We’ve all done it. Oh we may not tell anybody we did it, but we did it.  So then we hang something on our rearview mirror or put a sticker on our bumper so we know which car belongs to us. Then there is the occasional time even that doesn’t work, like a friend of mine the other night. We were at the same conference.  It had been a long day understandably. It was dark. They were in an unfamiliar parking lot. The driver walked over to the car opened the door and was about to get in when she noticed plastic covering the back seat.  She asked her passenger did she have anything to do with it and that’s when she realized she was in the wrong car.  How embarrassing, especially when the parking attendant dimes you out. It would have been nice to just back up and close the door and walk away.  Yep, we’ve all done it.

Some people look like a Christian.  They can be found in the same locations as Christians. You may even mistake them for actually being a Christian but upon a closer examination, the inside of them reveals they are not even close to being a Christian.  As T.D. Jakes says, “They got junk in the trunk.” 

1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV) “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Today think about your life.  What do others see when they look at your life?  It may be time to do some house cleaning.

Today I spent a good three hours tying up my tomatoes.  I spent a lot of that time cutting off all the extra leaves and pulling weeds.  Why is it weeds grow so fast and my tomatoes seem to grow so slow?  Well when a friend of mine asked the Lord that question he said God told him, “It’s because the weeds don’t have to produce or carry anything.”  This really got me thinking about people.  Some seemingly have it all.  Then you see them in a few years and they’ve lost it all.  What makes the difference?  They were like those weeds.  They weren’t carrying anyone.  They shot up because they were not producing anything that cost them anything.  When you and I begin to carry the things of the Lord it inevitably slows us down.  However, when you carry something it makes you stronger.  Then when the adversity comes we are able to persevere.   When we are carrying the things of God we may grow slower but we learn to carry more weight.

Galatians 3:11-12 (MSG) “11-12 The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person, who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”

What are you carrying today?  Are you carrying your fair share? Time will reveal what we do with our life. Make it count.

Cost time or other in our lives.  Seriously we come into this world hungry and naked.  We needed help.  We never outgrow that. Get a cut on your back you can’t see or get to and you need help.  Can’t cut your own hair, deliver your own child, fix your car, fill your tooth, operate on your tonsils, whatever it is admit it, we need help.

“God often puts us in situations that are too much for us so that we will learn that no situation is too much for him.”  Erwin Lutzer

I personally am pretty much a do it myself kind of woman, but life has taught me the hard way, we need help.  We can all say the Lord is my help and He is, but there are times we need help with skin on. If we pray and ask God He will bring us what we need-when we need it. 

Hebrews 4:16 (KJV) “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Psalms 72:12 (KJV) “For He will deliver the needy when he cries, the poor also, and him who has no helper.” 

This week I needed help.  God brought that help into my life. Sure it me financially. Yes, it was time involved and taxing on my body.  Bottom line God was faithful but I had to buy into the help and do my part.  We don’t say to the stove give me some heat and I will put in some wood.  No, we put in the wood first and then we get some heat.

Action for today, get with it. Do what you can do and cry out to God to help you do what you cannot do.  He is faithful. You will never know His faithfulness to take care of you until you ask.

We serve a God that thinks, sees, hears and acts on a whole different plane than we humans.  I once heard we only use 10% of our brain.  Well that’s simply not true we use all of it but the fact is our brains are limited and we serve an unlimited God.  He created us out of nothing and he created Science and neither can figure out how the brain works. They can't make a new one or for the most part fix a broken one, but God can.

Isaiah 55:8–9 (NIV) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

A.W. Tozer says, “Because God knows all things perfectly, he knows nothing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, he is never surprised, never amazed.”

I never really liked the saying, “Bloom where you’re planted.” It was like saying “shut up and do the best you can no matter what the circumstances”.  While on vacation I took this picture because it reminded me of this childhood saying.  Growing up I heard it a lot, perhaps it was one of the many sayings of the day at that time. Upon my arrival home I received the card above. I don't believe in coincidence so I began to read the word of God and see what I could find out about perseverance.  I much prefer God’s rendition of this.

Romans 5:2-5 (NKJV) Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Although the word perseverance is in the Bible, it usually uses various other words and analogies to explain the concept of perseverance. Some synonyms for perseverance are: diligence, endurance, persistence, steadfastness, waiting and sometimes even patience.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-perseverance-20-defining-scriptures/#ixzz3h5l9JXLZ

Now I like the saying of the card because it reminds me of my place in Christ.  When I am rooted and grounded in Christ, when I live and move and have my being in Him then I do not stand alone but Christ stands in me.  When I fall He catches me like He did Peter when Peter began to sink after walking on the water.  It is often times after a success that I am my most vulnerable.  Like a fighter in the ring after he gives a mighty blow to his opponent and then fails to see the left hook coming at him and falls.  My strength comes from the Lord. (Psalm 28:7)


Proverbs 2:7 (NIV) "He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,"

So today let this be a reminder to you. God has success in mind for you as you find your righteousness in Him.  Don't allow the circumstances around you to dictate what you can and cannot do. (Phil 4:13)

Who you hang out with could make you fat.  No it won't be their prayers, it will be their influence. I read once that the amount of money we make is determined by our five closest friends.  Another article told me that our friends determine our level of excellence or lack thereof.  The bible talks a lot about the friends we keep.

1 Corinthians 15:33 (ESV) “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Proverbs 13:20 (ESV) “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” 

If friends are so influential why aren’t we taught on the subject and more selective on the company we keep? Because we tend to pick friends that allow us to be comfortable rather than those that contend with us or challenge us.  We want our flesh comfortable so many times we compromise to keep what we will inevitably lose if we do not confront. For whatever we compromise to keep we will lose.  It is best to be uncomfortable and challenged that comfortable and poor, or uneducated, or a person of low character.  When we have friends in order to keep them we have to invest in them and vice versa. 

