Search Results

Psalm 139:16 (ESV) 16  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.   As I sit down to write this, my mind is struggling with many emotions. In the past 72 hours since the moment of this being written, we have seen senseless murder, school shootings, a political assassination, and riots across our country. Anger, sadness, grief, love and compassion. All of these are at the top of my heart today. Yet, one emotion is completely absent in this madness. That emotion is fear. When we look at the state of the world, it seems to be falling further and further away from God. The death throes of sin are very real and very powerful. As mankind drifts and wanders further from Christ, chaos ensues. We can look historically and see a very vivid picture of this across all of creation!  Yet fear is absent.   Wars and rumors of wars like in Matthew 24…persecution like in Acts 4 and 5…disease and famine like in 2 Chronicles 6. The “fruits of death” as a result of a sinful world are abundant in our eyes and minds in these days. Yet fear is absent.   Uncertainty of the future for our children and grandchildren. Of our very country gifted to us by a gracious God. Of political turmoil and plight. Darkness creeps closer and closer to everything we hold dear.  Yet fear is absent.   You see brothers and sisters…this is all a part of a story. A story most glorious and beautiful. A story of creation, death, mercy, redemption, and triumph. A story of deliverance and perseverance and peace. A story that has time and time and time again shaken the very foundations of our existence! A story with a holy and righteous author!   That very author wrote ALL of this into being. As we see in Psalm 139 (my personal favorite scripture), before ever there were days to experience, God already wrote them. His pen illustrating each and every detail of our lives from the greatest of magnitude to the absolutely microscopic detail. So fully is His love for His creation that He has already written everything into being as a means to do two things.The first is to declare His glory and sovereignty. That HE is Lord over His creation. The creation is not Lord over Him. Nothing that is happening right now that causes us turmoil and worry is of any surprise to the author. This is why fear is absent. The story is not complete. The creeping darkness can do only that…. creep. It cannot conquer as the King has done on the cross! It is but a shadow of the might of our Lord! Which leads into the other intention…it is to encourage. Yes we may still grieve. Yes we may still hurt and our very souls ache for the state of a world further and further from the love and light of Christ. Yet, we MUST not stand down. We MUST not show fear. Fear cannot have any place in our hearts as this type of fear is NOT of God. May you be emboldened to live for Christ all the more. May you be encouraged that HE is sovereign over this all. May you preach the Gospel to yourself, knowing that every other person who commits such horrific acts are just as deserving of this mercy as you are.   Christian…remember this…The Story is not our story. It is HIS Story…..and it is not completed.  May fear be absent.    SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!

Jeremiah 29:12 -23 (ESV ) 12  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  13  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.    Speaking from personal experience, people-pleasing is one of the most dangerous and overlooked sins one can struggle with. I love going on walks in between work meetings and ministry work. It breaks up my morning and allows time for me to recenter myself on God. To LITERALLY walk with Him as I commune with Him.   Not more than 3 weeks ago, while out on a walk with our family dog Juniper, a woman turned onto our street with her own dog, just a few blocks up. I am admittedly competitive…and in need of extra exercise to work on shedding a few pounds. So, I set my target to pass this woman and her dog. I picked my pace up and headed forward. After a few blocks I noticed I had made up NO ground. So, then I sped up even more! At the pace of a power walker now! Imagine a middle age dude with a bad back trying to hobble at that pace with a corgi…yeah, you’re allowed to laugh! Then it hit me…she was actually pulling away from me! Just about ready to start speeding up more, she starts jogging! So, I suck it up and I start jogging. This back-and-forth exchange of me trying to match or surpass her, all in a hope to catch up and pass her, very quickly became futile. Eventually she got up to a full run and pulled far ahead of me, forcing me to retire from this chase. After catching my breath, it dawned on me…I had completed my loop and then some. I looked at my watch and saw the meeting I was supposed to be in would’ve already started. To make matters worse, God hammered me with conviction. I spent all that time chasing after some lady and her dog to try to pass them in hopes of burning a few extra calories…that I completely neglected my time with God. So , now I was late back to work…missed time with God…and was sweaty and looking like a fool. This outcome is EXACTLY what happens when we pursue man instead of God. When we focus so fully on either our own pleasure and gains, or even theirs. When we worry and put such a huge emphasis on either