“There your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw my miracles for forty years.” – Hebrews 3:9

I remember when I was a young child. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes painful, but looking back I never had any real cares to speak of. I’m in my forties now and the stresses of life weigh me down frequently. I have so many good things surrounding me, like my wife and kids, a good job, and many other things. I have a life many would love to have, but sometimes I wake up frustrated and annoyed at the world. How many of you can relate to that?

Moses led the Israelites through the desert for forty years. All that time, they saw God’s majesty constantly. They literally saw God’s blessings rain down on themselves. Still, they complained almost nonstop. They get bread, but complained because it wasn’t meat. They knew God saved them from slavery and certain death, but first time they had the chance, they made a golden statue to worship rather than sticking with God. They even said they would have rather died in Egypt as slaves rather than follow God and Moses, even though they had physically seen so many miracles almost on a daily basis.

That is one of the many reasons why I’m not God, nor do I want to be. Thank God that He is a God of mercy and patience. He puts up with so many of our shortcomings, and yet He loves us anyway.

God blesses us in a million ways, a million times a day. Some blessings we see and many we don’t, but all are important and all of them are hand made by God just for us and our prosperity. The last thing our Heavenly Father wants for us is frustration and anger. This life is meant to be lived to the fullest and enjoyed, not agonized over. God could have cut us off and just figuratively walked away after we were created, but that’s not His style. He plays an active part in our lives. Like the Israelites, God may not always give us all we desire, but He always makes sure we have exactly what we need.

In Genesis 22, God introduces Himself as Jehovah Jireh, the Lord that Provides. It’s more than just a name, it’s something God does daily. If you don’t think so, just try holding your breath for 20 minutes. The Lord proved the air you breath and the body that desires that oxygen. Even though we know all these things, just like the Israelites in the desert, we think that God is somehow short-changing us. We believe that if we don’t work hard and stress ourselves out constantly, we won’t be able to keep up with life. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We focus on our stresses and our messes rather than focusing on our blessings. That’s not fair to God and it’s definitely not fair to our blessings.

The Bible says that Jesus came so that we could have an abundant life. He doesn’t want us to be slaves to work and stress. We are to work so that we may take care of those who need it, whether it’s ourselves, our families, or the poor and destitute. We should have the minds and hearts of servants, not slaves. That is two very different things. A slave does not have free will to choose what they do. We, however, have the free will that God gave us and we can indeed choose who we serve. We can choose to care for people or we can choose to do nothing. We can choose love or hate. We can choose Jesus or the devil. We are not bound to anything and we should stop and think about that when the stresses of our lives weigh us down and back us into a corner.

Will you accept Jesus or reject Him?

Don’t keep stumbling in the wilderness of your life. Forty years worth of blessing right in front of them, and yet the Israelites still chose to look at the problems rather than the blessings of God. God’s blessings are all around you and I, all we need to do is to stop for a second and take a look. The first one, and the greatest one by far, is Jesus Christ. For through Him and His grace we will find every blessing we will ever need and more.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” – Romans 8:31

I have my fair share of problems, but don’t we all? There isn’t a person among us that hasn’t tasted pain or heartache. But instead of talking about how big my problems are, I want to tell you about how big my God is.

For Moses and the Israelites, my God brought plagues against their foes and parted the Red Sea so they could escape and be led into their promised land. For the profit Gideon, God blessed him so he could command a small group of 300 fighters to defeat an army of over 130,000. For Daniel, God sent an angel to close the mouths of the lions and also protect Daniel’s friends through a fiery furnace.

Notice in all of those situations, God didn’t just take away the problems. Instead, God protected and strengthened his people so they could come through their problems and glorify God in the process. God doesn’t create the problems, but as the Bible says, God will use all things for the good of those who love Him.

Jesus Himself said during a prayer that He doesn’t want us taken out of the world, but instead asks the Father to strengthen us during our trials. Each of those trials is a life lesson, and not just for us, but for everyone around us. When hard times come, we can either shrink into our own little corner and die or we can stand up, fight, and show this world what a mighty and awesome Father we have in Heaven.

Jesus prayed for our strength. Do you think Jesus ever prayed a prayer that wasn’t answered?

