ARE YOU LEAVING A LEGACY

Proverbs 22:6 

6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

This passage implies that we should instill Godly character in our young ones. This was not meant for parents only. This training should be done by grandparents, aunts, uncles, or anyone else that has direct influence on young ones. 

So often we see a situation in disarray with a youth, and think because they're not our child, we have no impact in the outcome. The saying, "It takes a village to raise a child", is true. God does not ask us to stand on the sidelines, and watch things fall apart! What kind of legacy are you going to leave? Is it going to be that of Godly character, or will you waste a golden opportunity to impart Jesus in someone's life? You may be a parent that is struggling with disciplining your child. You may be a grandparent that is afraid to offer your direction. Or, just someone that has contact with a youth in some way. My question to all of you is, are you a Godly example? Are you teaching Godly character? 

I think back to the scriptures, and wonder about Jesus' childhood. We discount the upbringing that He was given. Remember that God chose Mary and Joseph to raise His son. Now we all know that Christ lived a perfect life, but His "God chosen parents" instilled a Godly character in Him. Living a life of Godly character is a learned lifestyle. That's why the common denominator throughout the New Testament is discipleship. 

We are all very busy, as the Christmas season approaches, but we all should take the time to effect someone's life for Christ. What an awesome way of honoring Christ's birth! Lastly, what kind of Legacy are you going to leave?  Will people remember you for the lives you have touched, or will there be opportunities that you pass up, because you're too busy. I have seen God turn peoples lives around time after time. The common theme in all those situations was that someone shared Jesus with them in their youth. Let  us all focus on leaving a Godly legacy. Let us start today.   

I CAN DO ALL THINGS BY MYSELF?

Philippians 4:10-13 (New American Standard)

10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me;indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along withhumble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity ; in any and every circumstance I havelearned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Proverbs 30:7-9 (New American Standard)

7 Two things I asked of You, Do not refuse me before I die : 8 Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches ; Feed me with the food that is my portion, 9 That I not befull and deny You and say, "Who is the LORD ?" Or that I not be in want and steal, And profanethe name of my God.

I encourage you to read these passages at least twice. Then ask yourself, when was the last time you really trusted God? Could you handle a blessing if He gave you what you asked for?

Often times, I will pray for God to move in my life, finances or health. I will put all my faith in the Lord that I know will come through for me. I wait a little while to see what God will do. I practice patience, knowing that God hears our prayers and will give us the desires of our hearts. And then, I decide God is not working fast enough in my situation. I decide I can take charge and take over the situation. So many times we all have this same idea that we can do it better ourselves.

 Proverbs 3:5 says to "Trust the Lord with all your heart".

How many times have you taken life in your own hands, without God, and it worked out the way you planned it? I'm not saying that everything will always be perfect. I'm saying that we can not do this alone. We need divine intervention. My prayer is that of Proverbs 30:7-9. I don't ever want to get to a place in my life, where I am so comfortable that I assume that I don't need God anymore. It is scary to think of life without God, but we can all get to a place where we think we can do all things without Him.

The way I am going to try to avoid this is to pray that God only give me my daily portion. I want to stay at a place in my life where I am completely reliant on God.

Are you praying for a need or a blessing in your life?  Then let God know what it is, and then sit back and trust Him. Don't interfere!!  Don't get in the way!! Just be patient and trust God. He will always come through when you trust Him completely. Make yourself available for God's blessing. Remember that He will take you through a valley to test your faith, and to increase your faith. He is there with you every step of the way. Will you make it to the mountain top with God?  Or will you give up, do it yourself, and fall off the cliff?

When God is Silent, He is Not Still

We all know what it feels like to experience hopelessness to varying degrees. In fact, many people define hope as looking forward to something that they know that they will never get. Hopelessness is when you look out in front of you and you can't see any possibility for improvement or change. Many of us today are drowning in a sea of hopelessness surrounded by a land of emptiness where there seems to be no way out.

That reminds me of a story. In the summer of 2000, a Russian Oscar II Class Submarine, the Kursk, sank in the Barents Sea due to an internal explosion. Divers made several attempts to go down and assess the situation to determine if anyone had survived. When they were finally successful, they discovered a group of twenty-three men who had survived the explosion. These men had gone back as far as they could to the end of the submarine, and had gathered together in the last remaining pocket of air. 

But the rescue team hadn't made it to them in time. All twenty-three men had died. On the inside wall of the submarine, they found this note that had been etched there by the Captain-lieutenant Dmitri Kolesnikova. It said, "It's dark here to write, but I'll try by feel. It seems like there are no chances..." 

The hopelessness we hear in Dmitri's words has been shared by many of us. We've all faced similar feelings at some time or another where there seems "like there are no chances." Hopelessness in the middle of life's storms is a human experience that is common to most of us.