seeking their acknowledgement, or even doing whatever we can to avoid their displeasure, that we completely forget who we are to seek after. If we look at the Scripture from Jeremiah, it is critical to preface that THIS VERSE IS NOT ABOUT YOU! This is about the Prophet Jeremiah and the Ancient Israelites. However, we can glean such a sobering lesson from them! In this scripture we see Jeremiah relaying yet another commanding reminder to the Jewish people to seek GOD first, and to do it with everything they have. To literally throw themselves at seeking HIM and HIS pleasure. I have such regret for not spending that 15 minutes with God on my walk. It causes me to wonder what experience or conversation I could’ve had with Him. I will now never know…and I regret that. So, I challenge you today to think on who it is you are seeking. Is there someone in your life you wish so badly for their nod and smile…or rather you wish to avoid a frown or disapproving look from? Center yourself on God alone…may we all strive to put the same energy into seeking others instead into seeking Him! What a glorious transformation it would be if His Church would pour themselves out to seeking Him over man daily. To spending that time praying to Him. To putting the same energy into enjoying Him as we do to man or the things of man. May we be a people that turns our chase towards chasing after God…   SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!

Psalm 63:6-8 (ESV) 6  when I remember you upon my bed,    and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7  for you have been my help,    and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 8  My soul clings to you;    your right hand upholds me.   As a child of divorced parents, I would go every other weekend to my father’s home. We would go to the local comic book store, play some video games, go on walks, grill outside and play football or basketball...all your typical stuff for a preteen boy with his step brother. One weekend however we were taken on a bit of an adventure! We had been camping so many times before, yet there was one time that really still to this day has been embedded in my memory. We went for a weekend camping trip to The Garden of the gods in Southern Illinois!Now this place was an absolute TRIP! You of course had your typical, moderately wooded camping zones. However, the really big attraction was the rock climbing and cliff hiking! You wouldn’t think that Southern Illinois, home to some of the flattest topography on the planet would have a park in it with giant rock cliffs, winding trails crossing spring fed streams, and tall pillars reaching up over 100 feet in the sky! Yet there it was! We were all so excited! We had never been here before so it was a new experience. We had all these romantic thoughts of climbing up the tallest and gnarliest cliffs! We actually did climb up the “lesser smokestack” near the summit, but our daydreaming was far more adventurous than what we actually accomplished. The day came when we got there, we set up our camp, and we hiked off into the cliffs! Man let me tell you some of the views were AMAZING! Shawnee National Forest is truly a spectacle of God’s creation! All was going great until we reached a cliff crossing. The trail got more narrow by the yard until it was no more than 3 feet wide. To make it even more tenuous, there was a cliff that was above our head that shot out over the trail we were on. It got to where you had to crawl on all fours to cross from one point to the next! Each and every one of us went one at a time crossing the gap on their hands and knees. Then it came my turn. It was certainly a bit terrifying to look down and see a 40 foot drop. But I went on anyway!  I was crossing just fine until my foot slipped for the final push to scoot across the gap. I remember a massive and sudden panic as I dug my finger nails into the sandstone and literally clung for dear life! One leg dangling off the edge and the other slipping fast. Then my father, channeling the strength of Arnold with the reaction time of a cat, grabbed me by the strap of my backpack and caught me. The relief and joy I had when he helped me scramble up to the other side was immeasurable. I would have certainly fallen to my death had he not caught me.This memory from my childhood truly makes me savor this scripture in Psalms. We too are to cling to God as though for our very life! He is, after all, the source of it! We must use all of our earthly strength to take hold to Him as our firm foundation, knowing full well that although we may slip and fall, He will NEVER allow us to fully descend to our end. His hand will ALWAYS catch us, hold us, and lift us. This is the very nature of our relationship with God. We so fully rely upon Him! The more we cling to Him for refuge, the more it will be evident that He is the refuge we seek and our hope is not in vain. The very creator of the universe is with you my friend. There is no situation too dire nor hopeless that will not ever be out of His reach. There is no weight to great that He cannot uphold. There is no depth you can fall, that He cannot take hold of you and pull you back up by your backpack strap. Most important to all of this, is that there is no greater comfort than putting your faith in that. SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!