There is more to life than just what we see. We can either focus on the temporary or we can set our sights on the eternal. God is more than just a God of the right now, He is God of the forever. This problem you are facing, no mater how big it seems, is no match for how big our God is. That same God who is Father over all of creation is your Father as well and He loves you. Trust in the Father’s love and let Him take you farther than you could possibly imagine.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” – Hebrews 8:12

 

If you die tonight, where are you going? How many good deeds does it take to make it into Heaven? Are you even keeping track? Did you maybe forget one or two bad things that may make the difference when you time comes?

 

God is a true and righteous God and not a single bad action will go unpunished. You can’t break His laws and get away with it, but we have broken His laws, haven’t we? You might say, “At least I haven’t killed anyone.” You might not have killed someone outwardly, but we sometimes commit murder in our hearts when someone cuts in line at the grocery store or calls us names in traffic. Well, how about honoring thy father and thy mother? Did you ever get punished as a child and said or wished some bad things on your parents? The Bible says thou shalt not covet, but we covet all the time when we see something or someone that gets our proverbial motors running.

 

After thinking about any of those things, go back to your little scorecard of good deeds and tell me how you are stacking up?

 

So how is it even possible for any of us to make it into Heaven. The Bible says that only the righteous shall see God, so how do we have a chance? Let me sum it up for you in one word. Jesus. Only Him alone is enough to pay for your debt. Jesus lived the sinless life that we can’t, but yet He took the punishment for sin that we couldn’t. Through His life, death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus Christ stamped “Paid in Full” on your debt. When you accept Jesus and what He did on the cross, you can stand before God when your time comes and know for a fact that He doesn’t see all of your bad deeds. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, that list is wiped clean. God only sees the good deeds of Jesus from that moment forward.

 

Romans 10:13 – “for EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

 

This all doesn’t mean that we can go on sinning as much as we want. To accept this free gift of forgiveness we need to repent, or in other words, change our minds towards sin and bad things. You won’t always get it right, but now you are at least willing and trying to go down the right path. You don’t have to keep score of how many good things versus how many bad things you do. We can’t do enough good deeds to earn us a place in Heaven. That’s why we need Jesus to open the door for us. It’s not about our work, it’s about Jesus’s finished work on the cross.

 

 

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

 

 

God loves you!  So stop trying to work yourself into Heaven and don’t worry if it has been enough. Instead, call upon the beautiful name of Jesus Christ and let His precious blood wash away all of your sins. His arms are open wide on the cross; wide enough for you and all of your sins.

 

 

God’s blessings to you.

 

DH

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” – Psalm 119:105

In college, I had a teacher who wrote the textbook for his class. If we paid attention to that book, we passed the class with flying colors. If we didn’t, it was almost impossible to succeed.

So what about in the school of life? We need to take our cues from the Creator. God didn’t just make us and throw us out into the world with no help or thought. God in His infinite wisdom gave us a sort of owner’s manual for our lives. It’s called the Bible. However, if we don’t take time to crack the book open, we aren’t going pass the test. We have to study the textbook.

Whatever you need to know is in the Bible. Are you having marital or relationship problems, try 1 Corinthians 13 for starters. Do you feel scared or alone in a fight? Psalm 18 is a good chapter for you. Perhaps your are feeling worn out or beat down from life’s woes. Read Matthew 11 verses 28-30. There are plenty more chapters and verses of strength and comfort in the Bible, all you have to do is read just a little to find something powerful and meaningful for your life.

If you do nothing else, listen to Jesus’s words during the famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. Those three chapters alone will give you perfect insight into what God wants for your life and how you should live it. Even for people who have never been a Christian before, the words of Jesus Christ in those three chapters rank among the highest and best of any philosophical work ever and are both morally and spiritually solid. You can’t go wrong if you are living your life according to Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

Lets face it, life is not easy. Nothing worth doing was ever easy, but that doesn’t mean it has to be impossible. So next time you hit a wall emotionally or spiritually, take some time to sit and read the Bible. They don’t call it the Good Book for nothing. It will fill you up, lift your spirits, and give you the strength to carry on. Like my mom used to say, “It’s good for what ails you.”

Think of this life as an open book test. Jesus, our good and faithful teacher, is handing us the answers. Don’t let another day go by without seeing what God Himself has to say. You’ll be glad you did.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” – John 20:27.

After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples. One disciple in particular, Thomas, became known as the “doubting Thomas.” In the Gospel of John 20:25, the other disciples told Thomas that Jesus has risen, to which he replied, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into the nail marks and into his side, I will not believe.” When Jesus arrived, Thomas did just that. Thomas changed his tune after that and said, “My Lord and My God,” knowing that it was the true Jesus.

