Matthew 20:16 He must increase; I must decrease.”

Luke 9:48 For He who is least among you all is the one who is great.”

Let’s face it, no one wants to be the second man. No one likes to feel second to anyone. No one endorses the runner who wins silver, no one gets their picture on a Wheaty Box, or a mega shoe deal for second place, no visits to the White House for the team that loses the Super Bowl. No woman loves it when her man puts her second on the priority list of things to do in a day. No guy wants to be strung along in the back pocket by the girl of his dreams, just in case her first choice falls through. No one wants to be that guy or girl. No one. I’ve experienced it before, many times, that’s me, I am the second man. How about you? Have you ever been there? Are you there now? Did you know that Jesus actually wants us to embrace the position of being the second man? We are taught in this world that winning is everything and coming first is what counts. But Jesus flips the worlds values upside down. The disciples argued in front of Jesus about who is going to be greatest in the kingdom. They had forgotten all that Jesus had taught in the previous verses, that to truly save your life, you must deny yourself, you must lose it! To be great in His kingdom you must become least. Maybe the next time we find ourselves losing the promotion we wanted so badly to our coworker, we pray blessings for him or her and throw them a party, what if we put our pride second and forgive the person that so hurt us, what if we put our busy agenda second and actually take the time to serve someone who needs to know God loves them, what if that person is our enemy? What if we do as John the Baptist said, “I must decrease He must increase”. The Bible compares this life to a race but for us to win this prize, we must come second, He must come first. This way of life is not easy because it’s so contrary to the worlds values but soon when we cross the finish line and see Jesus face to face, He will remind us that we were always His number one and suddenly second place won’t seem so bad after all. So the next time you’re feeling low for coming up short, just tell your pride to get back in the coffin where it belongs, and declare to it, “Jesus first, I am the second man. “

CYRANO: Ah no! young blade! That was a trifle short!
You might have said at least a hundred things
By varying the tone. . .like this, suppose,. . .
Aggressive: ‘Sir, if I had such a nose I’d amputate it!’
Friendly: ‘When you sup It must annoy you, dipping in your cup;
You need a drinking-bowl of special shape!’
Descriptive: ”Tis a rock!. . .a peak!. . .a cape! —
A cape, forsooth! ‘Tis a peninsular!’ 

Ah, the famous nose scene from Cyrano De Bergerac, a classic play and one of my favorites. It’s actually one of my dream roles that I would love to perform if I ever act again in the theater. The play was written by Edmund Rostand in 1897. It’s premise is about a soldier, a dashing officer of the guard and a romantic poet, who secretly falls in love with his distant cousin Roxanne, but there’s a couple of obstacles. One is his big nose that he feels hinders him from telling Roxanne his true feelings and the other is that Roxanne falls in love with one of his cadets, Christian and asks Cyrano to protect him for her. Christian, the handsome cadet loves Roxanne too but is inept when it comes to talking to women he likes. He asks Cyrano for help. Cyrano disappointed of course, agrees to write love letters to Roxanne on behalf of Christian not because of Christian but because he loves Roxanne so much that he’d do anything to see that she was happy. There’s a wonderful balcony scene where Cyrano is coaching Christian in trying to woo Roxanne. Christian of course tries to speak on his own and fumbles with his words. Roxanne is about to leave in disgust and return to her bedroom but Cyrano prevents her.  He puts on Christian’s hat and begins to whisper sweet words of love to her in the darkness. Roxanne, thinking it’s Christian, is smitten and totally won over by his words. When Cyrano is finished, Christian climbs up on the balcony and he is the one who gets to feel her embrace, he is the one who gets to kiss her lips. Cyrano is torn to want Roxanne for himself, but he lets her go into the arms of the man whom she loves. All Cyrano can do is watch from the distance. Roxanne and Christian soon marry but are separated when Cyrano and his cadets are sent to the front lines of battle. Cyrano, continues to pose as Christian and writes to Roxanne everyday of his love for her.  He even sacrifices himself to cross through enemy lines just to mail her the love letters. Cyrano tries to protect Christian but Christian eventually dies on the battlefield. Years after the battle, Cyrano visits Roxanne regularly to give her the news of the day. She has never remarried and lives in a convent still mourning the death of Christian. However, one day while on his way to visit Roxanne, an enemy of his, swings a log in his direction and Cyrano gets a serious blow to the head injuring him. He tries to cover up his injury and finally makes it to the convent looking all pale and tired. He asks Roxanne if he could read Christian’s last letter he wrote to her before he died. Roxanne gives it to him and he begins to read it to her. Suddenly, the candle goes out and they are now in darkness but Cyrano knows the letter by heart and continues to recite the letter to her. It is at this point she realizes that he was the one all along who wrote the letters and she declares her love for him. He then breathes his last and dies in her arms. Wow, what a moving story of a man who instead of using his gifts and his talents for himself, he uses it for a noble cause, he uses the poetic genius of his words and sacrifices his very life for the life of His love. He gives up his dreams, his wants, his needs, for another, a selfless love. Isn’t that also just like our God?! We are His prized possession, we are His bride, He loves us so much even when we can’t see it, even when we choose to fall in love with the things of this world over Him. He still gives up everything, the throne of heaven, for a manger in a stable, a crown of jewels for a crown of thorns and still we look to others to fulfill us. Still we fill our hearts with a cheap imitation of love that the world gives and we come up empty every single time. Yet still He pursues us, He writes us everyday His love letters, words written in His blood, letters that we sometimes take for granted collecting dust on our coffee tables.   What is it going to take for us to have our eyes opened in the dark, to see for the first time that He is our only true love? When will we stop mourning after the loss of our “Christian” and open our eyes to see that Jesus the “Cyrano” of our soul has been visiting us all along? When will we truly discover that nothing will ever satisfy or come close to the love He has for us? A love that is pure, a love that is selfless. My prayer for us is that we don’t realize this at the end of the third act, we discover it now. We realize it before the curtain falls. My prayer is that we would invite Him up on the balcony for a passionate embrace and a holy kiss. My prayer is that we would once again rediscover that Jesus is all we ever needed for our lonely hearts. Do you hear that? Every night He calls out from the darkness below the balcony of our hearts. Will we sleep through the night or will we rise to meet Him under the pale moonlight? It’s our choice. He is a perfect gentleman and He will never force us but He will always be there every night just waiting for you and me to wake up from our tired and dull chambers.  Wake up from our slumber Bride of Christ! Jesus, our  lover is here, we will not be disappointed. He will whisper to our longing souls some of the most beautiful love sonnets ever spoken. He will quench the thirst of our lonely hearts. He will wipe away all our tears. Quiet, be still now, do you hear Him calling?  Listen as He woos us with these words, “You Are my Beloved and you will always be my Beloved.”