Psalm 46:1-3 (ESV) 1  God is our refuge and strength,   a very present help in trouble. 2  Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way,  though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3  though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.  Selah I grew up in rural Southern Illinois for much of my early childhood. For the most part it was peaceful down there before my wife swept me off my feet and dragged me up to Wisconsin. Don’t worry, I refer to Wisconsin as “The Motherland” now…I’m not a false convert :) There were some really odd things about living in Southern Illinois. Many in fact. Yet one stood out more than others. Pretty much NOBODY had basements. You would think that being in a region of Illinois where Tornado activity was fairly active, and at times, very severe, that basements might just happen to be a good idea. You might think that, but you’d think wrong. For whatever reason, most people plainly didn’t have them. So you might ask, “What did you all do when bad weather came along?” Well, we would pile up together in the most unlikely of shelters…..our family bathtub. “Wait, are you serious?! How would that save you from a tornado?! You know, something that could literally rip a house off of its foundation!?” As happenstance would have it, that exact thing happened to us. I recall playing in the back yard with a nerf gun. Then was told to come inside because weather was on its way. So I ran inside and played with our cat for a bit until the storm clouds literally burst up out of nowhere! At first it was just a little pocket of black clouds. Then they grew…and grew….and grew…and grew some more. Then the wind came. Then the hail. And in a mere matter of minutes, it went from lightly cloudy to terrifying. I remember our dead-bolted back door getting ripped open from the sheer force of the suction of what would become a F3 tornado forming right behind our house in the oil field. We all ran to the bathroom and piled into the bath tub. The house was shaking…the sound of that tornado haunts me to this day. I surely thought, “This is where I die!!!” Yet in a dramatic almost cartoon like way…being sucked up into the clouds never to be seen from again. Remember how I mentioned earlier that tornadoes have the potential to suck entire houses and buildings off of their foundation??? Well we had a separate, in ground, indoor pool. And that tornado ripped the whole building off of its foundation and threw it about 60 feet directly into our neighbor’s home. (Praise God they were not home). When we got up out of the bath tub, not a single one of us was harmed. Other than being completely terrified at what just happened of course. The most unconventional and unassuming thing became our salvation. How similar is that thought to that of Christ? Christ came in a very unassuming manner. Isaiah 53 tells us that He was a very unassuming looking person. Further, He lived an unassuming life being that of a carpenter. Yet within that very unassuming man dwelt the fullness of God the Son. Full of His divinity and majesty! With all of that power, He certainly COULD move mountains into the sea. He COULD make the very foundations of the earth give way. He COULD make the very grounds tremble and the oceans churn from merely being in proximity to His sheer glory. Yet, do you know what He did with all of this power? He came and He washed feet.   He came and He served the least of these. He came and He brought hope to all of mankind. That for our sin, we might not perish, but spend all of eternity with Him. He became a very real refuge in our very real need. Just as verse 1 says above…He IS our refuge. Christ IS our deliverer. He IS our Savior. He IS our protector. And most importantly, He desires to be that for His children. For those whom submit to His Lordship. For those who trust fully in His abundant grace. What kind of wonderful and stunning love is that?! SOLI DEO GLORIA!

