Introducin' by Enock of Cross Movement (RIP)

The following is a song is one hip-hop song that absolutely floors me almost everytime I listen to it. From a writer's perspective I am absolutely AMAZED at Enock's talent and use of wording and internal rhyme schemes. Not to mention these lyrics aren't just thrown together for the hopes of making it rhyme and sound cool, but these lyrics FLOW! Also personally while hearing this song, I can't help but worship the powerful, yet loving God of the universe. Check out the attached video to listen to the song (Facebook readers: look out for the link)

Lyrics courtesy of CrossMovementRecords.com

Chorus:
Introducin’
The Lord Jesus The Christ
The Author and Finisher of All Life

Verse 1:
We brings the ruckus when we uplift the gift of salvation
It was He who came through forty-two generations
Logos invasion
to planet Earth through virgin birth
the last Adam had come to reverse
the works of the first

He became a curse to become a cure
the blood poured made sure
that he who enters by the door
will be eternally secured
What shall I render?
surrendered lives are due to Him
in due time the True Vine reconciled humans
to the divine union of the Father
Hearts are altered to the altar
He died for all walks of life
He’s the Lord of all cultures
Perfector, Resurrector, all life is His
Sin-disconnector
Eternal-holder
of the sceptor of righteousness

praise comes from his numberless
fleet
the sovereign King,
all things are placed under His feet
The uncreated, incarnated creator of all creation
is to be celebrated in all occasions (Why is that?)
‘cause He’s the glorious, victorious Victor
with the greatest victory of all history
peep the unveiling mystery
of the Chief Corner-stoner, the atoner
we present to this world the most generous Blood donor!

Verse 2:
Unto us a child was born, a Son was given
to be given into the hands of wicked man
and like a lamb to his shearers the Sin-bearer was terribly beaten
spit upon
crowned with thorns scorned by the heathen
still breathing?
They stripped Him, Cat-of-nine whipped Him
What sin have they found in Him?
for four-hundred Roman soldiers to be poundin’ Him
surroundin’ Him with mockery
Them not havin’ eyes to see
He fulfilled every prophecy to the lower case "T"
at the cross the cost was paid
a door was made
no more barricade
between God and man
Peace was made by the blood of the Lamb
that was shedded
I’ve been reconnected
to the Creator who is the Resurrected
Savior, who is the only accepted Mediator
unlike those that claim to be
The fact still remains to be
the Son of God broke my chains and bore pain for me.

‘cause when no one else did, He died
so I can live, so it’s not I that lives
but Christ that lives
within my quarters
worthy is the captain of the bloodsport
whose blood bought us
His love caught us
when we were in sin at every hand
He broke heavy bands, when he took
a taste test of death for every man

Come and see
we’ve found the One
He’s the bright and Morning Star
‘cause everything revolves around the Son
He’s omnipotent, omniscient, self-sufficient, pre-eminent, co-existent, never distant
the divine Thriller, the Blood-Spiller
the void-Filler
the Peace-be-Stiller
the Sin-in-the-flesh-Killer

The livin’ agua
the never endin’ saga
Aleph and the Tau
Eternal Father
Infinite with all might whose shinin’ bright
with all light
Jesus the Christ
the Author and Finisher of all life!

God's Healing Touch

This post is one I think will be appropriate because I just came from a service where they were laying hands on people believing that God would heal them. There were no immediate manifestations of healing tonight, but the man who was praying over people was encouraging them to keep the faith in Christ and to keep trusting that He will heal them. That's what this post concerns. By the way, this is another one of those posts that is a reminder to me. It seems to be a common theme lately....

Now before I get into this, I need to make a disclaimer. If you read these following words and think that I am "such an amazing person" and "an inspiration", I humbly say thank you for your encouragement, but I will remind you that the amazingness and inspiration that I have is a blessing from Christ. It is not my talent that I have achieved through hard work, but a blessing from God out of His love and grace for me. So do me a favor after you read this: don't thank me, thank God.

