There are all kinds of programs out there to teach people anything! That is if you are like everyone else. Unfortunately there are no programs for people like me!

I could learn anything and I could do just about anything (ok, maybe not sing) and I can’t make money so it would be free but there is nothing for people like me. So sometimes I get a little bored.

That’s a little strange because God gave me plenty of ability but the people that God made don’t seem to need much help. Humm…

I’ve been watching “My First Place” on HGTV and there have been some things lately that I didn’t agree with but this last thing was just way too much.

They have this commercial for a show where they say: “It’ll take a miracle to get these people home for the holidays” and then it shows this star of HGTV.

So is this star going to create and perform a miracle? I don’t think so. This person was created by God who can do miracles!

Have people’s understanding of what a miracle is come down to normal things? Leading the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt was a miracle and making a virgin pregnant was a miracle and bringing Lazarus back to life was a miracle and saving us was a miracle and none of those things required a person’s effort!

So television shows should not be advertising that their people can do miracles!

Anything Disney is called “Where dreams come true”. But think about that for a moment…dreams are called dream because they don’t come true, they’re just dreams.

So let me ask you, “When you go to Disneyland or Disneyworld is Cinderella
or Snow White real? Or is anything else real?” No, everything is just costumed and made to look real. It is the way it is to fool people because there is money in that.

Now, let me ask you another question: “Is it better to go to Disney or to God”.

People are very hesitant to believe in something that they cannot see hence many people do not believe in God.

That’s probably semi ok for now but it’ll be worthless later. We are eternal beings some for Heaven and some for Hell but there will be an eternity.

Doing all that you can to make your Earthly boss happy and making yourself look good may help you on Earth but with life being eternal thinking about making your eternal boss happiest makes much more sense.

So as weird as that may sound to some people remember that your role is to inform them and God takes over from that point.

So it’s not fully up to you. You tell them and God does the rest.

So your Earthy boss may demand 100% perfection but your Eternal boss gives you 100% grace.

When people want to sell something to you and there is a possibility that there are other “like” products out there to make sure you pick theirs they tell you it’s the best.

Unfortunately this “the best” thing has caught on among humans too.

So now people have to become “the best” in all kinds of things. So now we have terms or names like “professional” and “licensed” and “expert” to identify them and this becomes their commercial that people choose.

I used to do that too. I had a prestigious degree from a prestigious college and I had a prestigious job. I was prestigious.

Now I’m not. I’m very handicapped. I lost my job, I lost my home in Virginia, I lost my wife & everything else.

But I’m happy, why? Because I’m no longer concerned with being the best because I know who is the best, it’s God! He made the world that we live in and He gave it to us! And He made us! There was no best product or best price to pay, no title either He just gave it!

Being satisfied that I no longer have something to prove in this world and all He asks for is faith is way more than I could do. And there is NO LIKE PRODUCT out there so there are no names to identify you. He knows your heart and that’s all He needs.

The fact that God made this Earth and everything in and around it and then came here to save us to spend eternity with Him is the most exciting thing I know.

But right now it’s holiday time on this Earth and to many it’s the most exciting time of the year. People do all kinds of things, give all kinds of gifts and cook all kinds of food because it’s the holidays and people appreciate it.

But somehow what we do is more important to us than what He did and that makes no sense to me.

Whatever we do it is nothing in comparison to creating the world, or creating people or making a virgin pregnant or coming to live with us and save us. But the world and people (both that He created) have developed Christmas stuff, Santa Claus, reindeer, celebrations and more for this time of year.

To me that is very limited because we’re not God and the stuff He did can be celebrated every day not just once each year and I can remember that whereas I might forget your celebration details from this year.

Sin is not something that you do, it is where you are.

Even saved people sin but Jesus knew that they would (and did) but He took our penalty as the Bible says “once for all”.

And we have His righteousness forever and that’s why we have been adopted, in other words that is why we’re part of His family.

