Month: July 2020

I am a sinner, not a Saint. But I am trying to repent for my sins through Jesus Christ. And just in case you wonder where I stand, read below.

The 7-year tribulation will be worse by far than anything anyone could imagine. If you think this is our last Pandemic or “natural” disaster you are sadly mistaken. Read the book of Revelation. As a Christian, I’ve heard about the corruption and debauchery of the end-times most of my life. It appears the book of Revelation is unfolding right before us. We shouldn’t be shocked either, given the state of immorality in our world. Every day, the boundaries of sin seem to be pushed further and further. The line between right and wrong has slowly been erased by society, television, and pop culture. Witchcraft, spiritualism, “New Age” belief systems are being celebrated and exalted, even among some professing to be Christians. We have been removed further from the world God created and intended. We need to take this time to re-evaluate ourselves. We need to prepare and repent. Jesus will return just as His Word tells us. This is a huge wake up call, and I am taking it seriously. I want to go Home to my Father, when my time is up.
Until the Lord calls me away from this world to the next, I want to make it clear that I believe in Jesus Christ as the true Lord and Savior. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, was sacrificed on the cross, died for our sins, and rose again. He loves us all regardless of the color of our skin (far more than we deserve) and forgives our sins if we repent. His Word says “whoever believes in Me, will not perish but have everlasting life”.

The above paragraph was not written by me. But it fits who I have become. Fill free to copy and send on. 🙏🙌

Posted on social media by my friend “Rob”…. I read it early this morning thinking he had written it until I got to the last paragraph….

I smiled to myself as I thought about the phrase “fits who I have become”… and this paragraph fits who he has become… by God’s Grace alone, I have seen this man moved from a hospital bed in detox to sharp minded, Jesus loving man who wants others to know what he’s experienced. I’ve seen him restored from a man who literally lost his mind to a man who can comprehend designs of electromechanical systems, untangle the current political nonsense and take charge to lead his friend home… I’ve seen his heart transformed with anger replaced by love and concern, I’ve seen Jesus fill his life.

I have spent hours talking to him about the coming judgement, the tribulation, the rapture, and the fact that we are called to bring people back to Jesus. I have watched as God has strengthened Robs resolve, cleared his mind, and drawn him close to Himself. I am watching as he reaches out, in love, to help his atheist, alcoholic friend get help. I am watching him share Jesus with him in the hopes that he will experience His saving grace. Rob isn’t perfect… nor are any of us… but it fits who he has become. He is a new creation in Christ, and I am rejoicing in that!

^{2 Corinthians 5:17. 17} Therefore, if anyone is ^(A)in Christ, he is ^(B)a new creation.^[a](C)The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

God is not done with Rob yet. Not with any of us… He is raising up an army, friends… an army that fights for the souls of those who don’t yet know Him.

The time is short, friends. The time is now to get our hearts right with God, to repent of our sins, and place our faith in Jesus. He loves us so much more than we could ever imagine. He does not want us to spend eternity in Hell, but seated with Him at the Right Hand if God the Father.

Are you ready to be part of that army?

If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.

Charles Spurgeon

Be blessed,

SB

Such a common phrase, especially among the Christian church… it’s so easy to sound flippant… almost like saying, “see ya” as you part company with someone.

Do you pray for those to whom you say, “I’ll pray for you!”? Or is it rhetoric… to make you feel good that your doing something for someone?

What about when the rubber meets the road…. when someone is really reaching out for help and you say, “I’ll pray for you.” But the help they need is physical or emotional…. yeah, flippant.

But real intercessory prayer…. now that is powerful. Real, deep, gut wrenching petition to The God of the universe on behalf of someone…. that’s powerful stuff. That’s when mountains are moved.

So what makes the difference?

The power and the petition. Petition. There are times we must go through difficult times to drive us to the place where we realize we are completely powerless apart from God…. that our works and our efforts can not change the circumstance…. and we surrender all our vain attempts and lay them completely at His feet.