Last summer I needed a breakthrough. I was a few days away from leaving for ministry at a summer camp and I could barely get out of bed. I was getting hot and cold flashes, my mind was racing, I was physically weak and my neck was in such pain that I couldn't even turn my head without wincing. I was getting no more than four hours of sleep a night too.

My neck was hurting since my last physical therapy visit, and I called them for another one but they were all backed up with appointments and couldn't see me until Thursday morning, two days before I was leaving. I went to the doctor about my hot and cold flashes and they told me that I may have lyme disease. For some strange reason though they decided not to test me, but told me to wait until Thursday and if it didn't get any better and then I would come in to get tested. Like I said before, I was leaving for camp on Saturday. I didn't have time to deal with a lyme disease test! I needed a breakthrough!

There was a revival service at a church in Groton with an evangelist named Jason Westerfield. I went to the service Tuesday night and was desperate for God to heal me. I spent the whole night at the altar begging God for a breakthrough. Jason came up to me too and was laying hands on me, praying that God would heal my neck and everything. He told me to move my neck and asked if it was any better. I moved it and winced. It wasn't. I left that night feeling absolutely discouraged.

I carpooled with my friend Dave to the service and I voiced my frustrations to him in the car. "Why wasn't God healing me?" I said to him.
I don't remember what the exact words that Dave said were, but they were something along the lines of "Steve, do you believe God can heal you?"
What Dave was saying to me in the most loving and blunt way he could was that I wasn't trusting God enough to heal me. It was true. I had doubts like crazy. I didn't believe that He could heal me. I wanted to believe, but I couldn't. I went to bed again that night, once more having no more than four hours of sleep as my mind was racing and I had hot and cold flashes all night long.

All day the next day I was lying down at home on the couch in my living room wrestling with my thoughts. Dave called me again to check in on me and asked me if I was going to go back to the church again that night. The revival services were a week-long affair and they were having another one. I told him honestly that I didn't want to. Dave then told me honestly that I should get off my butt and go. I rolled my eyes and said I'd think about it.

As I hung up the phone, I sighed. I realized Dave was right. I looked up to the ceiling and said, "God I'm having a really hard time believing this whole healing thing right now is true."
My eyes went over to my Bible. "I guess I'll start from the beginning..."
I picked up my Bible and placed it in my lap.
"Hi God, I need You."

That night I decided to go to the revival service. It was a real leap of faith for me to even go because I didn't know where the church was, I was really physically weak, and Dave couldn't carpool with me over there because he was caught up in something else and would meet me at the service later. So I drove there using Mapquest directions and made it there okay.

The service that night was really long! It started off with roughly an hour of intense prayer, then it went into worship, which was another hour. Then after that, Jason preached a message for ANOTHER hour and there was MORE worship! When he finished it was getting late and I was getting very weak. I could barely even sit up in the pew anymore. How was I supposed to make it back home? I then prayed silently to God that He needed to heal me tonight, otherwise I wasn't even going to be able to make it home.

Finally, Jason decided to do some prayer for healings. This was it! He had people come up who needed it and then assigned other members of the congregation to lay hands on them. I had two guys come up to me and ask me what my problem was. I told them my whole story about my pains, my weakness and how I absolutely needed a breakthrough. So they laid hands on me and started praying. I was so desperate at this point that I started kneeling on the ground and weeping. As they were praying for me, I was almost convulsing. It was pretty crazy, but like I said, I was desperate. I didn't care about how I looked or anything. The only thing I cared about was God breaking through to heal me.

They asked me to move my neck and everything. I did and it still hurt just as bad as it did before. We all kept praying for God to break through and give me His healing touch. Jason then took a glance at his watch, saw it was late and decided to wrap up the service. I was still weak and in pain, but I felt a little better. The service wrapped up, I said my goodbyes to people and I left.