It's one thing to be in the middle of a trial that has been brought on by yourself through a bad choice or action. But it's an entirely different thing to set your heart on serving God only to discover that it seems He has abandoned you in the middle of a storm. In times like those, remember that although God may be silent, He is not still. Wait on Him. He may just come walking to you on top of your storm. ~Alternative View~

When You Want to Throw a Red Flag Out on God

(Romans 8:32, Psalm 12) 

When a head coach on an NFL team perceives that the referee has made a wrong call, awarding a key play to the opposition, he throws out a red flag. This red flag signals that the referee needs to review the play again. Obviously the coach believes that the referee has made a mistake.

There are times in our lives, especially when we are caught between a rock and a hard place, when we want to throw a red flag out on God. We want to stop the game and throw down the red flag because it looks like God has made a wrong call. It looks like He has missed something. It looks like He didn't know what He was doing because if He did, He wouldn't have called things that way.

We think thoughts like - If God had known how this was going to affect me, He wouldn't have allowed that thing to happen. If He had really known the pain that I was going to have to go through in dealing with this, then He would have made a different decision.

We want to reach into our pocket and pull out our red flag and yell, "God, you missed this one! You blew it. Review it, because you're obviously wrong." It is during those times that we need to remember that God often does some of His best work in the dark. He is also often the nearest when He seems the furthest away. It is during those times that our faith needs to carry us through. Because it is in those times that God is often waiting to see what we are going to do.

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AWESOME SONG FROM THESE TWO ARTISTS!

Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time?

John 11, Psalm 9)

How do you know when God is ready to break through your rock and a hard place situation? You know because He will invade your ordinary with something extraordinary. He will come to your normal with something abnormal. He will create a scenario that doesn't make sense.

When God creates a scenario that doesn't make sense, it is not supposed to make sense. Don't ignore God showing up in a way that you can't explain. The reason you can't explain it is because it is God showing up in it. The Bible is replete with examples of when God was getting ready to move in a rock and a hard place situation and the thing that He did was show up in a way that human understanding couldn't explain.

My best advice to you is that if you are in a wilderness, or if you are between a rock and a hard place and can't find a good way out of what seems like a never-ending situation, look for God to show up in a way that you can't explain. His ways are not your ways. His thoughts are not your thoughts. God is not like you or me. If God were living in the era of Soul Music, his favorite song would be, "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time?" Didn't I show up in a way that you couldn't explain?

That's what God does. Look for Him.

Alternative View

The Spiritual Stress Test

(James 1:1-7, Psalm 5)

Every couple of months, I go to the doctor's office for an  exam. I sit in his office and he asks me, "Mike, how are you feeling?"

Assuming that everything ii fine with me, I answer, "I'm feeling fine."

But that's not the end of my appointment. The doctor doesn't take my word for it. Instead, he attaches electronic probes all over my body, because what he wants to know is the real condition of my heart.

My heart might feel fine to me but at the same time, it might not be fine. The doctor can only determine the strength of my heart when he measures it under stress. So what he does is create a stressful situation where I'm walking for a long period of time. He's testing my heart to see whether how I feel is how I really am. Because it's possible to have good feelings yet still have a bad heart.

Living the Christian life is no different. It's possible to come to church every week, sing worship songs, memorize Bible verses, serve on a variety of committees and assume that your heart, faith and soul is strong. It's even easy to say things like, "I love you God. God, you are so good. I'll follow you, God. I'll do whatever you say."

But God doesn't want to just take your word for it.

He tests you, and me, because He wants what is best for us. He tests us because He is getting ready to do something amazing in our lives. The way that He tests us is by putting us in a stressful scenario … something we often call a trial. In a trial, God reveals how strong our faith really is. 

God's Wild Ride

(1 John 1:1-4, Psalm 4)

   When my wife, Amy, and I started dating, I came up with a strategy to encourage her to fall more in love with me. She was a lot in love with me from the beginning, but I wanted to increase that.

   What I decided to do was to take her to the Astro World. Once we had wandered around the amusement park for a while, and had enjoyed some of the games and food, I coolly asked her if she wanted to ride the Texas Cyclone. Amy had never been on the Texas Cyclone ride before. But I had. I knew how wild the Texas Cyclone really was. She didn't have any idea because it looked like an innocent ride.

   I knew that this ride would scare the daylights out of her, and how scary the ride really was. But I hadn't told her that. I had only mentioned that we should go on a nice ride together.

   So we got on the Texas Cyclone. The thing began to shoot out making it seem like our small car was going to fly right off of the edge of the track. Amy screamed. Then she scooted closer to me. Our car veered to the right and then shot out again making it seem like we were going to zoom straight out into mid-air. Amy screamed again. Then she scooted even more closely to me this time. By the end of the ride, Amy wasn't sitting far away from me at all. She was sitting as close as possible. That had been my plan.