Romans 5:6-8 ESV 6  For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  7  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—  8  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. My childhood was one of great abuse. My older brothers and I went through it all. Emotional, physical, spiritual, even sexual…you name it. Ours was a unique home. On the outside it was picture perfect. We were a blended family that was rooted in our local church. My late grandfather, Harmon Mills, was the pastor of that church. We were well dressed, clean cut, well-behaved, and stayed out of trouble (most of the time.) Yet there loomed this dark secret that nobody else knew about. My stepfather, and mother, were abusive to the three of us. I do not want this to be considered some “hit piece” against them. Whereas I have long forgiven their abuse against me, I have never forgotten this aspect of my childhood. You see, they wore such a beautiful mask. On the outside, it all looked great! Yet beneath that mask was the ugly truth. This darkness hung over our home like a cloud. One evening, after working both of his jobs, our stepfather came home in a particularly bad mood. He had a rough day at BOTH jobs, and when that happened, it usually didn’t end well for the rest of us in our home. One activity that would bring us closer to our stepfather, and I credit it to him as trying to be present and engaged, was to play video games with us. After rough days at work, at times, he would sit down with us and all 4 of us would play a game or two before bed. Very unfortunately, I had accidentally erased the game he had been playing. I had been terrified to tell him…when he turned on the TV and the game, and saw that the file was erased, I could literally see the red build in his face. Sheer terror. Before he even said a word, my older brother spoke up. “I did it. I’m sorry.” Our stepfather put the controller down and said just one word to my brother…”bedroom.” We knew what this meant. In that moment, my older brother took the wrath and punishment for my carelessness. What is so powerful in this moment is that my brother did so willingly. Without ANY sort of hesitation he took that punishment that was mine to bear for my mistake. This reminds me so fully of the truth of the Gospel. We see it in the Scripture above. “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I do not want it to be mistaken that my stepfather’s wrath is the same as God’s. God’s wrath is righteous. My stepfathers, in his own flawed humanity, was not. Yet this moment from my childhood is such a vivid reminder of the Gospel. My mistakes and sins…they are paid for. My due punishment….it was taken on the Cross. Most beautifully and humbling is the willingness in which Christ took this upon Himself. Christ willingly died for me. To give me a path to redemption and to have a seat at the table. And you know what is most unbelievable? He did the same for my stepfather. So that he could take the mask off and sit honestly at that same table. To admit and repent from wrongdoing.  As a sinner saved by pure grace. SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!

There are times when I feel overwhelmed by my sin. I know that what I’m thinking or saying or doing is sinful, but I do it anyway. Even more than that, I know that what I need to do is pray—to repent of my sin to God, pray for His forgiveness, thank Him for all that He has done for me…and I don’t. Because I don’t feel like it. “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). YUK! This is how my week has been. At the same time (in total contrast, oddly enough) I’ve been thinking a lot about how God is holy. And, interestingly, I keep coming across  the word “holiness.” I just received a book called “The Holiness of God.” A sermon I’m in the middle of listening to is called “Born to Holiness.” I’ve been playing the piano some this week, and nearly every song I turn to has “holiness” in the title. So, instead of writing first thing this morning, I read the first couple chapters of my new book on God’s holiness. Right off the bat, the prophet, Isaiah is mentioned. Isaiah had a first-hand experience with God. He saw God with his own eyes. Isaiah came into the very presence of God!! From Scripture, it’s clear that Isaiah was a godly man before  this face-to-face encounter with God, but still, when he faced the sheer and absolute holiness of God, it dropped Isaiah to his knees. He could see with painful clarity the how sinful he was. Instantly, he understood the extreme contrast of holy, holy, holy God and his own sinful self. Where Isaiah’s experience encouraged me this morning is when I reread what God did for Isaiah. God didn’t just leave the prophet laying there on the ground, crushed by the guilt and awfulness of his sinfulness. God didn’t say from His lofty throne, “See, I told you how full of sin you were, and now you finally know it too.” Instead, God cleansed Isaiah of his sin. Immediately. Not after a few weeks, or a few days, or some long conversation. The Bible says God cleansed Isaiah and right then, his “guilt was taken away” (Isaiah 6:7). Taken away. His guilt wasn’t set aside for future discussion or to be rehashed with God some time down the road. Isaiah’s sin and guilt was taken away, gone, meaning God saw it no more. It didn’t exist to God any longer. In recognizing his own sinfulness before God, Isaiah received the wonderful gift of God’s forgiveness. And this is what I forget sometimes. I wallow around in anger or irritation or self-pity…and I turn my back on God. But if I let go of my pride and go to God…if I confess the multitude of my sins, He will forgive me. God is full of mercy and grace for those who come to Him with a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). Just like Isaiah, I get to experience instant cleansing, knowing in my heart that through my faith in Jesus and His atoning death, God graciously forgives me. Sin carries with it a tremendous burden of guilt. You don’t have to haul that guilt around any longer. You too, can experience forgiveness for your sin when you put your faith in Jesus. You too can be cleansed. If you’d like prayer, have questions, or need a Bible, let one of the Feed Your Soul team members know.

