Are you the police? No ma’am. We’re musicians.

We’re getting the band back together.

I remember the classic movie of the Blue Brothers.

Feeling like they are called for a special journey they were going back to band members, some of which they owed money too.

Why would they go back to people they owed money and didn’t have money?

For the end goal in mind.

They believed they were on a mission from God to save the orphanage.

I think about this as I look at how Paul was always followed by a bad group of people.

Acts 17:13…

“But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.”

Once again I will tell you this did not represent every Jew at that time but just a certain group of them.

It made me think of what Jake and Elwood had to go through.

They knew they owed people money and some people would turn their back on them, but they went and jumped in with both feet.

They believed they were on a mission from God.

When you look at your life, what is your mission or goal?

Some people have a goal in life but never reach it because they don’t go for it.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” Lawrence J. Peter

Not many people get in a car and try to drive halfway across country to a city they have never been before and plan to end up there.

Paul had a goal in mind to share Jesus with other people.

He knew this goal came with major consequences as life goes on, but he did this because he knew his goal was to share the message of Jesus.

The same guy that used to make fun of, throw Christians in jail and have them murdered, is the same one that is trying to bring people to Christ.

Paul had a goal in mind.

What is your goal in life?

Paul knew his and went All-In for his goal.

Are you going all in trying to accomplish your goal in life?

If not, today can be that brand new start.

Start heading for the direction you want to go.

Today is the day!

Do something with it.

Have a great day.

A piece of paper worth $10,000

Paper comes in many sizes, material and has the potential to be plain or glossy.

How often is it worth something?

What makes a piece of paper worth nothing and worth a lot?

What’s on the paper.

I recently spent the weekend doing something I never thought I would do in my life, graduate with my MA.

For the past three years I have been working on it.

I have been taking classes while working full time.

I was trying to be a good parent, minister, husband, student and disc golf and hockey player.

On top of this we moved into two houses and closed and moved into a new house while working on my 60 page paper

It was a struggle from who I was and what I was doing to who I wanted to be.

10 years ago I never would have told you I would be a minister.

5 years ago I would have told you that God doesn’t care about a Master’s Degree and I can serve him just fine without it.

Today, I realize I put my foot in my mouth a lot and I am not God.

I like to think and try to have control of my life but as I look back, even the things I had control of I didn’t.

Our thoughts and desires change not just because of us, but because of what God can have planned with us.

Our judgment on ourselves can change and sometimes what we judge or value can change.

Jesus said this in John 7:24…

“Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.”

When Jesus told this saying to a group of people, they were translating God’s message wrong and he called them out on it.

We can assume and judge before we truly know what we are saying.

I am shocked that I am done with school.

The feeling has not yet set in.

It’s an accomplishment, but not the main accomplishment for my life.

Even though this diploma cost about $10,000-$20,000 to get, it’s still just a piece of paper.

It doesn’t mean I get to sit at Jesus’s right hand in heaven.

It doesn’t mean I am able to conquer whatever temptation comes my way.

It’s paper, but it’s so much more.

Degree’s take hard work, often a degree shows you have what it takes to fight through the good and the bad and come out in the end.

When I look back at this sheet of paper, I think about all the sacrifice and people to thank because of this.

I had so many people send me congrats cards and show me a lot of love over the past week.

It’s an accomplishment but not the overall goal.

A degree is not the end all.

I am happy I now have a master’s degree, but I know God what’s so much more then that for my life.

A piece of paper won’t change my life, how I respond and act will.

Have a great day.

A life worth living

Having your life threatened is never a good thing.

Other than pointless threats, I have never had my life threaten.

Now I remember fighting with my siblings as kids and saying things like this, but there was never truth behind the statement.

Having your life threaten is something I have never experienced.

This is usually something that happens to famous people.

I remember Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., US presidents and so many famous people whose life was threatened.

Is your life worth being threaten?

Man, that just sounds weird.

Is endangered because of something you believe in full hardily.

What’s worth living for?

What’s worth dying for?

People were trying to kill Jesus.

Others wanted him to do more miracles and be in front of the people because they did not believe him.

Jesus told them this in John 7:6-8…

“My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.  The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.  You go to the festival.  I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”

What do you stand for?

Jesus stood for something amazing and he was not liked by the certain people because of it.

This is what I stand for…

·         Jesus
·         The Bible
·         My loving and beautiful wife
·         My kids
·         Friends
·         And other loved ones
·         The Church and all its flaws
·         My Church family
·         The underdogs whether in sports or in real life.
·         MSU
·         Lions, Red Wings, Tigers and Clippers.

We stand for a lot, but is there anything we stand for that is threatening our life right now.

I stand for my faith.

Standing for our beliefs is different in the US compared to other countries.

Your life can be in trouble if you admit you are a Christian in certain countries of the world

I believe Jesus is the way the truth and the life.

He was killed so I could truly live.

Jesus was hated for what he stood for.

With faith today, do we stand for what others don’t like?

Being a Christian is a challenge to live our faith out.

It’s easy to put faith on a backburner and believe on Sunday.

It’s a challenge to be on the forefront of your faith and what you stand for.

A question was once brought to me that is a struggle…

Is what you are doing worth Jesus dying on the cross for?

That question hurts.

What is a greater purpose.

A movie I just love is “To Save a Life.”

In the movie a character Chris says this…

“He fills our lives with purpose and passion, if we just let Him... And the best part of the journey, is that the God of the universe, sometimes allows us to play a part in changing the world”

What is a life worth living for?

Have a great day.