God gave me just enough strength to get home, go up three stories to my apartment into my room, put on my PJs, collapse on my bed and fall asleep. That night was the first night in a long time where I slept more than four hours. I actually didn't wake up once until roughly 7:00 in the morning. My physical therapy appointment was at 9:00 so I had to get up and going. As I got up I realized that I was a lot better! I didn't feel physically weak at all. My neck still hurt a lot, but I actually felt normal again.

At the physical therapy appointment, I told the therapist what the problem was with my neck and how tense it was. He then did a series of extensive massages on it, which really hurt a lot, but after he finished my neck was 100% better!

God had healed me! I was shocked at God's goodness and provision. It was the first time ever in my life that I had received a healing like that from God. He knew how much I doubted, being an ex-Christian Scientist and all (NOTE: For more information on Christian Science, visit ChristianWay.org), but He still met me where I was at in my doubts and healed me. It was an amazing experience.

I told this story for two reasons. The first one was for me, because I needed a little bit of a reminder of God's healing touch. The second one was of course, for you. I know a lot of people who don't follow Christ for whatever reason, but try to be all "intellectual" about it, and avoid their brokenness by asking me theological questions. Questions are good, don't get me wrong, but sometimes instead of questioning you have to just jump in and trust that God will catch you.

God will too, because He loves His kids.

This was a long post. If you made it here, thank you for reading. Now thank God for His unconditional, never-ending, undeserving affection that He has for you!

Peace,

Steve

Emanuel Lambert, Jr. --- Da' Truth

"In light of a moral discretion in my personal life, I will be taking a sabbatical from my music ministry and teaching upon fulfilling my current commitments to work with my pastor, church and restoration team...I ask your forgiveness as I work towards reconciliation." -Personal Statement from Da Truth on his website.

"It is with tremendous sadness and humble disappointment that Cross Movement Records must inform you regarding the suspension of the promotion and forwarding of the artist, minister, and ministry of Da Truth, a.k.a. Emanuel Lambert Jr., due to recent findings of moral failure in his marriage." -Official Statement from Cross Movement Records

When I first heard about what happened to Da' Truth a few months ago, I was speechless. He was an artist I had a lot of respect for and have looked up to. It also broke my heart because this was the second artist off of Cross Movement Records who fell to this temptation. The first was William Branch a.k.a. The Ambassador, one of the founding members of the Cross Movement. The label also did the same for him. I could only imagine how much that label was struggling.

What broke my heart even more was that as this news came out, so did the details. According to Cross Rhythms, Da' Truth wound up having an affair with gospel artist Tye Tribbett's wife after trying to council and restore their marriage...which was struggling because of the same issue. I hope and PRAY that this isn't true. Tye Tribbett to this day has not made any official statement concerning the issue, so for all I know it could be a rumor.

Da' Truth's new album The Big Picture came out this past year, and I was amazed with how deep the album was. It definitely is his best album to date, both musically and lyrically speaking. After I heard the news about what happened though, for some reason, I couldn't listen to the album anymore. A few weeks ago I picked it up off my shelf and looked at it. I was just disgusted at the fact that for all I knew he could have been in this act of fornication while recording the album. I couldn't listen to it. I immediately put it back on the shelf. I didn't know if I was ever going to be able to listen to the album again.

However as time went on, I was feeling a tug in my heart to just listen to the album again. Finally, today I picked it up off the shelf before leaving for class and put it in the CD player in my car. As I was driving to school I was listening to it. The album was so deep musically and I started feeling God's spirit move in me. Every song turned into a burden to pray for my dear fallen brother; that God would humbly restore and heal the damage he had done. The burden got even heavier when I got to the song, "Tree to Tree", which actually featured Tye Tribbett. Those two were not just co-artists in a song, they were good friends.

When Da' Truth gave thanks in the album booklet, he said this about Tye Tribbett: "Thank you for your unrivaled passion & heart for Christ. You're an inspiration & I'm excited about what God is doing in our friendship." When I first read that, it made me pray harder for them. Oh, I pray that there will be a day when those two artists come out on stage together as brothers, freely forgiving one another for their wrongdoing.

