. Your reward shall be eternal in Heaven.
 
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
 
God’s blessings to you.

 

DH