It is then, and only then, after we’ve completely emptied ourselves, that we can truly petition the Lord to meet our need.

I have so clearly seen God move mountains that I was told were immovable… I have so clearly seen the power of God bring change that seemed impossible….

I heard the doctors and nurses tell his family and me that my business partner “Rob” would be in a nursing home for the rest of his life because he wouldn’t ever be able to function on his own. I sat with bewildered doctors who could not predict or prescribe a recovery plan… and I went to God completely empty of anything that I could do… and I begged and petitioned.. for hours at a time.. that God would not only spare him, but use him for Gods glory…. and I watched closely as, over a five day period, God completely restored his mind and strengthened his body.. to the point where he was discharged from the hospital and walked out on his own… and returned to our business and began to play in our worship band… and then found someone to share Jesus with… all for God’s glory.

I’ve been watching silently as my business partner “Rob” reaches out to share the saving grace of Jesus with his atheist, alcoholic friend, Richard. I’ve been watching as Richard self-implodes and cries out for help on social media to have numbers of people respond, “I’ll pray for you”. He doesn’t yet know the power of prayer…. he feels their response is flippant, almost arrogant, that they would just offer up some thin words on his behalf rather than really helping…. but if THEY truly know the power of prayer, they know that, by prayer and petition, his hear can be softened to the point of surrender to the God of the universe. THATs when God can truly work in his life. THAT is my prayer and petition on behalf of Richard…

I am praying for those who are trying desperately to help him before it’s too late.

In my early morning prayer time, Lord, I weep for Richard… I weep for the poor choices and wrecked lives he’s left behind… but I know You love him enough to have died for him… and Your resurrection provides a way for us to be reconciled with You. He is the one, and You have left the ninety nine to rescue him. Lord, with all that I am, I plead with You to send Your Holy Spirit to call to Richard, and bring him home… that he would find your saving grace and place his trust in You… and go on to reach other Richards for Your glory….

In Your precious name I pray… petition… beg…. Amen

SB

Late last night, as I drove home from our music and art studio, I had old hymns playing in my head… so I decided maybe they should be in my ears too. So I found my Pandora ap and searched “old hymns”

I found a cd of Maranatha Praise band that takes old hymns and jazzes them up a bit. I put my windows down and got my Jesus Jam on. I had a great time praising the God of the Universe for all of the goodness He has given me.

It’s so easy to get angry or distraught about all that’s going on around us.. our focus needs to be on Jesus, the Rock of our salvation.

I surrender all

All to Jesus I surrender! I love Him more and more each day.

There are a lot of movements I could get behind right now… and a lot vying for attention… but none so important as the mission to share the Gospel with a dark, dark world.

My mission in life is to use the gifts and talents that God has given to me to share His mercy and grace with a dying world. May He continue to equip me and provide opportunity to share His love.

Be blessed today, my friends!

SB

Good morning, friends! I hope you’re having A terrific Monday morning! I am up and praying about many things today already, for there is much to be concerned about in the world.

I started my day with Facebook feed, which is a mistake…there is so much hatred and enmity going on right now that it would be wise to distance… but I did encounter the above quote on a friends page.

Encounter Gods goodness… I have … and am… encountering Gods goodness. He has blessed me in ways I can scarcely understand, for reasons I cannot fathom.

In his sermon yesterday, our pastor talked about being witnesses for Christ… and said that, sadly, many people do not know how to do that. He shared that a youth pastor took his students, one by one, and asked them how they would share the gospel with someone and every one of them stammered but couldn’t really articulate how they’d do it…. church kids.. Sunday school kids who’ve been taught the gospel message their whole lives..ok I get it… they’re young and it can be intimidating to be “different” among peers…

He also talked about pastoral students at Bible college being asked how they’d lead someone to Christ, and many could not answer. Bible college students, who are studying to go into full time ministry could not articulate how they’d share Jesus with someone.