And God will. The amazing thing about the God I serve, the God Tye Tribbett and Emanuel Lambert serve, is that He freely forgives His children for their wrongdoing. He not only does this, but He breaks our chains and cleans us up.

Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool" (NIV).

As I read that verse, I picture God's loving hands picking up a soapy sponge and cleaning up my messy and soiled body. Oh, how many times have I betrayed and hurt the God who loves me so much, and then over and over, God cleanses me. He not only cleanses me, but He restores me. He picks me up, dusts me off, and lovingly encourages me to keep going. If I won't go, God picks me up and carries me.

My, what a loving God I serve. God can restore. God will restore.

Lord, I pray for Mr. and Mrs. Emanuel Lambert and Mr. and Mrs. Tye Tribbett. I pray for a restoration of their marriages and their friendship with one another. I pray that through this it would become stronger. I pray for all parties involved; that they would forgive and support these broken people. Nurse all broken hearts in this situation, Lord. I hope and pray for the day that Da' Truth will be back in music. May it be in Your time, Lord, not his. Thank You, Lord for Your continual love and grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.

I'm going to close this with the closing lyrics from "Tree to Tree" by Da' Truth and Tye Tribbett. The song is all about imagining what would happen if they could go back in time right before Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to show them what would happen if they did. Here's the excerpt:

"Every temptation’s a tree, and since you ate from that tree,
Sin and death is in you, sin and death is in me.
But hold up, off in the distance I see a whole 'nother Tree,
and the Man that is on it is dying for you and for me.
Why did you eat from the tree?"

God bless,

Steve

"All to Jesus, I surrender...."

"All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now."

Deep words from a classic hymn. Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas remembering the birth of our precious Savior Jesus Christ.

Something I love doing is beatboxing. It's just a lot of fun to be able to try and make the same sounds that you hear out of a turntable or a mixer in your mouth. One of the things I do from time to time to help inspire me in that area is I watch some amazingly talented beatboxers performing on YouTube. Some good ones I know of are Beardyman, Eklips, Rakim, Schlomo, and the beatboxing duo Humanism from Japan. These guys all have a wonderful talent. Look them up if you want.

But let me ask you this....does their talent matter? Does it seriously matter that these guys are some of the hottest beatboxers out there? Does it matter that day in and day out these guys practice their craft, molding it and shaping it; perfecting it? Does any of that stuff matter?

Our life on this planet is short. Like it or not, you're going to die soon. We're all going to die soon. It could be tomorrow or it could be in 60 years, but eventually we all are going to be dead, buried and gone. Our legacies won't last very long either. Probably at the very most a few hundred years if we leave that big of an impact.

Here's an excerpt from a man who was probably the richest person materialistically speaking on the planet. He had everything he wanted and more: big houses, hot women, lots of gold, popularity, and this guy was smart too. He had wisdom that could make any wise man's jaw drop. Probably the wisest guy who ever lived. This is what this guy wrote. You ready?
"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun." -Ecclesiastes 2:11

Meaningless? Really? This man was King Solomon. This man by the world's standards had everything and more and it meant absolutely nothing to him. It left him empty, cold and alone.

Michael Jackson recently passed away this past year. There were millions of people all over the world mourning and weeping over his death. There was a movie put out about him and everyone was saying how revolutionary this guy was to pop music and performance. Yes, I agree he was. He was one talented performer and had an energy to his performance that changed how people viewed pop culture.

But that brings me back to this question....Does it matter?

No, not really. Michael Jackson's legacy will vanish in a few decades at least.

This isn't a "how will people remember you" message at all, because honestly people won't remember you, or me, or anyone. People won't be "ooo-ing" and "aah-ing" over these blog posts in the next few hundred years, I guarantee it.

Do you want to do something that matters? Surrender your life to Jesus Christ. Lay down your life before Him. Give Him everything and call Him Lord.

Why? What has Jesus Christ ever done for me? Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas. What is Christmas?