Mercy and grace. These are such lovely words, aren’t they? I would like to be described like that: “Oh, she’s a merciful and gracious person.” In Exodus 34:6, God is speaking to Moses, and He tells Moses that He is a merciful and gracious God. What does that mean? Mercy and grace are kind of like opposite sides of the same coin. Let’s talk about mercy first. Let’s say you’ve done something wrong. There’s a punishment coming. If you receive mercy, whoever is handing out the punishment decides to forget about it. Let it go. Even though you deserve some kind of punishment, you don’t get it. The punishment just goes away, or is something less harsh than what you had coming. That’s mercy. When God is merciful, He’s not handing out the punishment that is deserved.  Grace is kind of the opposite. It’s receiving something good, some benefit that you don’t have any right to receive. You’ve done nothing to receive this good thing, you don’t deserve it, and yet you get it anyway. When God is gracious, He’s giving a gift that hasn’t been earned and isn’t deserved. So…here’s how God is merciful and gracious. God made a perfect world a long time ago but sin messed it all up. Sin is committing wrongs against God, and He hates sin. Sin is like this giant barrier between God and man and it can’t be crossed. There’s no way around it, over it, or under it. There’s not a thing you can do to break it down, nothing I can do…PLUS there’s a price for all that wrongdoing against God. That price must be paid to make things right with God. So, because God is both merciful and gracious, He did something about both the barrier and the price. First, He made a way for the sin barrier to be broken down by providing a way for the punishment of sin to be paid. Jesus is how. You see, sin always has a price and someone has to take the punishment for sin. So, in dying on the cross, Jesus paid the price for sin for those who believe in Him. This is God’s mercy. You aren’t punished. If you put your faith in Jesus, God will not punish you for your sin as you should be—Jesus already did that for you. Next, there’s God’s grace. Do you deserve this great reprieve of your sin being paid for? No. You’ve done nothing to earn it, nothing to deserve it. It’s a gift. It’s a benefit that you don’t deserve. But you can receive it. This is God’s grace. What does it take to experience the mercy and grace of God? Faith in Jesus Christ. If you’d like to know more, let me know. If you need prayer or would like a Bible to start finding out about God and Jesus, let one of the Feed Your Soul team members know.

The story of Jesus’s birth is in Luke 2:1—20…it goes like this. The Roman emperor decided he needed to count all the people in his empire to make sure he was collecting all the taxes he was owed. For Mary and Joseph, this meant they had to travel about 80 miles to get to Bethlehem to be counted. It was during this trip that Mary gave birth. Jesus’s arrival on earth was announced to some shepherds by an angel—because of course, Jesus  was no ordinary baby. The angel said Jesus was “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). But what exactly does “savior” mean? When I first met Rick, I was working at Jimmy Dean in Memphis. I had this big meeting to plan, had a whole bunch of people coming into town. I had no idea what I was doing. Rick knew I was in over my head, and offered to help me. I was so relieved! I mean, here I was, new on the job, expecting people from all over the US to come to my meeting—what if I failed? Well, Rick made sure that didn’t happen. We put in long hours, planned, strategized, and worked hard. It was a great meeting. Rick knew what I needed t do and what I didn’t need to do. He rescued me from having a disastrous meeting. So, in a sense, Rick was a savior to me. Jesus as Savior is kind of like that. Except what Jesus rescues us from is much  more serious than a business meeting. Jesus rescue s us from our sin . You see, sin is not just a problem, it’s a death sentence  for you and me without Jesus. The reason we need a Savior is because God made man to be in a relationship with Him. But this is impossible because God is holy and man is sinful. And guess what? Man caused this problem. Adam sinned against God way back when, and now we all have this sinful nature. So sin is our problem. It’s not God’s problem, it’s ours. But even though it’s not His problem, God didn’t desert man (though that’s what we deserve!) God had a plan to rescue us from disaster. His plan is Jesus. The Savior of the world. When Jesus was born, God in the flesh arrived on earth to save people from their sins. As you read the Bible, it’s obvious Jesus didn’t have an easy task. Not many people believed in Him as Savior. Why? Because people love their sin . We reject the truth that we are sinners and that we need to be rescued. We think we can manage on our own. Or we think God and Jesus is just a bunch of hocus pocus. Did you know the Bible tells us many will be surprised when they don’t enter heaven (Matthew 7:21)? What a time to discover that you need a Savior!…when it’s too late. However, just like Rick knew what I needed in my meeting when I didn’t, God knows what we need, and we don’t. So God sent Jesus to earth—so that if  we believe in Jesus, the Son of God, come to earth to die for sinners, and that He was raised from the dead, we will live now and forevermore with Him. Belief in Jesus becomes obvious in the changed way we live. God sending Jesus to take the punishment for my sin blows me away. God graciously, lovingly, and mercifully reached down to man to offer us salvation and hope. My prayer is that this precious gift that God has made available to you, salvation through Jesus Christ, is a gift that you will respond to today. May the Lord open your heart to believe in Jesus. If you need prayer or a Bible, let me know.