My friends, the simplest and most effective tool you can use to share Jesus with someone is by your personal experiences… sharing your personal encounter with the Creator. When yours is the life transformed… and you know what you were before and you know what you’ve become through God’s Grace alone, you WANT to share Jesus with people!

It’s not that I think Sunday School and Bible colleges aren’t important or aren’t teaching Gods word… but we can’t loose sight of the experiential transformation that happens with a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

I’m old enough now to be able to look back and see phases of my life and spiritual growth… there were times that I was very inward focused on all I didn’t have.. or all that had happened to me (victim mentality), sucked into the abyss of depression and despair. When God delivered me from that, He began to transform my mind from all the negative thoughts and garbage I had polluted it with to be enable me to see things as they can be, not as they are. He began to give me a vision for what someone or something could become by His Grace… and He began to give me a passion for helping the lost find Him.

For me, it’s less about a “formula” for sharing Jesus, and more about being real with people about the Power I’ve seen!

Maybe the problem isn’t that we haven’t taught our kids enough Bible… maybe the problem is that we haven’t taught them to experience Gods transforming power, the personal encounter with the One True Living God, who can transform lives.

Maybe then we would raise a generation ready to go into all the earth to share the gospel message…

I truly want to shout from the rooftops sometimes to let people know God can change lives! He changed mine. He’s changed the lives of those who are close to me. He can change you too.

How have you encountered God’s goodness? would you be able to share it with others?

Be blessed today, my friends.

SB

Simple concept. Why is it so difficult to do? For some reason it’s so easy to reverse the two, especially if you have an office job or other sedentary lifestyle. Truth is, I love to move… love to exercise, love to sweat… but find my schedule so harried most of the time that I can scarcely get done what needs done.

Last Thursday (week and two days ago) I started my journey (again), challenged by a friend to return to a healthy lifestyle and weight… (thank you!). since then, I’ve been exercising as much as possible and made a drastic change in eating habits. I’ve done a little research on keto and other diets, but in the end really decided to go with my “own”… I think I’ll call it my “God’s Green Earth” diet.

Pretty much, my diet consists of the things you find in natural form on Gods Green Earth.. fruits and vegetables and lean proteins…. no processed foods (except maybe some cheese) , no refined sugars, no processed carbs (I would add natural carbs like potatoes at some point but haven’t yet). Black coffee, lots of salads, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and lots of fruit… and black coffee.

I thought I would be very hungry, but I have truly found that I’m not. Last night was a real test for me, which I passed. We have an Ice cream place called the Meadows near us with delicious treats. I took my girls there after a quick trip to Lowe’s and bought them ice cream but passed on my own.

One funny aside from the trip… as we pulled up to the sign, my fifteen year old said, “I can’t read the screen”. My 22 year old said, “wow. You can tell you live in a digital generation when you refer to the wooden sign as a ‘screen’”. I began to read the ‘screen’ to her and said, “they have “Arctic Squirrel” instead of Arctic Swirl. Lol. The girls thought that was hilarious.

My new favorite snack is toasted peppers… yes toasted not roasted. I cut peppers into wide strips and then sprinkle them with either finely shredded chicken or turkey and a tiny bit of cheese and toast them in the toaster oven. Crunchy low carb snack.

Oh… and I have established a weight loss goal… because it’s important to have goals… more on that later!

Keep praying for me. I can already feel a difference but I know I’m a few weeks away from other people being able to see a difference. I truly would like to exercise more but would sacrifice reading/devotion/writing time to do so. Pray that I can find the right balance. (If only I hit the lottery and could retire…)

Be blessed, my friemds

SB

Social media has become a putrid pit of ugliness with no real freedom of speech. At present, I relish in my anonymity on this blog, using only my initials on things I post. The subscribers who know me personally are in the minority of those who subscribe, which in some ways amazes me that others who have followed must have a genuine interest in what I say. When I created this blog, much as when I published my book, I did so under the premise that it was for Gods’ purpose, and that He would bring the audience He wanted for His purpose alone.