"This is mind blowing, the God of the universe,
Knows every star in the sky to my human hurts.
Made the trees, made the breeze, made the seas,
Emcees like Jay and me.
But let me tell you what amazes me:
That He came as a man who was made to need."
-Lecrae in "Who Is He" by Json

Christmas is the celebration of Jesus Christ, a man who went on a rescue mission to save mankind. Man rejects God in every way, shape and form. You're a man? You reject God. You don't love Him. Your nature is to hate Him. It's in your blood. It's called sin. It will ultimately kill you if you hold onto it.

God could have rejected man. You know what He did instead? He sent His Son, Jesus Christ humbly as a servant into this world. He lived as a righteous man and blessed a lot of people during His life. He wasn't some big rich man like Solomon. He was actually poor by the world's standards. His first bed was a feeding trough that horses ate out of. His first house was a barn in a small town called Bethlehem. He lived His life humbly and simply as a carpenter by trade. At times, He was homeless and lived constantly on the move. And then one day, He died.

He wasn't a victim at all in His death because He willingly gave up His life going through the most brutal execution method ever invented: crucifixion. What was even worse though was that God the Father turned His back on His Son, the righteous man. Why? Because on that cross Jesus Christ became sin. He became every bad thing we have ever done.

Why did He do this? He did this for us! The God of the universe who is A LOT bigger than us and sees us as worthless specks, especially after we decided to reject Him, was and still is filled with love and compassion for us. This can only be explained by the fact that He chose to be that way. He chose to be with us and to rescue us, not because we're so great and valuable, but because we're not.

He rescued us. We're set free. That's what matters. We are set free when we make Jesus Christ Lord. Beatboxing doesn't matter, fame doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, drugs don't matter, Christmas presents don't matter, NONE OF THAT MATTERS!

Jesus Christ matters.

Give your life to Him. Please....Don't live your life thinking that "you're fine with the big guy" because you're a "good person" who does "good things". Maybe you do good things. But they don't matter if they're not for Jesus. Please, give your life to Him. He gave His life for you. That is your Christmas present. Now give Jesus Christ His.....you.

Merry Christmas,

Steve

"Pale Scars"

Pale Scars
to a girl I saw, but never met.

i saw you waiting in line.
you tuck your long hair behind your ear
and your forearm catches my eye,
pale scars etched across from long ago.

what caused you to do this?
was it your boyfriend?
did he make another broken promise?
did you just feel alone?

did daddy yell at you?
saying you’ll never amount to anything?
maybe you locked yourself in your bedroom
and as he roared like a caged lion you escaped,
blocking out the pain with the high of a razor blade.

maybe you didn’t even know what to think.
couldn’t think of the right words to say
so you picked up that blade
you cut deep hoping to strike gold

and you did.

it bled out of the wound you created
but was it worth it?
did you really feel that release?
that freedom?

as tears trickled down your cheeks
they trickled down God’s
The Silent Witness
silent because you silenced Him

His arms won’t be deceptive
He won’t hit you like daddy
He won’t leave you like that boyfriend
He will just love you

He scarred Himself for you
i would say that to you
but i don’t even know you

so i just pray for you.

Epaphroditus

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope all your holidays were filled with good times, great oldies, and lots of turkey. If you're a vegetarian or a non-birdian...I'm sorry for your loss. Just kidding.

So lately I've been really getting into Paul's letter to the Philippians. It has been a book in the Bible that God has really used to speak to me. If you get a chance, definitely read that book. I bet you could do it in one sitting.

Anyways there is a part in Philippians 2 when Paul really focuses in on this man Epaphroditus. Now the context of this letter is that Paul is in a Roman jail. In Roman jails you don't get cable TV, weights, time outside, or three square meals a day like you do here in American jails. In those days you would be living in this solitary cell in something similar to a sewer, which reeks of human waste. On top of that, the Roman government doesn't want to invest a single cent for providing food or medical care for you so the only people who can actually do that are your close friends and/or family members. You would definitely be in need. If you were in Paul's shoes, you didn't have any family members. But the Philippian church heard about their old pastor Paul's needs and decided to provide for him by sending him food and supplies through Epaphroditus, a humble servant and messenger.

