Christians don’t always live happily ever after

I am excited for this weekend. Looking forward to a long weekend with the kids. Thankful for veterans that served this country that gave us freedom, seeing MSU play football and relaxing. Even more than that, I am looking forward to teaching at my church and then baptizing my son Ty.

Ty has wanted to make this commitment to Christ for at least two years, but we felt he wasn’t quite grasping what it meant until now. This Sunday he is making that commitment to follow Christ. Hailee and I are excited about that. Along with the excitement means over the past years every time Ty asked about baptism, we had talks about faith. One of the points we made, just because you give your life to Christ doesn’t mean life is going to get easier.

There is nothing stating after you accept Christ, you will live happily ever after and have an easy life. If anything it can get tougher. Satan will challenge you, life will get tough at times and sometimes you will hit rock bottom. What we face as Christians in the USA is nothing compared to the persecution Christians face all over the world. People will make fun of you for your faith and treat you like crap because you claim to be a Christian. Just because people treat you like crap doesn’t mean you are supposed to treat them like crap too. You are called to be loving and caring even when it’s tough. In the end it’s not our jobs as Christians to payback wrong for wrong, everyone will have to answer to God one day.

Paul shares this about facing tough times as Christians 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7: “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.”

We all will face God for our actions in this life when we pass away. For some people, that is going to be a huge struggle. Knowing what they did to people, what they thought of Jesus and how they lived this life. It’s hard to be a Christian at times and it’s not easy. Paul reminds us that when we have times of trouble as a Christian, God is there to comfort us. Maybe it will happen in this lifetime, maybe it will happen after we pass away when we continue with our eternal life.

I love the fact I get to witness my son making that decision to follow Christ. I always pray that when the tough times happen in his life, he will always know that he can always seek comfort in God, even during the tough times. As an eight year old, Ty will face some struggles in life, I hope I can be there to help him stay strong in faith through those moments.

If you are going through those tough times in faith, know that God loves you. God is always there to comfort you through the good and the bad. Always trust in him, even when you feel like the world is against you.

Have a great day.

Grown men acting like babies

Can a middle age man act like a middle school girl? Years ago I worked at this job with a husband and wife. Just like at any job, you can have disagreements. At this job, the husband and I didn’t see eye to eye on a subject. As a result of the disagreement, this man went around the entire business bad mouthing me and trying to get people on his side.

Later on I found out he did this and I was talking to his wife at the time. I asked the wife why he would go behind my back instead of coming to me? She responded, “You have to realize sometimes dealing with my husband is like dealing with a 13 year old school girl, full of drama.” OUCH. I felt bad for this guys manhood. His wife just ripped him apart to someone he had conflict with. Are we people that represent what we believe? Just because we disagree with someone mean we throw our character out the window? How are we when things don’t go our way?

1 Corinthians 16:13…

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.”

Conviction time, do I do everything in love? My answer is no. I still need to mature and grow up in different ways. Looking at the verse above, another summed this section up, act like adults! Babies cry and act awful when things don’t go their way.

Are you like a baby or like an adult when it comes to the trials you face in life? We need to be able to have discipline and maturity. Paul goes on in this letter to the Corinthians that even people that came to him with bad news were able to encourage him.

As Christians we are called to do everything in love, it’s a tough lesson. Each day is a trial to see if we can do this. Are you doing everything in love? If you failed at that so far, start fresh, show love to everyone and see what happens if you continue to do this. Take this challenge and see what happens. God calls us to live in love, are you ready to take the challenge?

Have a great day.