On my Facebook account, however, I use my real name as profile (did you know there are those who create fake persona’s?.. but I digress)… and I connected years ago to the man who led worship for a Christian Missionary & Alliance LIFE Conference years ago. For a while, it was cool to be connected with him, but probably 4-5 years ago, he renounced his faith in Christ and became extremely liberal minded, though under some mis-guided notion that he was spreading goodness. Although his posts are generally FAR LEFT and bizarre, we continued to be “friends”.. Occasionally he would debate something I posted, and seemed to take exception with anything to do with my faith in Christ. I have always thought that, perhaps through something I would say, or others might say, he would eventually find his way back to the Christ that he had abandoned for reasons only he knows.

In one such post where he took exception to my position on Christ the pastor who was our youth pastor on those LIFE conference trips told me he had to defriend him because he was out of control.

Last Saturday was a final straw for me, and I had to defriend him completely. I read his post and could hardly believe my eyes.. I had to read it several times. I could scarcely believe that someone would actually think what he posted, but I had seen enough of his liberal rhetoric to know it wasn’t satire. Since I’ve defriend him, I can no longer see it, but it said, in effect, something like this:

“IF all the wealth in America was pooled together and divided equally, every person would have something like $430,000.00. For my family (of 6) that would be $2.5 million. It seems to me this makes much more sense than having Millionaires AND Homeless people in the same country.”

Does he REALLY think that socialism would divide ALL of the wealth equally? and that we’d all REALLY get $430,000.00 ? and… is that at the beginning of their lives to last their whole life? How long does he think that would last? Is that REALLY the way socialism has worked in other countries?

I literally read it three times and then just decided it wasn’t worth it to keep him in my friend list any longer.

There comes a point in life when just need to separate from those who bring us down. I pray he finds his way back to the Christ he once knew. I have little influence over that and will pray for him

In the meantime, we’d all be wise to keep a keen eye on all that is happening in the world around us. The time is short to get our affairs in order… our homes… our hearts. We need to repent of our own sins and be right with the Lord because He’s coming back… probably sooner than later.

It’s just a hop, skip and a jump away from Armageddon folks.

Peace out, my friends

SB

Last summer, our church took a group of students in grades 5-8 to New York City on a missions trip. Fortunate enough to go with them as youth leader, I donned my camera (among other things) to help them document all of the cool things we experienced on our one-week trip. Quite often, actually, I look at the pictures from the trip and it stir an emotion felt during our experience – it was more than a “trip” with kids.. it was truly an impact. Sometimes the undocumented experiences (those with no photos) are forgotten, or moved into the deep recesses of our mind until something else stirs them.

Our trip to the Jewish Heritage Center was such an experience. Located in Battery Park in Manhattan, the Jewish Heritage Center pays homage to the millions of people who lost their lives during the Holocaust – genocide of European Jews between 1941 and 1945.

As we entered the JWC, we had to go through security system similar to airports, and were asked to store purses, phones, backpacks, etc, in a room until we were finished. Because phones and cameras were not allowed on the tour, our memories of the event are a good as our minds (oiy vey!). Our tour guide on this trip was actually the grand-daughter of a holocaust survivor who had a personal interest seeing that people visit the museum so they don’t ever forget what happened.

As it seems, there are people who are trying to erase the Holocaust from history, or try to pretend it never happened. Those who are connected with the JWC are passionate to never let the stories die, but to preserve the history so that it will never repeat.

I remember the somber atmosphere as we walked through room after room, viewing artifact after artifact, hearing story after story of how the German government fooled the people they were governing into believing they had their best interest. I remember the look on the face of our tour guide as she showed us articles of propaganda used in elections.

I wish I could remember more vividly the details, but, as a certain smell will bring to mind childhood memories of days gone by, certain pictures spark the feeling I felt in that somber museum; the disbelief that an entire nation could fall prey to the evil of its leaders, disbelief that good people could be so brainwashed as to go along with genocide of an entire population of people.