We’ll never be good enough but that’s ok because Jesus was and He was our substitute!

This morning my cereal had this printed on the box: “Eat Right Live Right” and I thought: “ that’s all I have to do is eat my cereal?”

Many many people are going to read and believe that today but only a few will pick up their Bibles and read what God said about this.

When I was hurt I was supposed to die but I didn’t and while I believed that I lived because of God but for years I have not understood why He would do that for me.

And his morning in Church the pastor was talking about God pruning:

John 15:1-4
15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
NIV

John 15:5-8

5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
NIV

Now I know that at one time I did bear good fruit then there were problems. So the Father pruned me a bit. And I feel good knowing that if I could do nothing I would have died but I came back to bear more fruit.

As humans we think that our life is about what we can do but life is actually about what God can do.

Last night I went with a friend to his class and while there I saw a movie that made a big impression on me. In hopes that you may look for this movie I will tell you the name. it was called: King gimp.

It was about this boy who was born with Cerebral Palsy. I’m not kidding he was really bad but he had a very driving spirit. He insisted on school and graduated and then went on to college for an art degree. He painted pictures with a paintbrush tied to his forehead.

At college two of the instructors told him that he would never be an artist so stop. He didn’t stop but found another teacher that would work with him and graduated college with an art degree and several of his paintings are in galleries.

So what did I learn from that?

I learned that as humans we see people like him as messed up birth defects but God made him not as a birth defect but to show His power. And He showed His power big time.

People aren’t always the same or they may even change but instead of comparing them to each other and seeing inequality we need to look to the maker and expect results.

When I used to listen to music I used to note the melody but now I listen differently. I listen first to the words and then to the melody. In the old days to like music the melody came first but now the words come first, so as you can imagine I have had some favorite artists for years and…I have given some up because the message though true I’m sure had nothing to do with God.

When we work we get money and we can get things which is good and appropriate and that’s one of the reasons that we work. And depending on what we either do or have done, our position and money increases and says that we have done well. And if we have done well enough then we are proud.

But when you’re someone like me that has had the position and the money before but I don’t now, what can I do? Be sorry? No, I focus on my only goodness from God.

I can see that that’s what got me to where I
was before and because of God I still have it! So now I use it for Him where before I probably used it for my benefit. But it came from Him so I should use it for Him. So there won’t be any celebrations, awards, rewards or trips for me here only later and I’m still proud.

People won’t notice and I’ll get nothing special now but God notices.

Unfortunately I often see something going on a lot that I don’t like at all. Say whatever you want but I don’t like it.

The Bible says that God makes people. The Bible also says that God wrote down all the days of your life before you were born. Psalm 129 talks about how close God is to you.

So, per the scriptures God made you, He knew what you would do before you were born and He is incredibly close to you and you are here to serve Him. It is written in God’s word so I’m NOT making this up. It is NOT my interpretation or my opinion.

However I see people getting excited over and trying hard to achieve awards and recognition from human organizations. If it was me, then I would just give the credit to God and not have anyone give me an award.

Sometimes I think that we forget just how close God is to us. And at times we think that we (not God) have done good things, but I would simply thank God if people were happy.

I’m not avoiding recognition I’m just putting it where it belongs.

I could feel that it was cold outside this morning and I thought “It’s winter!” and so I began thinking about snow and skiing. Then I thought about to do so make sure that they have to make sure that they have the latest and most popular ski wear and then I thought “You always have to be fashionable, you HAVE to look good” and then the question becomes: “Can I afford this?”.

Right now I can’t afford anything!

So I glad that God isn’t a human!

Now is when accepting your neighbor becomes even more important.

As Christians we don’t realize how good we have it!

God is OUR God and our Father
Our future is wonderful
God lives in us
The One who created everything is our
parent and He watches over us
Nothing can challenge us
Nothing can take His love away from us

Life is good!

