Control

     Does God have control of your life, or do you try to drive life in the direction you want it to go? Some of us like to say He is in control, but we still like having our hands on the wheel. To have God in control, we have to stay in the back seat. Here is a great way to picture Him in control of your life: Think of a two-person bike. The one in front steers and both of you pedal. With God in control, He steers where you need to go and you help by doing the work.

     When God has control of our lives, there is no need to worry about todays problems when we are looking forward to life ever lasting. He knows what we can do and will never give us too much to handle. W must have faith and He will provide for us. He is always watching over us with a kind and loving heart. All we need to do is say," ok Lord you have full control," and live life the way he would want us to.

Miracles

    The Bible talks about Jesus preforming miracles. In Matt. 11:5 it tells us about how he made the blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up. Also in Matt. 14: 25-29, it tells us of Jesus walking on the sea, and telling Peter to come to him. Peter has the faith to step out of the boat and walk to Jesus, walking on the sea below him.

    The Bible tells us of all the miracles Jesus preformed in his time, but the ones he has done in our time we can only find out by others sharing. This is going to be my own testimony in the miracles Jesus has done for me. This is going to shock and hurt some of my followers.

    I'm going to start with saying I hung out with bad people from a young age. All of my teenage life I smoked weed and drank a lot. The first time God tried to get my attention, I was 18. Headed to school one morning, sitting at a stop sign, I was hit in the driver's side door of my Honda Civic by someone in a Dodge Dakota. I went through hell getting better.

    He tried again when I was 23 with a wreck at 150 mph in a dragster. To my surprise I survived both encounters, but I began to mess up again: for about three or four months I was really heavy into cocaine.

    It was one Sunday in church that God touched me. Nothing else mattered at that moment, I was standing there and all I could do was cry. I felt that God was with me, letting me know it was ok and nothing I had done in the past would be held against me. It's a feeling like none other, knowing you're in the presents of God.

    I finally opened my eyes to everything around me and started doing better. I have a great wife and wonderful son that mean everything to me. I'm around better people now and have a great job. I try to do my best and we go to church every Sunday. All I have to say is when things go wrong in your life keep your head up and watch God's bigger picture unfold. I never thought one day Christ would be using me to spread His word to others.   

Brothers Keeper

Are we or do we need to be our brothers keeper? Yes we are and need to be because God wants us to look out for one another. We should help with staying strong in faith. We need to be there when someone needs to be shown love, compassion, strength, and just to pray with or for someone. I'm not saying we should or need to push Christianity all over people and down their throats. Just show them love and give help when its needed. We should be there for our brothers and sisters to show them they're not alone. By showing them they're not alone will give them strength to move on day by day.

Praise and worship

To praise is to proclaim or describe the glorious attributes of God with homage and thanksgiving. We should give thanks to the Lord everyday and for everything. I myself give thanks for the sun or rain, just being able to wake up another day, and still having a job. When we praise God we are showing how thankful we are. And to worship is to show profound religious devotion and respect to; adore or venerate. Ok so devotion and respect, singing songs and praying to lift Gods name high. I don't feel a lot of churches do this enough today. It takes a back seat and everything has a time line to follow. God don't want to be put on a time line, he wants us to stand up loud with praise and worship. Sunday at our church that's all we did, some gave testimonies and some rededicated their life to Christ.  

Battle for souls

The battle is going on all the time for our souls. We must fight and charge to the front of the line. We shouldn't run, put our guard down or sit on the fence. We must be ready and know our enemy. Satan is real and is out for all of us. He knows our weakness and will try his hardest to take over. He has hit me hard using friends, our preacher, and even my own father when I started thinking about ministering to others. We must have the whole armor of God. There is no stop to the war at hand and with God in our life we can beat Satan. If we stay with the Lord and walk with him, Satan will run, and we should not run from him but fight in the Lords name.

                                     Ephesians  6:11
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

                                      14-17

put on the breastplate of righteousness, shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, taking the shield of faith, take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Darkness

We have two kinds of darkness, a spiritual and literal darkness. The spiritual darkness is being lost, not knowing God as your savior and being in a world of sin. Then we have the literal darkness that some of us choose, of wearing all black, liking skeletons and just being different. I will tell you this, it doesn't matter what you wear or like, as long as you have faith and try to live your life by the Lord, he does not judge you. God brings it all down to one thought, and thats just knowing him as your savior. We should always show love to everyone we meet.l Love is very important in every day life. With some Christians, no one knows what they are for, only what they're against, because of judgment.                  
                               Psalm 71:8
Let my mouth be filled with your praise and with your glory all the day.  

Why ridiculed

Why is it new and reborn people of faith get ridiculed by the people of the world. It's because Satan is of worldly desires. He wants us to get down and think we shouldn't openly share our love and faith in God. He wants us to stay in the worldly desires, and out of our faith. Yes we will always have hard times but with faith we can make it through anything that comes our way.

          1 Peter 4:16
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.