Acts 20:26-28 (ESV) 26  Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all,  27  for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.  28  Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God,[ e ] which he obtained with his own blood.[ f ]   There is a song by one of my all time favorite bands, Casting Crowns, called “Nobody.” The general sound. The skillful layering of vocals. The beat. The powerful harmonies. This song has everything to a musician like myself. If you’ve never listened to this song before, I’d highly recommend it. Yet, when we look past the ambience and the “show”…we see some of the most beautiful lyrics I have ever encountered in a song. The chorus of this song stands out so strongly that it just screams to my heart! ”I’m just a nobody, trying to tell everybody, all about the somebody, that saved my soul.”   These few lines of lyrics speaks so many volumes to me…especially in light of a very recent occurrence within The Church. On July 14 th , 2025, Pastor John MacArthur passed away to be with Christ. He was a “giant” in the church. Whereas I can find several things I may not fully agree with him on, I can look upon his ministry and see a man who was ferociously in love with His Creator. He impacted so many through his service to The Kingdom. The hungry were fed. The lost were found. The lonely were befriended. The hungry for ministry were equipped, sent and successful. He was, all in all, “the complete package.” I began to wonder and pray and discuss with a good friend, for the next man to step up into his office. That he too would be used for the Kingdom as effectively as the late Pastor John was….with one caveat. He should be a nobody. Pastor John was truly well known. He went on international news outlets multiple times. He was asked to fly all over the world to speak and preach at churches and events. He was asked to teach in seminaries all over the world! There is nothing truly wrong with this…but when one is so busy with their life, they tend to have little time to get back to the nitty-gritty, down and dirty, MESSY work of ministering to people. We need to stop treating our pastors as celebrities. We should rejoice when a Biblically sound man is elevated into the public spotlight and cries out “Holy Holy Holy is Christ the Lord of Hosts!” Yet, when we place them up on so high of a pedestal, we tend to forget about what we are really meant to do on this Earth. Jesus tells us so beautifully and plainly as He tends to typically do. In John 21, speaking to Peter, He gives Peter a very simple command. “If you love Me, then feed my sheep.” If you read through the whole story of John 21, you see such a wonderful redemption for Peter who had previously denied Christ three times. You also see Jesus has not changed His mind about the purpose for mankind that He has set upon us all. That same command to Peter…that is for you and I as well. We are the “nobodies”…that Christ chose, sealed, and saved…that are meant to tell “everybody”…about the one who “saved our souls.” You do not need a doctorate from a major seminary. Peter didn’t have one! You don’t need a massive budget to reach the lost! You don’t need a giant church building filled to the brim with endless ministries, programs, and events. You need only have two things…a true, soul filled love for Christ…and the knowledge of what He did for you, and what He desires to do for every single person who draws breath in this world.   Get to work. SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!