Yesterday, my dear friend posted this picture on her Facebook feed and it was like the smell that brought back the somber atmosphere of the holocaust museum

Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor. Knowing his history pits an exclamation point at the end of this quote. Diedrich Bonhoffer took a stand… against Hitler and his Nazi regime. For this stand, he would be hanged, just 21 days before Adolf Hitler committed suicide. He felt that strongly against the evil that was happening around him.

There is a war brewing, my friends. It is time to know where you stand, if not politically, at the very least, spiritually. The ultimate war is not against flesh and blood, although evil does indeed manifest itself among the people.

Pick a side. My side is in the Lord’s army. He is preparing me for battle.

Be blessed, my friends.

SB

James 4:7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

In the authors notes of the book Masquerade this verse introduces the spiritual battle that the main character fights… and laments that we don’t know how long we need to resist before the devil flees.

Know this, my friends… when you step out in Gods name, doing His work, the devil isn’t going to like it. The devil and his evil minions will do everything in their power to derail your efforts. But know this… God is still more powerful than they are… they are created beings…and the Creator is most powerful.

For the past two Sundays our pastor has been preaching about preparing for spiritual battle. Reading from Ephesians 6, he has instructed us to put on Gods armor. Without Gods armor, we are weak. In and of ourselves, we cannot stand against the spiritual warfare that Satan wages.

Masquerade is a realistic fiction book written over ten years ago. It journals a four month spiritual battle fought by a middle aged Christian mother of three. The woman had been a Christian for many years, having been delivered from depression and suicidal thoughts. She KNEW the battle she fought in her mind was the devil hitting her where she was weakest. She knew it… and she knew that, with Gods help, she would raise victorious…. but the war was tough! It nearly killed her. Literally. To date, it has been the most oppressive battle I have personally faced. It was literally for my soul…

I vividly remember fighting that battle. It was a literal oppression that weighed on me like a blanket of bricks. I could feel evil around me, waiting to devour me….

Not long before this battle, I had become a youth leader in our church, and a mentor for a program that helps young adults battle addictions. I made a decision to be “All in” for Christ… and the devil didn’t like it.

The devil hit me in all of the areas I was weak… every one of them. I knew I was too weak to resist and so I put on Gods armor… it was during this time I learned to truly pray and truly submit myself to God. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. I had no idea how long I needed to stand strong in the lord before the devil would flee… it seemed an eternity. But i knew that, with Gods help, I would come out stronger and more steadfast on the other side.

God is raising up warriors, my friends. In order to be a warrior, you’ve got to put His armor on. Over my lifetime, I’ve seen many come to know the saving grace of a Christ… and I’ve seen many who, when things got tough, retreated from the battle because it was too difficult… and returns to their previous lifestyle of sin and darkness. This is exactly what the devil wants… we cannot let him win….

11 Put on all the armor that God gives, so you can defend yourself against the devil’s tricks. 12 We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world. 13 So put on all the armor that God gives. Then when that evil day comes, you will be able to defend yourself. And when the battle is over, you will still be standing firm.14 Be ready! Let the truth be like a belt around your waist, and let God’s justice protect you like armor. 15 Your desire to tell the good news about peace should be like shoes on your feet. 16 Let your faith be like a shield, and you will be able to stop all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Let God’s saving power be like a helmet, and for a sword use God’s message that comes from the Spirit.

Ephesians 6:11-17 | CEV

Last summer, nearly ten years after the spiritual battle described in the book, I entered battle again, this time for my friend “Rob”. The battle was for his soul… I felt strongly that God was calling Rob to straight some things in his life because God has a purpose for him and the devil was trying to thwart. I very clearly remember God asking me, “will you still trust me when it gets really bad?” I answered, “of course, Lord” and knew in my heart that I was in for a doozy. I was indeed.

That battle was far more difficult than the last, but somehow less oppressive. During this battle, I fought other “Christians” who launched attacks on me that, quite frankly confused me… until I realized that satan uses all kinds of people to try to get what he wants… I won’t say a lot about that battle here today but suffice to say it lasted longer than the last. Yet God prevailed.