Song of Solomon 8:6

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.” 

Song of Solomon 8:3

“I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” 

Have you ever had your computer get hacked? Has this happened to you? You click on a link in your email from a friend of yours, only to find it was a virus you just downloaded to your computer? Then crash, instead of “you got mail”, “you got hacked!”? If it hasn’t happened to you yet, don’t worry, you’ll get your chance to experience it. Hackers are everywhere roaming online for someone to prey upon and if you’re not careful, you could be their next victim. I was a victim recently. I was catfished. A term that originated over the years since online dating and Facebook became popular. It’s basically a term used to describe a person who poses as someone else to hack into your personal information. A friend of mine told me of a free dating site he was using and so I signed up for it too. After signing up, I immediately received a response from a woman who liked my picture. That should’ve been a clue but I fell for the bait. We started texting and for awhile it seemed promising. I asked her if she wanted to meet up, she said yes and we made plans. But on the night of our date, I got to the restaurant we agreed to, and she never showed up. I texted her too through the dating app but nothing, no response. It wasn’t until I texted her, that I was going home, she finally responded with a lame excuse. So I got a weird feeling and I looked her up on Facebook and when I looked closely at her pictures, I noticed they subtly looked like different people. She also had no friends and I thought that was odd. Long story short, I decided to report on it and sure enough found out that my account was hacked. Thank God she or he did not get any personal information from me. I discovered for the first time, the online world can be a scary place and people aren’t always who they say they are. Next time I venture to do anything like this again in the future, I will be more alert about this kind of scamming and watch for the signs. Also, I’m going to stick to the main dating sites, not these free hookup apps. I can’t believe that there are actual nut cases that get their kicks off of preying on people that are sincerely looking for companionship. I think it’s sick and twisted. But this experience got me thinking about how the devil prowls around this planet looking to devour the vulnerable. He’s like a hacker on the internet looking to prey upon our weaknesses. He poses as an angel of light, a Match.com friend looking for love but in reality, all he wants is to hack into our account and steal our personal information and use that to destroy our lives. As believers we need to be alert to the devil’s schemes. Just like we give up our personal computers to be controlled by an anti-virus software to protect us, we need to give up our deep desires and needs to the Lord’s control. We trust our personal information to a third party software company, we need to turn over our personal lives to Jesus and put our trust in Him. This is what Paul means when he says to put on the full armor of God. Essentially what he is saying is to put on Jesus Christ fully. Don’t hold anything back, give Him control of everything, stop trying to meet your needs your way. When our personal lives are fully under His control we are fully protected.  If He’s not fully in control, then our needs and desires will be given over easily to someone else and that’s when the enemy can hack into our lives and destroy us. And unlike computers, we can’t be easily replaced. Remember, God has our best interest in hand, His plans are to prosper us, not to harm us. He loves us and His love is real, not some scammer out to hurt us. He wants to friend you on your Facebook. If you haven’t added Him yet, why not? He loves everything about your profile, He knows more about you than you know about you. So why not give Him everything? Give Him your loneliness, give Him your relationships, give Him your dreams, give Him your unfulfilled needs, give Him your whole heart, leave nothing back and trust Him. We can’t put on the full armor of God if we are still wearing the armor of our own. Remember, He promises to fully protect us if we will only fully give up our control and trust Him! Stand firm in Him! It’s time for the enemy’s profile to be permanently blocked. His hacker days are over. It’s so much better God’s way, Hallelujah! Praise Jesus Christ, the great defender of my heart!!!