James 1:14-15 (ESV) 14   But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  15   Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.     I absolutely LOVE riding my bike. I grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois where all there was to really do was to hop on your bike and go out until the sun came down. My two older brothers and I would particularly LOVE to ride along the oil field roads all throughout the country (even though we weren’t supposed to). We would ride for miles and miles and miles on these gravel roads through the “backwoods” of the countryside. Stopping and throwing rocks at the big green oil pumps to see whose could make the biggest “CLANG” sound. It was an adventure every single time, every single day! When it would be about dinner time we would double back home and pass…wait for it….THE HILL! DUN DUN DUN!!!!   Every day, on our return ride, we passed this huge hill. Covered in furrows and bits of gravel. This hill was more steep than the cost of eggs right now! Our stepfather always warned us not to ride down that hill, even though it was a huge shortcut to get home faster. But man did it look so fun. Day after day, week after week, month after month…we would always stop and look at it, throw a few sticks down the hill, and then ride on. Yet…one day that changed. My oldest brother did something we never dared to do. He actually rode up to the edge of this steep hill. Paused for a few seconds, looked back at us, gripped the handlebars of his Mongoose Sycamore SX Mountain Bike (Mongoose used to make the good stuff back in the 90s mind you), and he did it. He went down that hill!   We ran up to the edge thinking this was the last we would ever see of our oldest brother. By the time we got up to the edge to look down he was already halfway down! It was exciting to watch him! He was going to do it! He was going to make it! Then his front tire got stuck in a furrow and he flew face first down the rest of the hill. By the time we road all the way around, he was still on the ground in a great deal of pain. His wrist totally swollen and bruised, face bloodied from the rocks, shirt torn from the rifts in the dirt, bike wheel bent. What was at first an exciting trip and moment, ended up in tragedy (he was fine eventually…minus a dislocated wrist).And our sin is JUST like this hill. We stand at the top looking down on it thinking, “I know I shouldn’t do this, but this would be awesome in the moment!” Not thinking about what could happen in the future. Not listening to the warnings from God or other brothers and sisters who ended up at the bottom of their “hill”. When you find yourself in these moments looking at your version of the hill, I pray you recollect the Scripture above from James. Your sin starts out as a fleeting desire that seems so innocent, and snowballs into an inescapable plummet down a rocky, jagged hill. When faced with these scenarios, I pray that you are reminded that Christ ALWAYS grants us a better way! A holy way! I safer and far more fulfilling way! HIS Way…because He is The Way! Soli Deo Gloria!

You know, I so want to love God with all my heart. I want to be loyal, obedient, kind, patient, filled with joy. I know God loves me. I know that Jesus loves me and that He gave His life to pay for all my sin—this is the greatest gift anyone could ever dream of receiving. So, in light of all that God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit have blessed me with—when I think of all that I have to be thankful for, both spiritual blessings and material blessings, why would I ever get irritated and impatient? Why would I act in unloving and selfish ways? I was like that this morning. One little thing bugged me, and here I am. Irritated and impatient. I open my Bible.  In the book of John (chapters 13-17), I read about how Jesus spent the night before He died with His disciples. He washed their feet. He said one of them would betray Him. He commanded them to love on another, in the same way that He Himself loved them. He told one of His disciples, Peter, that he, who professed undying loyalty to Jesus, would repeatedly say that he didn’t even know Jesus. Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would come to them. Jesus gave them a lot to think about on this last night before He died. This certainly brings some perspective to my little problem—my problem is nothing compared to what Jesus faced that night. The other thing Jesus did that night was pray. What did He pray for? If it was us, we would pray for escape from death, right? Not Jesus. He prayed that God would be glorified…and He prayed for His disciples…and He even prayed for me! “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me” (John 17:20). Jesus prayed for all believers who would come. As He’s about to die for me, Jesus prayed for me! Every-single-day, constant prayer was how Jesus lived—Him, who was without sin. That says a lot about the importance of prayer, doesn’t it? Prayer is one of the ways that God has given us to connect with Him. It is a gift, so we have a way to talk to God. It’s pretty hard to have a relationship with someone you don’t talk to, right? So, as I consider how my morning went haywire with my irritation and impatience, I can see that one of the things missing for the last several days is spending time in prayer. When I neglect praying, my emotions take over—I’m irritable and impatient. Prayer keeps me in tune with what God desires, I am reminded of all I have to be thankful for. Prayer reminds me of what’s important, it takes my focus off of me and places my attention on the real treasure in my life, Jesus…His sacrifice for my sin, His love for me, His obedience to God no matter what the cost to Himself. When I pray, I’m humbled, I confess sin, and I am reunited with my Lord and Savior. Sin separates me from God. Prayer and confessing my sin reunites me with Him. Prayer restores my soul! How is it possible that I wouldn’t pray nonstop, just like Jesus?? Sin separates everyone from God. Maybe you are wandering through life, scared that this is all there is. Without Jesus, this is all there is. Faith in Jesus is the only way to real life. It doesn’t mean life turns into a bed of roses, and it doesn’t mean you just add church to your schedule. What it means is you consider your sin, you consider what Jesus did about sin, you confess your sin, and you pray that Jesus might have mercy on you and forgive you. There’s a cost—giving up your sin. Maybe you love your sin too much. Only you know. But the gift you receive is life through believing in Jesus. Think about it. If you need prayer or a Bible, let one of the Feed Your Soul team members know.

