Hinder or Help

As everyone is looking to remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, they can read about his legacy and his presidency. Let’s look at what he challenges the Americans with. He said,

“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

We could sure get somewhere with that if we could get people to adopt that philosophy. Just think if we could plug some other words into that quote and change America and the world. We have been raising generations of people to feel entitled, looking for a hand out. We are in a lose/lose situation. If we could get people to change their view of life, we could be in a win/win situation. They say change comes from the top but I believe if this attitude would impact a few people, we could be on the road to recovery. What word would make an impact in your life and the people around you.

Ask not what your neighbor can do for you. Ask what you can do for your neighbor.

Ask not what your friend can do for you. Ask what you can do for your friend.

Ask not what your spouse can do for you. Ask what you can do for your spouse.

Ask not what your child can do for you. Ask what you can do for your child.

Ask not what your parent can do for you. Ask what you can do for your parent.

Ask not what your church can do for you. Ask what you can do for your church.

Ask not what God can do for you. Ask what you can do for God.

Let us know what you choose to do and the impact you plan to have.

Read John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961 and you can just feel how far we have fallen. America needs a change. They need to “humble themselves and pray”. It can start with a few.

Some notes from listening to Dr. James Diehl

His Sermon was from Revelation 1, John being put on the island of Patmos. He compared it to Alcatraz. We all have our Alcatraz, our tough times we have to go through. He told us the story of losing his son to cancer. Nearly all of us will face an Alcatraz of some type. We were never promised to not have an Alcatraz, but we are promised that Jesus would go through it with us and we will survive. We do win. We do come out on the other side victorious. We may not get the answers to our why’s. We have to give it to God over and over if necessary. satan (no that is not a typo, satan is little and I have come to a conclusion that I am no longer going to consider his name proper even if it is the start of a sentence) uses our Alcatraz to try to steal our joy and we can’t let him do that. We have to keep asking God to fill us. John was in the Spirit on that island with no choir to sing to him, no music to listen to and no one to talk to but God. God came and spoke to him. If we seek God in our car, our work place, our school, etc., we can also hear from God. The Holy Spirit will talk to us in our Alcatraz. We do not have to allow satan to use our Alcatraz to steal our joy. We can’t give up even if we feel like it at times. We can have joy through Jesus Christ no matter what we go through. John didn’t die there. God will be exalted. We should exalt Him and He will work. We can be on the winning side. God is bigger than all our problems and any Alcatraz that we must face. God is good.

Life Is Not Easy

We don’t always know why things happen. God always has a reason for allowing things to happen and causing things to happen. There is always a lesson to be learned. It could be as simple as an attempt to get our attention or sparing us of something worse that could have happened. It could be to work in a situation that we may not be aware of and may never know this side of eternity. God has the bigger picture and can be trusted to use all that happens for His glory and our betterment. He is God.

God also has a way of teaching us because we don’t like to follow rules. Breaking rules has consequences. We may consider some rules to be trivial, but God tests us in little things to see if we can handle bigger stuff. Often times, if not always, we know what we did wrong.

It may be that we didn’t follow through on a promise or something we knew we should have done. We don’t always know the correlation between our disobedience and the consequences we face but we do know there are consequences to disobedience.

When things happen that we don’t want to deal with, we as humans tend to want to fluff it off and minimize its importance. God wants us to deal with things, do what is right, follow through. The more we do that, the more satisfied we will be with life, ourselves and with other people.

God will reveal the lesson to be learned if we ask Him. The quicker we learn, the less we have to face similar situations that try to teach us the same lesson. Life has consequences and we have rules for a reason. God’s rules are definitely for our protection and benefit. Following rules (especially God’s) and doing what is right always pays off. God gave us a mind and access to the Holy spirit to know the difference between what is right and our own foolishness.

Life is not easy. We get out of life what we put into it. Following God is not easy. Our relationship with God and our quality of life will amount to what we put into it. God is there. He is committed. He will not forsake us. It is our side of the relationship that falls short. The quality of our relationship is based on our level of commitment. He wants the best for us. It is our choice to accept His best or to settle for less than the best.

About an Addict that God Redeemed

If you have an addict in your life, you know you can’t give up praying even if they are giving up. God heals and God can use whatever they go through for His glory.

If you are an addict, God has a plan for your life but you need to be willing to turn control over to Him. He can heal you and use whatever you have been through for His glory.

Shawn McDonald has a beautiful testimony. God has delivered him and God can deliver you or the addict in your life. God is bigger than anything we will ever face.

If you are an addict, what are you waiting for? Let’s see what great plans God has for you. Give Him a chance. See what the other side can do for you.

If you want to hear more, listen to another short testimony of where this song came from and then listen to the song again.

God will be faithful even when you fall down. He wants every part of you. What if you choose to just let go? What if you let God take full control?