Epaphroditus literally risked life and limb to bring Paul those supplies. On top of that, he got sick with the swine flu (haha not really) and almost died in the arms of Paul. Thankfully God spared him and healed him, but it was a pretty difficult time for both of them.

This is a REALLY long intro, but please bear with me. So the church heard about Epaphroditus' sickness and was absolutely devastated about him. I bet they were fasting and praying for some sort of a breakthrough for their friend and brother. Then somehow Epaphroditus heard that they know about his sickness and it caused him to be devastated too!

In the original Greek, Paul uses the same word to describe Paul's devastation that Matthew and Mark use to describe Jesus' devastation in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion. Jesus says so Himself to His beloved friends who fall asleep on Him as He's praying that He is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Jesus was a mess in the Garden and that same heavy feeling that Jesus felt, Epaphroditus also felt for his friends and family back home who were burdened for his burden.

And my question is this: WHY?!

Why on earth did Epaphroditus feel that way? Shouldn't he have been thankful or relieved that these people back home were praying for him? I would have. It would have made me feel amazing knowing that my friends back home were praying for me in my trial. I know at times when I was going through trials, hearing that friends were praying for me brought me great comfort. But for some really strange reason Epaphroditus was absolutely distraught at this news.

WHY?!

It's interesting because a lot of commentaries on Philippians don't answer that question. So I'll do my best to do so. Epaphroditus has an incredibly deep love for his brothers and sisters back home. Remember the most important commandments Jesus talked about? He said we should love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. Yes, loving our neighbors as ourselves. That's a HUGE commandment that is very difficult to do. The word "love" that Jesus used wasn' t just that "friendship" kind of love, nor was it that "romantic" kind of love. It was unconditional, deep love. It was the love that God through Jesus Christ has for us.

In Philippians, Paul says Epaphroditus longs for all of them (2:26). The Greek word used for that longing is a deep word that Peter also uses later in 1 Peter to describe a baby's deep desire for milk (1 Peter 2:2). So Epaphroditus craved the company of his brothers and sisters back in Philippi like a hungry baby craves milk. I think Epaphroditus in this sense has successfully obeyed that commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. He longed for his brothers and sisters. He cried out to God for them a lot, I'm sure, during his journey and was doing it even more when he found out that they knew of his sickness.

I think of scenes in movies when the hero is about to do something crazy that may kill him, but right before he does it he tells his friend, "Don't tell my wife about this..." The hero lovingly cared about his wife's emotional stability. He didn't want his wife to be up late worrying about him.

That was Epaphroditus. He loved these people deeply. He didn't want them to be worried about him in his sickness because he knew there were more important things in stake than his health and well-being. The kingdom had to be advanced and he was willing to give up everything for it. Paul later in his letter told the church that they should respect him greatly for having that mindset because that is the mindset every believer should have. So Epaphroditus didn't want the church to worry.

Here's a challenging question: is that you?

I sincerely doubt it. I mean it's not me at all and I'm writing this! This is another one of those blog posts that is me preaching to myself. I just felt like it was appropriate for you to listen in. Here's something great though:

I'll give you one more scene, which is in John 15:15-19, and I'll use Greek again. This is AMAZING! The scene is that Peter had just majorly screwed up. He told Jesus that he promised he would be there for Him even if it meant death and he broke that promise and denied ever knowing Him three times. Then Jesus Christ after He resurrected came to Peter and asked him three times, "Do you love me?" In response Peter said, "You know I love you Jesus."

Now in Greek there are four different words used to describe love. The love that Jesus asked Peter about the first two times is an unconditional love; that strong, committed, "I'll love you no matter what" kind of love. The word for love that Peter uses in his response is a friendship, lylab (love you like a brother) kind of love. It was the same word that Jesus used earlier in his life to describe the Pharisees and how they loved to pray to God out in public dramatically for attention (see Matt. 6:5). In other words, Peter wasn't ready for that kind of commitment.