As I see the growth in Robs life, I know God is preparing him for battle too.. and that battle has begun as Rob has witnessed to his friend Richard, who doesn’t believe in God. I need to ask all prayer warriors to gather around Rob and pray… pray that his spirit will not be broken. I know first hand how powerful the devil is… and how he can cause people to fall away. I also know first hand that my God is far more powerful… I am praying a hedge of protection around Rob… that he would be strengthened in the Lord to fight the ensuing battle.

And, friends, if there are any others out there who need prayer for spiritual warfare, let’s all gather together! There is strength in numbers.

Victory in Jesus!

SB

If you’ve never witnessed the power of God, it’s easy to fall into a pit of despair when things are rough, but when you have witnessed, with your own eyes, a true miracle, you KNOW that God is capable of anything.

Late last night, my friend Dennis posted this on his Facebook page. This friend and I worked years ago with a program at our church called Life Hurts God Heals… a twelve step recovery program for teens facing all sorts of addictions (drugs, alcohol, cutting, etc). Dennis now uses his time to share his story and bring other lost sheep home.

Fourteen years of sobriety for my friend… amen!

Today, I’d like to share a snippet of a miracle that I witnessed earlier this year. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that my best friend and business partner was very ill earlier this year. He was in the hospital for six weeks, starting on December 28.

The ammonia levels in his brain were out of whack and they couldn’t seem to get them under control. The affect of ammonia in the brain is that you, essentially, lose your mind. He could communicate, and he always knew who I was, but much of what he communicated was nonsensical… he made up stories, told tales, acted out mischievously (he may have pulled the fire alarm in the hospital!)

The doctors called for a meeting with his family and essentially told them that he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life… and told them to find a nursing home for him.

We had been through a pretty rough patch nearly six months prior, and everyone felt this was the best it would ever be.

I remember going to the Lord in intercession prayer on Rob’s behalf. It was the Saturday after they told his family to find a nursing home for him. As yet, there were no nursing homes willing to take him because he was sometimes combative. I knelt by his bed, next to the “sitter”, hospital staff who was assigned to watch him because he could not be left alone. I asked her if she believed in the power of prayer and if she minded if I prayed. She said she did and it was fine.

I knelt beside Rob, held his hand, and begged God to spare his life and bring him back. I can’t say that I heard God say it would be ok… and I had literally prayed the same prayer for six weeks prior to that, so there was nothing particularly special about that particular day.

I returned the next day and did the same. That day, before I left, he asked me for his phone, which I had been keeping because he couldn’t operate it and I didn’t want it to get lost. He wanted to look something up on the internet. Surprised by his persistence, I handed him my phone and told him that if he could figure out how to get to the internet in it, I would bring his phone back to him the next time I visited. He found the internet. He tried to log into his bank account but could not remember the password. The sitter was amazed. So was I. He hadn’t been coherent enough to even get that far in over six weeks.

The next day I took his phone with me. I noticed that they had also given him back a desk phone… they had previously removed it because he abused his right to have one by making calls in the middle of the night to random places. Instead of giving him his phone, though, I wanted to really be certain he was able to function and that this wasn’t some game he had been playing, so I gave him mine again. He went to his account and logged in this time…

On Tuesday, I called his room and he answered the desk phone. He said the nurse was there and asked me for my number so he could call me back. I thought to myself, “there’s no way he’s going to be able to do this…”. But sure enough, a few minutes later my phone range. He told me they were talking about sending him home. “No way,” I thought. I figured it was another one of his tales. I called the nurses station to confirm and, sure enough, they said they were having him evaluated by the Psych department and if it went well they’d release him. I hung up just as my cell rang again.. it was him wanting to know why I had called the nurses station to confirm his story! Lol.

As I reflected that night, I could so clearly see the hand of God upon him, bringing more and more mental clarity to him each day. I began to praise God for the healing that I witnessed in just a few day period. It was not instantaneous but there was steady improvement day by day.