Jesus went to the cross in place of us. He took the punishment that we deserve so that we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only perfection gets in there and we are by no means perfect. That is, until the nails were driven into the hands of Jesus Christ on the cross. We will walk into Heaven by the perfecting blood of Jesus washing us clean. He died, was buried, and was raised from the dead, but the nail holes were still there in his earthly body. That’s a representation of ourselves. We are dead to sin, thanks to Jesus on the cross, but the earthly consequences of sin still remain in some cases.

When we sin, it is like driving a nail into a plank of wood. Through our acceptance of Jesus’ payment on the cross and our repentance of our sins, the nail comes out. But, all sin carries an earthly, mortal consequence with it. The nail hole is still there. Repentance means a changing of your mind and will, turning away from your sins and sinful nature. You will, however, still have those temptations now and again. That’s how the devil gets to you. The devil is an opportunist and will aim for your weak spot time and time again.

If you get a cut on your arm and you don’t constantly cover it up with a sterile dressing, bad things can get into that cut and infect the whole body. If you let that infection get too far, death arrives. The same thing can be said for our souls. Even though Christ took away your sins, you will still possess the earthly remains of that sin. The nail left a hole. The good news is that with a close, personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you will eventually heal. That hole will become smaller and smaller until one day, you won’t even be able to notice it. That’s not saying the devil won’t keep aiming for you, but through a closer walk with Jesus, it will be harder for the devil and sin to get into you.

So please accept Christ and let Him take your sins from you. Then, and only then, can the healing truly begin. Be healed, IN JESUS’ NAME!

God’s blessings to you

DH

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” – Galatians 3:27

It’s nice to get comfortable after a long day. When I get home from work, I usually take off my work clothes and get into something like my sweats or maybe jeans and a t-shirt. As long as I have my work clothes on, I know I’m not home. However, I am encouraged because I know I’m on the way. Before long, I’ll be able to come home and be at peace.

While we are here on earth, it seems like it’s a day-to-day struggle just to keep your head up. This world tends to weigh pretty heavily on each of us. Between the pressures of our jobs and the stresses we face in our private lives, it’s a wonder why we don’t all look like we are 150 years old. I know that I’ve earned each one of these grey hairs; I just wish there was more wisdom that came along with them. When I look in the mirror nowadays, I see this grouchy old guy that’s been beaten up by this world.

That isn’t how our Creator sees us. God sees us for what and who we truly are, the beautiful children that He wanted to make. The world does its damage, but Jesus says, “Take heart, for I have overcome the world.” The Bible says that right now, we don’t even completely know ourselves and that is thanks to all of the trials that this world puts us through. One day though, we will know fully just as we are fully known by God. When we accept Jesus into our lives and hearts, we too shall one day overcome the pain, the stress, and the heartaches of this world.

You might ask why God wants us to go through hard times. The answer is in the cross of Jesus. No struggle, no pain, no trial that you will ever go through will be for nothing. Jesus suffered and die, then was raised from the dead to give us the gift of eternal life in Heaven. We, too, will have our own crosses to bear in this life. Those crosses aren’t only for our own benefit, but for other peoples’ as well. We learn how to lift each other up during hard times and show each other how to appreciate the good times. Those crosses we bear for Jesus are for the greater good of all. That being said, some of our crosses are self-imposed. Our lives aren’t perfect and if you are struggling to make it perfect, you are in a losing battle. We think we can bring ourselves peace and work ourselves into Heaven, but it’s never enough.

Jesus Christ is the only thing that will bring us peace. When you accept Jesus as your Savior, He begins to live in you and through you so you can have that peace that you’ve worked so hard for. No more reason to fear all of your sins. You have a place in Heaven waiting because God doesn’t see you anymore, He sees Jesus.

Don’t be discouraged and don’t loose heart. Know that you are destined for Heaven and joy for all of eternity. You may not be there yet, but you are on the way. And thanks to Jesus, you have a new change of clothes when you get there.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“But God raised him from death to life and destroyed the pains of death, because death had no power to hold him.” Acts 2:24

Since it is Easter, we are reminded today more than most times of the year that Jesus was crucified and died for our sins. It was horrible for all who looked upon the face of the Jesus hanging there on the cross. It is where we get our word ‘excruciating.’ Many people at that time thought that it was the end of their hope of salvation, but Jesus rose again just a few days later. What started as a miracle birth could have been reduced to just campfire stories had Jesus not risen again after his fall.

