#35 – To The Dreamers

Remember when you were a kid, and you could pretend you were anything you wanted? You were a cowboy chasing outlaws, a knight in shining armor, a princess trapped under some enchantment (hopefully girls only), a legendary racecar driver. It didn’t matter what was happening in the world, because you could be anything that you wanted to be.

Fast forward a few years. If you’re like most people reading this blog, you work monday through friday, sleep saturday, Church on Sonday, get up monday, add coffee and repeat. You don’t have time for dreams, and even if you did, well, come on! Dreaming is for little kids, right? But you’re forgetting something. Something deep inside that wasn’t put there by you. So what exactly am I getting at? I’m glad you asked…

Remember when you first came to Christ? Things seemed so fantastical then. GOD was immense and glorious and could give you everything you needed, but most importantly your sins were forgiven! The slate was washed clean by our Lord’s sovereign Hand. Nothing could be more glorious than to praise His name forever!

But it doesn’t always feel like that anymore, does it? For some reason it can be a little difficult to praise between the hours of 9 and 5. Why is that? GOD certainly hasn’t changed, so something else must have had to. I’ll tell you exactly what happened: you started to go blind. You’re losing your vision. It’s what happens when you get older if you don’t take care of yourself. The Bible says that without vision, people cast off restraint. There’s nothing keeping you in line. When you look and see clearly how awesome GOD really is, you are laser-focused on serving Him. Nothing else even comes close to being important. But when you start to look away, your senses become loaded with this world and you are let loose. Unrestrained. Your eyes get off the goal and you stop making forward progress.

But the good news is that GOD is still GOD! He alone is in control! If you turn your eyes back to Him, there is still hope. You need a dream; a dream of what our Lord can do in your life. He can turn it around, turn it back to Himself. The same goes for your family, your church, your Country, if we only turn our eyes to Jesus.

#34 – Blown Away

By Jon Burkholder

Every now and then, something happens that just gets me. It can be something magnificent as a sunrise, or a work of art, but it can also be something as simple as the dew on my front lawn in the mornings. Or a smile from a complete stranger; maybe just a really good conversation with a friend. I can’t explain how, but certain things just connect with a part of me that nothing else can reach. It can’t be defined mathematically or postulated scientifically. It can’t be quantified, catalogued or categorized. I may not know how it works, but I know that it’s these things that blow me away.

Have you ever been blown away by something boring or uninteresting? I don’t think so. Have you been blown away by something that you didn’t want or like? Probably not. You’re blown away by things that connect with your soul. GOD knows that. It probably helps that He created your soul. And that He knows everything. His gifts are always perfect and blow me away the most.

Ephesians 1:3 tells us that GOD has blessed the believer with every spiritual blessing. Read that again. Did you catch that? Every spiritual blessing! If you are a believer, GOD has not withheld one single spiritual blessing from you.  That means things like Mercy and Grace. Things like Truth and Love. Prayer. Wisdom. I could go on and on, but the thing that these all have in common is that they are all part of the character of GOD. He is merciful; He is Love. The reason that we have every spiritual blessing is that GOD has given us Himself! He did not spare His own Son Jesus Christ, but while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He took away our sin. That blows me away.

#033 – On Days and Off Days

On Days and Off Days by Jon Burkholder

Some days, you’re just on, and everything is going your way. You’re on top of the world, and you can’t seem to lose. It doesn’t matter what the challenge is; go ahead and bring it on! You can handle it. You can handle anything.

As much as I love those days, there’s also the other end of the spectrum: off days. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the Shaquille O’Neal missing the open dunk day: the day where the simplest tasks feel impossible, and you’re caught like a politician who’s had his teleprompter turned off. Do something right? Forget about it. This day was blown the second you crawled off the wrong side of the bed.

Why do things happen this way? Because we’re inconsistent. No matter how hard we try or how good we are, we can’t do everything right all the time. We can’t even do things right most of the time. We’re imperfect, and it shows big time.

But what if there was someone who didn’t have off days? What if you had a friend you could always count on, a mentor you could always lean on, somebody who always got it right %100 of the time. Of course we want someone like that in our lives! Who wouldn’t want to know somebody who was always reliable? Well, I know Someone like that. His name is Jesus. No matter what we’re going through, He never changes. No matter what’s troubling us, He will never be caught off guard. Impossible? Nothing is impossible for Him. He said so Himself, and I know it’s true because He wouldn’t say something if it wasn’t true. He is constant; He never changes. He never fails. He will never leave me or forsake me. He is my Savior and my GOD. He is the Keeper of my soul. Nothing is too difficult for Him, and nothing will ever be able to keep His love from me. No matter what I go through, I know that He is on my side, and that I’ll make it through, because if GOD is for me, who can be against me? No matter what goes wrong, or who betrays me, or how bad I fail, I will always have my Jesus, and that’s the only thing that matters.