There are many examples in the Bible about how we can please God and we should follow them but some things are certain:

God is omni
God created each of us
God wrote all the days of our life before
we were born
We needed help so Jesus came
God adopted us
God promised us an inheritance

So in addition to all I do God is happy with me!

How we live our life on Earth has nothing to do with salvation. That’s why there’s grace. You had nothing to do with it. It’s a free gift from God so you can’t say you earned it.

However there are humans that insist on feeling and saying that you should do this or must do that if you are saved but that takes the free gift out of it and it becomes something that you do or don’t earn.

So remember it is a free gift and don’t spend your life trying to earn it. People may be happy but it does nothing for God. You’ll just end up having to tell Him why you thought it wasn’t free.

I’ve been thinking a lot. I went from confused to upset (and in some trouble) but God came through.

I was confused and I say confused because for me I couldn’t see a resolution.

I couldn’t see how a person was required by scripture to make everyone happy. I looked and looked and I could see how we (me included) are required to live for God and teach for God but I also knew that some people were never going to be happy with me and I would never be accepted by everyone.

But God made me to be as I am and He makes NO mistakes. So I had to look deeper…

I have looked deeper and with no question I AM LIVING FOR HIM! Some people will accept that and some people won’t but it’s the same for you too! Our message is the same but we’re not the same and the people that we tell it to are not the same either.

Sometimes people get caught up in the rewards that they get but our reward from God is not something that we get, He makes things happen. So I’m going to relax and leave it to Him.

I’m a little puzzled.

What I am trying to understand is this:

I know that Christian people are representing Christ but where is the scripture that says that we have to be sure that we are properly appealing to the most people possible?

Jesus didn’t worry about that. The MOST PEOPLE decided that He needed to die.

I don’t worry about the fact that I’m handicapped either. The story is the same.

Let’s talk about disabilities. Why are things called disabilities? Dis refers to something that is missing. I know many people who are named Disabled but they can do anything so what is actually true is that they don’t do things in the same way as others do. Their abilities may be different but they are NOT disabled.

In Sunday school we worship the Lord. Nothing takes front seat to Him, nothing. And most importantly but most often they are neglected: just because we do things differently than you do, we are not DIS abled! We just do things differently than you do.

We are still humans and we ARE YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST AND WE ARE YOUR NEIGHBORS!

So why is it that a very large percentage of people are not welcomed in Churches? It seems that your neighbors AND what God said are BOTH being neglected.

What is a parent?

Physically it is a child’s Mother or Father until the child makes negative decisions that the parent does not approve of but that’s the parent’s choice.

Spiritually, God adopted us regardless of our decisions and He’ll be our Father forever. Some people may choose not to be with Him but that’s their decision.

So clearly spiritually is a much better deal because physically everything depends on the parent and children don’t get to choose their parents so life becomes a guessing game. Therefore spiritually is the way to go.

Take it from me because I’ve had extremely negative physical parents but an extremely positive experience with my spiritual parent.

The most difficult thing in life is to simply evaluate your position with God.

Jesus told us what things to do but if you don’t read the Bible or have faith and you’re on your own then you’re going to lose.

There are many things that are designed specifically to get and take your attention away from God. They are things of this world but who developed them? Well who is running this world?

Satan is running this world and he would like nothing better than to take your attention away from God. So situations and outcomes which equal results have been carefully and skillfully developed to do just that.

So when things are pending or when they come up the best thing that I do now is put it up to God. If I had always done that I would be able to walk.

Success is extremely attractive but it’s only available in this world however God is always available everywhere.

Because I write to you often and always about God I want to tell you something that I am going to do. I am going to divorce my wife.

We will still be in communication and we will still visit but we will not be married and I will never marry again.

Ok, that’s what I am doing but how does God feel?

Mal 2:16

16 "I hate divorce" says the LORD God of Israel
NIV

So this is not a positive thing to do but for reasons that would not let me continue living as the human I am, I will do it.

I hope that you are not too offended but if you are then ask me to delete you from my list and I will and I will not think or say a thing.