That is what made all the difference. Jesus rose again after his death. This life that we know will pass away soon enough, but when we accept Jesus as our Savior and put our trust in Him, we are promised that we shall be raised again with Him. We no longer need to fear death, because our Lord has complete power over death and not the other way around. Over the years, there’s been many people that have said their way was the answer to life, but they all died; all but one, Jesus. Jesus backed up every claim He made through fulfillment of scripture prophecies as well as the miracles He did.  The biggest miracle of all was the empty tomb on Sunday, because in dying He destroyed our death, and in rising He restored our life.

I don’t need a dead savior. I can die on my own just fine, thanks. What I need is the risen savior. I need Jesus Christ. No other religion offers that or makes that claim, because it just didn’t happen with anyone else but Jesus.

You and I will fall to our sins, but the real tragedy would be if we didn’t rise again from it. Only one thing separates us from God and keeps us out of heaven and that is our sin. That is why our greatest need is to have our sins forgiven. Only then can we be reconciled to God and have the opportunity to be with Him for all eternity.  The Bible says in Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” 

Jesus is the ONLY way.

Happy Easter, my friends. It is not just the resurrection day of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is the day of our resurrection as well.  As He was raised, so shall we be raised with Him forever.

God’s blessings to you.

DH

“The mother of Jesus said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” – John 2:5

 
The wedding feast at Cana was the site of Jesus’ first recorded miracle. Jesus and His disciples were invited to a wedding, where His mother Mary was helping in the kitchen. They ran out of wine for the feast, so Jesus told the servants to bring 6 water pots to Him. Jesus then changed the water into wine, and not just any wine, but the best of the best. The book of John says that Jesus performed this first sign and thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. This started His earthly ministry.

 
This beginning miracle was significant in many ways, but it remains relevant for us in today’s world. Jesus didn’t tell the servants to go out of try to find some wine quickly. He also didn’t just make wine appear out of thin air, although He could have. Instead, Jesus asked the servants to bring the most simple of items, clay pots of water. Jesus then took the simple and made it into something amazing.
 

Jesus is looking to do that with us as well. When we accept Christ and His finished work on the cross, our souls are brought from death to life. But that doesn’t mean that our physical lives are drastically changed. That’s exactly what God wants. There’s an old saying of “Get in where you fit in.” You are made by the Creator of the Universe to fill a specific void. You are a missing piece to someone’s puzzle and have certain traits and skills that can benefit them. God made you to be you. Simple, straightforward, you. Realize that somebody needs you and what you have to offer. What you take for granted is exactly what someone else is praying for. You are a blessing waiting to happen.
 

Like the water in the earthen vessels, Jesus is just looking for the plain and simple you. No false fronts, no trying to make yourself into what you think is best, Jesus just wants you. If you try to make yourself into something you are not, it is like telling God, “You messed up and don’t know what you’re doing. Now I’ve got to make me right.” The fact is that nobody sees the big picture like God does. We have a very limited view of things and can’t see what’s coming up next. God sees it all and knows what we need better than we do. We see the natural, but God sees the supernatural.
 

One thing to note is that those clay pots didn’t have anything else in there but water. No fillers, just water. Our problem is that we try to add things to our lives to make them more “flavorful”, but what ends up happening is we focus more on the filler materials than on God. We add so many fillers to ourselves until that’s all there is. It’s too easy to make something you are passionate about into your idol, if you focus on that day and night to the detriment of everything else. The bible says in everything you do, let it be done for the glory of God. If you can’t dedicate what you are doing to God’s glory, you are wasting your time with it. It’s nothing but a filler material just taking away your time and focus.
 

Mary, the mother of Jesus, told the rest of the servants to, “Do whatever He tells you.” Those words ring true. Jesus will be knocking on the door to your heart and pushing you into a specific direction. Don’t wait for the time that you feel ready or good enough to fulfil your destiny. When Jesus says you are ready, there’s nothing that can hold you back. In the servants’ minds, the water pots were not ready to be drank. The pots were for Jewish ceremonial washing and not necessarily for drinking, but Jesus said that they were ready. He changed the water into wine; the average into the remarkable. Jesus is looking to do the same with you and your life.
 

You may think you are just plain Jane, but Jesus Christ says you are so much more than that. He sees you not for what you are, but what you can become. It’s time for you to see yourself as God sees you, not as the ordinary, but the extraordinary.
 

God’s blessings to you.
 

DH