   I had wanted Amy to sit closer all along. The Texas Cyclone accomplished that. Sometimes God puts us on a wild ride. Life seems to be out of our control. At times, God allows these situations because He knows they will move us closer to Him and when we get closer to Him, we will discover that He is more than we ever imagined Him to be.  

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Proverbs 30:7-9

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁷ “Two things I ask of you, LORD;
   do not refuse me before I die:
⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
   give me neither poverty nor riches,
   but give me only my daily bread.
⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
   and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
   and so dishonor the name of my God.


     As I read these scriptures, I wonder to myself, what if we made this our daily prayer? Most of us want God's financial blessings on our life. The problem lies with God answering our prayer. He blesses us, and then we get comfortable in the blessing, and we quit relying on him completely. It would be better for us to live week to week, check to check, than to have too much money. Satan loves taking what God has blessed us with, and turning it into a curse. Think about these scriptures, and be careful how you pray. As for me, I would rather have to totally rely on God, than be comfortable enough financially to think that I don't need God anymore. My prayer is- God let me be completely reliant on you. Mike Kidwell

Reversing the Generational Curse

Scripture Reading:  Mark 5:32-43

Did you know that many problems people face are linked to choices their parents, grandparents and even "great-grandpa" made?  This may be a new way of thinking for you, and it is certainly not about placing blame.  Yet we need to know God's truth about generational curses and how to live free of their bondages.

A generational curse is passed down from one generation to another due to rebellion against God.  If your family line is marked by divorce, incest, poverty, anger or other ungodly patterns, you're most likely under a generational curse.  The Bible says that these curses are tied to choices. 

Deuteronomy 30:19 says we can either choose life and blessing or death and cursing. 

Freedom comes when we confess the ungodly patterns, ask God for forgiveness and then walk in obedience by consistently choosing His ways. ~Alternative view~

God Is So Good

Okay, so I haven't expounded on my family a whole lot since the beginning of this blog, but today is different.
I have three boys. Michael-15, Austin-8, and Jacob-6, these are the gifts God blessed me with.

   About 2 months ago our family received some unexpected bad news, pertaining to my oldest, Michael.
 It was time for his yearly physical for school sports, so we took him to see the pediatrician to clear him to play sports. The pediatrician checked him thoroughly, and determined he would need to be cleared by the cardiologist. This was normal to us because he had normal check-ups with the cardiologist. The check-ups were due to a heart defect he was born with. The cardiologist ran test after test on him, and determined that the heart condition was not the way we had expected it to be. The doctors told us his aortic valve had worsened to the point of surgery. We were extremely shocked at that outcome, and knew that there was only one thing we could do. TRUST GOD!
    I know people say it so much that it sounds cliche, but that is exactly what we are supposed to do.             I know that certain people struggle with this concept, but in my life I have come to realize, it's the only constant. I have made mistakes, messed things up, and hurt people. (the key word is : I ). Over time I have come to understand that GOD is wiser, stronger, and true. Every time I mess up He forgives me. Ask yourself one question, are you better than GOD?  We all know that answer, so why not trust him with the things he has given you?

     Back to Michael's condition... We prayed for healing, wisdom, and understanding. After the doctors told us that Michael would have to have a series of two heart surgeries; I will admit we were scared, our first reaction was to try to figure it all out ourselves. WAIT! Didn't GOD make Michael?  Does He not know every hair on his head?  Why am I trying t figure it all out?  I fell into the same trap we all do, not completely trusting GOD. I know one thing is for certain. GOD is in control, on time, and always there! No matter the final outcome, I know one thing to be true, GOD will be with us every step of the way.

  I John 2:15-17 states that you shouldn't wrap yourself up in things of this life. Some people will trust money before GOD. Some will trust possessions more than their own Creator. As for me, I understand that all of these things will pass away.  I choose to put my faith and trust in the one who made me-GOD. One day everyone will stand before Him, and they will have to give account for all the things they have done here on earth. Will GOD know you? Or will you spend your eternity in hell? Give GOD your life, your trust, and your faith, and watch what He will do in your life.

Reversing the Financial Curse

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 8:11-18  

Do you ever feel that, despite all the work you are putting into your life, job, family and other relationships, you aren't experiencing the productivity that you should?  You want God's blessings, yet you just don't seem able to get ahead.

God implores every believer to take the tithe challenge!  Faithfully giving a tenth of your earnings to the church shows God you are a good steward of what He has entrusted into your care, that you are grateful for everything He has provided and finally that you trust Him.

Too many people are living in a sea of debt.  God wants to reverse the financial curse in your life and bless you.  But you must plant a seed first before God can rain down His blessings on it. 

~~Alternative view~~