Isaiah 6:8 - 9 ESV - And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”   Each and every one of us who has ever drawn breath has been at a crossroads in our lives. Without hesitation, I can speak on behalf of humanity that we have all been in “that situation.” You have a choice to make and you know the right choice to make, but know it is going to lead to some sort of turmoil. In the above scripture we find Isaiah, one of God’s most prominent prophets from the Old Testament. When we study the whole of the book of Isaiah, we see he was no stranger to being in tough places. In this particular body of Scripture we see God commanding Him to take a rebuking message back to the people of Jerusalem. Likely they weren’t going to enjoy this harsh reminder that they done messed up!   God wrote Isaiah’s story into being from long before Creation Past! (Psalm 139:16) He did this to fulfill His will and draw Glory unto Himself…yet here is another take…He also wrote it into being so we could learn from Isaiah’s example. You may be thinking, “Wait a second…this isn’t about us here! It was about ancient Israel!” To which you would be correct! Yet, we can glean wisdom from his circumstances and how he responded to the calling of God.   How did Isaiah respond? “HERE I AM! SEND ME.” No hesitation. No worry. No anxiety. In five short words, Isaiah shows the sincere heart of a man who has faith in his Creator. A faith that is burning like a bright torch! Not just a torch that lights his own path…but a light for those behind him to follow. You see, we focus so much on ourselves and our own thoughts and feelings in such tough situations that we forget who else may be watching.   I am a man who was blessed with four unbelievably wonderful girls in my life. My truly stunning and amazing wife Carrie, our oldest daughter, McKenna, who is in heaven with Jesus, our next oldest daughter Lily who is the sweetest and most kind soul you’d ever meet, and Sofia our youngest, who has such an energy and bright smile that it can crack through even the hardest of hearts. God has placed these wonderful ladies in my life as a blessing and a comfort…yet He also has placed them in my care! As a husband and father I am commanded by God to be a good shepherd to my own family….and they’re watching me do it.   They learn from me through how I behave, speak, and the choices I make. I know without a doubt I will not always make the right choices. Yet I hope that I can point them to Christ as often as possible, and in the most spectacular of ways. I hope they look at what I do and see Christ Himself.   You see, our choices and behaviors, especially in what may seem like dire situations, can have an everlasting impact on future generations! Just like Isaiah! It is a reminder that God uses both the most spectacular of His followers…the Isaiahs, Davids, Solomons, Pauls, Lukes, etc. etc.….and He uses the most mundane. The average Joe down the street with the cute dog and the wife that is way out of his league (I empathize…truly my wife is stunning). He uses all of those in His Kingdom to impact the next generations.   And Just like Isaiah, they will follow our example like that same bright and shining torch in the darkness. Twenty years down the road when they are in a hard scenario with their own families and lives…and they don’t know what to do in their own life challenges.   Instead of focusing on the “what ifs”…focus on the “what if I don’t?” and the “who is watching me?” and how can I influence their future in the right now!   Pick up your torch! Pick it up and charge forward in faith! Remember that they ARE watching.   SOLI DEO GLORIA!!!!