He was released from the hospital the next day. What I have witnessed in the months since that day in February has been Gods power… drawing Rob close and closer to Him… by Gods Grace alone, Robs been given a new life.

In another interesting turn of events, Rob has gotten connected with a childhood neighborhood acquaintance… and, watching that friends posts in Facebook shared that he thought he might be alcoholic. Sensitive to his plight, Rob has begin sharing his views on God with this friend… and trying to help him get into detox.

We are praying hard for Richard… and I am praising God every single day for His grace… and healing… and power. I am excited to see Rob being used by God to affect another persons life. This is the family of God at work… doing exactly what we are called to do… He uses broken people to reach broken people… amen and amen and amen.

As I saw my other friends post last night, I am reminded of just how big the problem of alcoholism is… last week Rob posted for the first time publicly that he struggled with alcohol. He had previously never wanted anyone to know… (and, quite frankly, had hid it himself for years)…. but he had the courage to admit it…. the workers are few but the harvest is plentiful.

Through Gods power and Gods power alone, Dennis.. and Rob (and maybe Richard someday!) will allow their stories to touch other lives and bring other lost sheep home… all glory to God our King! Time is short and we want to bring as many lost sheep home to the Shepherd as possible!

Robs is a life transformation I’ve had the pleasure of seeing up close and personal. I pray Gods angels continue to protect Dennis and Rob and not let Satan or his demons near them to try to knock them off course. I pray, in advanced for the lives they are able to reach because of his story… and I pray God will use his story to bring others home.

I will never tire seeing God transform lives. I’m so happy to be part of this amazing miracle of transformation. Thank you, Lord Jesus!

Be blessed today, my friends! God is still on the throne. Hallelujah!

SB

In early 2020, my son had his next year all planned out… as a youth ministry student with just one year of his undergraduate work to go, plans were coming together for his fall internship. In addition, he had a wonderful once-in-a lifetime opportunity to work in our denominations’ national office with the national director of youth ministry for the summer, on a brand new ministry group. He was excited about all of it. He brought his two best friends and his girlfriend home for spring break, just as the nation began to erupt in this pandemic we call Covid… and his world stopped. Suddenly his plans weren’t so sure… they weren’t sure if they’d return to campus after spring break. Then they weren’t sure if the summer program would happen… and then it was cancelled… and then he wasn’t sure he’d have housing for his fall internship….

Sensing some of his anxiety as he has navigated these uncertain waters along with the rest of us… we’ve had several discussions about the uncertainty of life…. the faith that it requires to know that God has a plan. I have shared with him various lessons I’ve learned along my journey of life and the way In which the tough lessons were the ones that strengthened my faith.

Last week, during another discussion about uncertainty, I said to him, “Hold on loosely… to your plans, to your belongings… hold on loosely”

As I said, “Hold on loosely”, my mom teared up. For any who know my mom, it’s very unusual to see her tear up… she just doesn’t. She shared with us that when she and my dad built their home, they invited their pastor over to bless the home. Their pastor came over and picked my brother, who was then a toddler, up in his arms and said to my mother, “Hold on loosely to this little boy.”

David, my brother, died when he was three…. couldn’t have been you much after that conversation.

Who could have known that, over 50 years later I would use the exact same words to tell my son to hold loosely to the things of this world.

Our home is not this world. Our home is our Heavenly Palace. We are truly just passing through on our way to eternity. We sometimes get wrapped up in how things need to be on earth… in our country, in our states, in our municipalities, and in our homes… it’s not that we shouldn’t care about it, but we should hold loosely… to our belongings, to our friends, to those we care deeply about… hold loosely..: you never know when they will be gone…

It’s easier said than done, I realize… I don’t say it from the perspective of having mastered how to do it… but I do try to remind myself, when my anger, or sadness, or anxiety begins to rise that a lot of what we get ourselves worked up about will not matter on the other side of eternity.

Hold on loosely, my friends… but don’t let go.

SB