Psalm 55:12-14 (ESV) “For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in the throng’s” 

Let’s be found building one another up and pushing one another to the mark of the High Calling in Christ Jesus.

We all would like to rewind time but probably all for different reasons.  Some because they said or did something wrong or hurtful others because they were wronged and hurt.  Either way it is impossible to rewind time. It marches on. Time is not a respecter of persons it simply is. We spend it and it’s gone. The good news is we can change the way we think about it. We can change the way we feel about it. We can tell ourselves that God will work all things for good for those that love Him and are called to His purposes.  His purposes for my life are always going to be good. O even though this period of time looks really bad God says there will be something good come out of this.  I just have to renew my mind.

Romans 12:2 (NIV) “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

There are several scriptures that talk about renewing our mind. Each scripture talks about this subject and none say to pray that God renews your mind.  To ask God to renew your mind is like asking your mom to do your homework.  We have to do our part and then God will do His part with the help of the Holy Spirit.

John 16:13 (NKJV) “13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

Today challenge yourself to think like God. Don’t know how to do that then read the four Gospels over and over until you see the way Jesus sees because if you see Jesus you see the Father. Renewing your mind will take time but in the long run it will redeem it and that’s almost as good as getting to rewind it.

Did you ever notice whether it’s a birthday, a funeral, a convention, or a birth it doesn’t matter what occasion we want to address we all say the same thing.  “I got to get ready.” Come on you know what I’m talking about. What are you getting ready for? I know people right now getting ready for a Bar Exam and another person getting a room ready for a baby.  I’m getting ready for an event that comes once a year and that’s what got me thinking about this blog material. See there is an event coming that we all need to be preparing for and I don’t know enough people talking about it. So I want to shout about it.  The event is called ETERNITY.  What are you doing to prepare for it?

On this earth most of what we prepare for cost us money.  We got to go buy something. When we prepare for Eternity it cost us everything; but not a dime financially.  On earth when we are preparing for an event it cost us time.  We may have to clean this, bake that, study for it, but when preparing for heaven it cost us a life (Jesus Christ) as well as our life as we would live it.  At the end of this lifetime however when preparing for things of this life we get nothing out of it in Eternity.  While at the end of this lifetime if we have prepared for Eternity we get rewards here as well as there and crowns to lay at Jesus’ feet and to walk on streets of gold and a mansion just to name a few.

John 14:2 (KJV) “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

Revelation 21:21 (KJV) “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”


So I am excited about things that I am preparing for on this earth; but I am also preparing for Eternity.  One of the ways you can do that is to feed your faith.  I invite you to RFI Summer Conference. As a great man once said, “Feed your faith and starve your doubts to death”.

It’s summer. It’s hot.  It’s time to make sure the filter on your central air conditioner is clean.  Ever notice the AC doesn’t break on a cool fall afternoon?  No. The AC usually breaks in the hottest most humid part of the year. I know a lot of people who recently had AC problems, myself included.  That’s when I got a lesson on air conditioners.  Ours was actually still under warranty and fixed the same day. Thanking God for the little things in life.  But I also got a good look at our filter.  All the air throughout the year goes through those filters.  The cleaner the filter the more effortlessly the air travels and the less the AC unit has to work. 

We all have filters we run our daily thoughts through.   Someone says something to us and we run it through our filter.  We watch something on TV and we run it through our filter. Problem is we all have a different filter.  Some filters have never been changed and are really dirty.  Experiences such as trauma, abandonment, accidents, death all have the propensity to clog our filters.  Then everything we experience, see, hear from that point on come through that filter. We may not know that our filter is not working properly or that something has changed.  All we know is life takes more energy.  We don’t think and process our daily thoughts and life like we use to.

I have good news for you.  God gave us His word to renew our minds. The more word we take in the cleaner our filter becomes.  The bible tells us in Romans 12: 2 (NIV) “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  This means that when the world tries to get me to conform to it and what my experiences in the world have done to me I can transform my mind instead to the abundant life God would have for me.

Start today. Begin the transformation process of the abundant life by memorizing scripture that promises you the kind of life Jesus died for you to have.

Romans 5:8 (NIV) “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So I know I share a lot of stories from my adventures on the Rails of Trails throughout the Tri-State area. This past weekend I ventured to Ohio Pyle, PA and rode to Confluence, PA.  A great ride and some great food from the Smokehouse in Confluence if you ever get a hankering for some real good pork.  Best I've ever had and I am pretty close to a vegetarian.  But back to my ride and some interesting finds.

Many people have said, myself included, "Man I am moving at a snail’s pace".  We might mean we are not going very fast or that a project is taking us a long time. Being the reporter that I am, I videotaped a snail and its progress and how long it really takes them to move. Well, the video played great on my phone but when I tried to transfer it to my computer to share with you things went array. This began a search about snails. What I found fascinated me. 

There are snails in all parts of the world and they vary in size and shape as well as what they eat. Man has found all sorts of purposes for snails including eating them.  The one I found most interesting lies upon the ocean floor and that is the one I included in the video above.

Here is the interesting thing I wanted to share with you.  It does not matter how fast we are.  It does matter however how accurate we are.  It matters how we are created and if we are using the things God created us with to do His will.  Inside of all of Gods creations are wonderful as well as powerful forces which may surprise the enemy of our soul.  God has not left us defenseless.  We are fearfully and wonderfully created.  The force is with us.

Psalm 139:14 (KJV)14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.