Trying to walk through a glass door hurts

So clean and so clear was a beautiful sliding glass door at my Grandma and Grandpas cottage. It was only a matter of time before you would run into it. I thought it would never happen to me but as a kid, I completely forgot about the door, thought it was open and BAM! I went right into the glass door and it bounced back causing me to almost stumble to the ground. So close to the beautiful outdoors yet so far away was I.

It’s amazing how close you can be to something and so far away. I remember when I ran the Detroit Marathon. You went across to Canada and back, yet the start of the race was about 600 yards from the finish. This is how I feel most are including myself at times with their relationship with God. So close yet so far away we are. This is a good reminder in Colossians 1:21-22…

“This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”

Our thoughts and actions can separate us from God. Yet through Jesus, he allowed us to come close to him again. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, mistakes, bad actions in life. When we accept that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, it’s life changing. We can be close to God again.

How awesome are you? God, the creator of heaven and earth thought you were worth dying for. He sent his one and only son to die on the cross for you. That is how much God loves you, cares for you and wants the best for you. When you accept Jesus and turn your life over to him, you are holy and blameless when you pass on from this life into the eternal life.

How cool of a thought is that, because of you giving your life over to Jesus, you will be blameless and holy as you stand before him.

If you have never given your life over to Jesus, or you don’t know how to go about this, talk to me, call me or message me. This is one of the best blessings of your life you might not have ever experienced.

If you have accepted Jesus, who do you know that has been struggling, could you a pick me up and know that Jesus can change their life forever? Don’t think about this, go and reach out to people you know.

Just like I was close to the outside, a clear glass door made a difference. Someone you know could be so close to Jesus yet so far away. Open the glass door for that person.

Have a great day.

Boston

A marathon effects more than the city it’s in. My friend Kohon mentioned this marathon effected more people and countries then anyone can imagine. Boston has a strict time guideline in order to qualify for the race, some marathoners spend their whole lives trying to qualify for one of the races on their Bucket List. People from all over the United States and the world come to Boston.

Before two reconstructive knee surgeries, I had the goal of running the Boston (Boston is the one of the only marathons that require a qualifying time, I could not make the time cut yet). My time for the marathon was about the time the explosion went off. Long past my marathons days as I look at this tragedy as a minister of Jesus and see the hurt that people post from this. It’s a sad state and often people ask why would a loving God allow this to happen?

Throughout my time as a minister you see a lot of bad things happen to people. Sometimes it’s when people are already down and something worse happens. Haven’t they been punished enough? Then a tragedy like the Marathon happens and people without understanding call out to God, why God why? To answer this I am going to spend the rest of the time talking about suffering and choice.

We all have a choice. There is something called the free will defense that people a lot smarter then I came up with to explain when bad things happen. The free will defense is this…

1.      God is absolutely perfect.

2.      God created only perfect creatures.

3.      One of the perfections God gave some of his creatures was the power of free choice.

4.      Some of these creatures freely choose to do evil.

5.      Therefore, a perfect creature caused evil.

Every day we have the choice to do good or bad. Which do you choose? Today do you choose to go to work/school or the bar/or skip? It’s a choice an individual makes that can affect other people. We make thousands of choices every day that directly affect us and the people around us some directly and some indirectly. The people that chose to do this in Boston, chose to do evil. Their choice affected people all over the world for this international event.

Even with free will, why do people have to suffer? This is a tough question that you can look at with other questions. If God stopped all evil right now what would that look like? If God destroyed everything that caused unjust suffering and evil – what would survive? We can all do evil and that is where we struggle with sin. Suffering might cause us to be protected from an even deeper evil.

Not all suffering can be bad or evil, it can be pain. Sometimes in life we have to suffer to experience something great. I haven’t met a women who has cherished child birth but you love the result when you get that awesome gift of God in your hands. You sometimes have to suffer and endure hardships to get where you want to go in life (School, strict training, unpaid internship etc).

This doesn’t explain the event in Boston but hopefully you would understand a loving God does not want tragedies like this to happen in the world he created. While things like this do happen, sadly. God gave us Jesus to comfort us during these tough times. God is a loving and just God who cares about the people and I am sure is sad over this tragic event.

Through our lives we have a loving God who sacrificed his only son Jesus for us. Jesus took all of our sins and died for us. Through the bad things in life Jesus loves you cares for you and is sad when you are down. Through the suffering Jesus is always there with you. You can always go to him with your problems.

Opinions can be good

Arm chair quarterback, columnist, talk radio and so many more can be known for giving their opinions.

Facebook can be funny because of all the funny things people can say or do.

I would say the same goes to Pinterest and they can crack me up.

One recently suggested that “Pinterest was created by a group of men who are tricking women everywhere into cooking, cleaning and working out.”

Cracked me up.

Opinions.

Opinions can be taken as a bad thing, like unwanted advice.

We can take some Opinions in a bad way.

Are there times when opinions are good?

Sometimes opinions can change our mind to do something better or give us a better idea.

I had knee trouble for a long time.

I went to a specialist and he told me there was nothing he could do, I had a problem with my knee that couldn’t be fixed.

I was down, but Hailee worked with a friend who used another doctor in town and got me in to see them.

They told me something was wrong with my knee and they think they could fix it.

I trusted their opinion and got the surgery.

Best decision ever.

Sometimes listening to others opinions can be a good thing.

Paul was on trial and people brought false witnesses and told the judge wrong things.

That judge didn’t think he did anything wrong but sent him for a second opinion (Governor Felix), but first he stated his, this is some of the letter written to Felix…

“I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin. I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment.”

Getting a second opinion to make sure you make the right call.

Paul’s life was on the line and while their might have been other motives for not naming him innocent rather than sending him to Felix, he got a second opinion when a man’s life was on the line accused of things he didn’t do.”

Opinions can help.

Opinions are not always evil.

They can help give a great perspective.

They gave a great perspective on Paul and how he did nothing wrong.

Opinions can be helpful even if we are stubborn.

How has listening to another person’s opinion helped you out?

I loved my second opinion about my knees.

They are great and improved drastically since the surgery.

Don’t just automatically ignore another’s opinion.

Think about it, it might help you out even if it’s not what you want to hear.

Have a great day.