And maybe that's you right now. This is what Jesus asked Peter the third time: "Do you just love me as a friend then?" He stooped down to Peter's level with his hardened heart and met him where he was at. A friendship love was all Peter had to offer and Jesus Christ accepted it. Jesus DID work in Peter a lot and gave him that kind of love and affection for Jesus as well, which is absolutely amazing. Peter left this world crucified upside down on a cross because he refused to be silent about the good news of Jesus Christ. He held onto Jesus Christ with everything he had because he DID unconditionally love his Lord and Savior, and it was through his Lord and Savior that he was able to have that love.

My friend, GOD LOVES YOU! You're so incredibly messed up and it is all your fault but God out of the goodness of His heart is pursuing you. He is so desperate for your affection that He gave His only Son up for you so that you can be forgiven of all the bad things you've done. You need to humble yourself and ask for that though. Come to God as you are just like Peter did. Actually, to tell you the truth, God came to Peter, and I think God is coming to you right now asking, "[Insert your name here], do you love Me?"

What will you say? Even if it's not unconditional like God's love is, saying you love Him as a friend is a start. Give your life to Him. Come to Him as you are. Do it.

This is really long, but think about it. Happy Thanksgiving!

God bless,

Steve

I have to give major props to BlueLetterBible.org for this entry. Check that website out. It's such a great study tool for the Bible and it's FREE! That's where I got all those Greek words and commentaries.

Worrying

"How many of you by worrying can add one hour to his life?" -Matthew 6:27 NIV

I worry a lot. It's a sin I constantly struggle with. It's one of the main reasons I get panic attacks, back pains, and bad days. This blog post is for me, but feel free to listen in if you feel so inclined.

The Bible talks about worrying a lot. You know what it says about it? DON'T DO IT! Easier said than done, right? You're telling me! Does worrying actually cause you to live longer or grow stronger? Answer: NO!

Too many people sometimes act like victims of worrying, thinking that it's not their fault, but well...it is. Worrying is all your fault, Steve (remember, I'm talking to myself). You continually let "what if" questions in your head constantly. You give your life to Jesus Christ and then it's like you take it back with your anxious thoughts.

Don't you trust Him?

That sounds like an easy question to answer, right? Do you trust Jesus Christ and His power to get you through whatever the circumstance? Just look at your life and you'll see evidence all over the place where God has gotten you through different pains and trials. You know He can get you through this.

"God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7). In other words, you have that power, you have that love, and you have that self-discipline. He gave it to you. The fear you have is not of God. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18). God's perfect love, which you have not fully embraced, casts out that fear inside of you.

You need to embrace Him more. You need to embrace God's perfect love for you. Jesus died on the cross for you and took the punishment for you and your anxious thoughts. Because He loves you and cares for you. Yes in a way you are inconveniencing God because He doesn't have to help you, but at the same time He rejoices so much in helping you because you are His child. He has taken you in and He can and will help you through your pains.

Does that mean things will always be easy? Absolutely not. Things will not always be easy and things will not always be perfect. However God is perfect and sovereign and in control of what happens to you. He works out everything for His good, which will ultimately be for your good, though it may not be the actual "good" you were expecting.

Steve, you need to relax. You need to let go. You need to chill out. Yes, things will get crazy and the storm will rage. You will get rocked back and forth, but you need to hang on to Jesus Christ and rejoice in Him with every fiber of your being. Rejoice when it hurts, rejoice when it sucks, rejoice when things seem impossible. God will get you through.

I'm not telling you to work for your salvation because you already have it. You don't need to work for God's affection. He gives it to you freely because He loves you so much.

So Steve.....BREATHE!

God has you. God will carry you when you can't go on and His grace is sufficient for you in your times of weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

"Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully." -1 Peter 5:7 AMP

God bless,

Steve