Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. ~ Isaiah 41:10 NLT With words that powerful how can anyone be afraid, I mean He promises to hold us up and help us so what is there that we should FEAR? I am sure everyone has heard the acronym for F.E.A.R. right?  If not here it is False Evidence Appearing Real.  How often do we allow the seeds of someone else’s opinion to invade our minds? For I hold you by your right hand- I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid I am here to help you.’ ~Isaiah 41:13 NLT Wow!  God himself has promised to help us, yet we allow every day failures to impede our path.  We focus on the worst case scenario of any challenge we may face.  We all have awoken from a deep sleep in a cold sweat from a crazy dream where our FEARs come true. It makes a little sense though if we take a look at the weapons that are used against us to weaken us into submission and FEAR: 1.) Self-doubt – we get in our own heads and interfere with the work we are here to do. 2.) Opinions of others – whether in high school or in the workforce jealousy brings out the naysayers. 3.) Our past – we live an relive out past that […]

Read More

  Picture yourself entering into you’re a large tool shed in the backyard gentlemen, you step inside and the smell of rust and sweat wafers out into the sunlight. You take a moment as your eyes adjust to the darkness within and you reach for the lone light bulb dangling from a rope in the middle of the shed. As the aged bulb flutters on and off as the filament heats up, your eyes adjust to the dimly lit shed. Within this old shed there are tools, tools on the walls hanging from pegs, tools leaning in all directions against the walls where they were left in a hurry. There are still more tools that have fallen off the aged hooks that lie on the floor in disarray. You search for the right tool that you need for the pressing job that is still on you honey-do-list. In the dim light, even as the bulb flickers above it is still difficult to see every part of the shed. You are forced to trust your instincts and remember back to the last time you used that tool where you may have put it as you fumble around in the darkness, tripping over the scattered tools on the floor. Finally you find the tool for the job, you breathe a sigh of relief and frustration at the mess you have left the old shed. You think to yourself that you really need to clean this mess up, but again it is left for another day. Imagine if […]

Read More

A couple of days from now most men will be scrambling around to get to the local florist and Hallmark store to make their wives day special.  As a married man we dread this day more and more each year as we always feel the pressure to outdo last year’s festivities much less anyone else that our wives may know that might embarrass our feeble attempts at ingenuity. This is not to say that Valentine’s Day is not a special day that we should express our undying love for our wives; then again shouldn’t we as Christian men be doing that every day? We are taught throughout scripture (repeatedly) that we should love our wives, neighbors, enemies and well anyone that may ever cross our path right?  Nowhere does it say “men buy your wife a box of chocolate, ridiculously expensive flowers and a card to express your love to her.” Granted that probably sounded a bit blasphemous to those that don’t know any better and think that they are remiss if jewelry, flowers and chocolate are not bought (preferably before the day of gentlemen) for Valentine’s Day to be special. Valentine’s Day originally started out as a liturgical celebration of one of the early Christian saints, Valentinus(Saint Valentine).   It has also been associated with a Roman festival that involved sacrificing goats and dogs and then flogging women with the skins of the sacrifice.  It was not until the time of Geoffery Chaucer that Valentines was associated with love, cupid and the sort. So gentlemen […]

Read More