1 Peter 5:8
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Ephesians 6:11
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

Psalm 23

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.”

I was reading this once and the Lord opened my eyes to see something I had never noticed before.  I love how in verse 3, it starts out, “He restores my soul” and then right after that,  David says he “leads me in paths of righteousness”.  Then he goes into the part about God leading us through the valley of the shadow of death! Wow! Do you see it? This is the part God revealed to me.   He restores my soul by leading me through the valley of the shadow of death!  Yes!!!!! Sometimes,  He will lead us in paths that lead to green pastures and peaceful streams.   I definitely can see how that can refresh our souls but what if trials we go through and difficulties we face are meant by our Savior to do the very same thing? I believe they are. I heard a pastor once say problems refresh us! What if we changed our mindsets from “Lord,  get me out of this!”,  to “Lord thank you that you are restoring my soul!”.  God has a bigger picture we can’t see it yet but there is a purpose in the valley, and one of those purposes is to refresh us! The Lord is our Shepherd, we shall never want! He restores our soul. 

There she was, Stacy Fabian, the pastor’s daughter, the most beautiful girl my nine year old eyes had ever beheld. The adults were having church and us big kids were out in the lobby unsupervised and there I was in the same room with her. Wow, I couldn’t believe it, how could a guy like me get so lucky? For the next hour or so, I never felt so alive. I knew I needed to act fast or I’d lose her attention, so I did what any nine year old boy would do when he was with the girl of his dreams. I picked up a live roach from the floor and introduced her to my new friend Harvey and then I threw it at her. She ducked out of the way, screamed and giggled while running away from me. But I wasn’t going to let her get away that easily. Harvey had friends too. So I picked up another one and I began chasing her around the lobby trying to get a good shot at her. One finally landed in her beautiful blonde hair. Just when I thought I had gone too far, she totally proved her love for me too. This marvelous creature standing before me, pulled the roach out of her goldillocks and flung it right back at me. I was hooked and my heart started singing, and dancing like Gene Kelly in “Singing in the Rain”, splashing around in puddles. This amazing euphoria, this feeling, this was real love people! Okay, well at least I thought it was, but give me a break, I was nine years old. For the first time, I actually wanted the church service to go longer, let the time go by, I didn’t care, I was in the moment. Unfortunately the service ended sooner than expected and just like that, the moment was gone. On the way home that night I was love sick and all I could think about was Stacey and me. My heart longed to be with her again. I think I even had a dream that night we got married and lived happily ever after on a farm where we raised roaches. Anyway, Stacy and I were not meant to be but I’ve encountered many more people throughout my life, whom I wanted nothing but to spend time with them, to just be in their presence. People who just gave me real joy and happiness when I was with them. People whom I enjoyed their company so much I could spend all day with them, and read a phone book together  and never get bored. Have you ever experienced relationships like that, whether male or female, romantic or just as friends? I think we all have had one or two in our lifetime. And this led me to think about our relationship with God. Do we get as passionate about our God as we do sometimes with other people? I was recently meditating on a Bible verse, “in your presence is the fullness of joy”. The Psalmist is talking about how just spending time in God’s presence fills him with all gladness and joy. And I got to wondering, do I come away with the fullness of gladness when I spend time with God? Do I lose my sense of time and get caught up in the moment of just enjoying God to the fullest? I do that with my human relationships, why not with God? And sadly, I have to admit, most of my time with God can be routine and dry. It seems like I go through a ritual of checking the boxes. Check box #1 : Read my 10 minute devotional.  Check box #2: say my 10 minute prayer. Check box #3: Read two chapters in the Old Testament and one in the New. Check, check , check, and then, after all the boxes are checked, I’m out the door ready to live my day, and praying occasionally before my meals. Does this sound like you too? I don’t know about you but I want to experience more of Him in my life. I want to hunger and thirst for God and get excited to meet with Him and enjoy His presence. If you’re like me, I’m sure you do too. If you’re feeling a little stale, let’s think outside of our little check boxes. Let’s figure out what things refresh us and let’s do them with God. Is it kayaking, sitting near a lake, going for a walk, painting, fishing, playing music? Whatever, you enjoy, just spend time alone with your Maker and enjoy it with Him. Maybe a cabin retreat for a weekend just you and Him, no phone, no Facebook, just a Bible and a notepad. Whatever you think of, remember this is a relationship not a religious thing. Just talk to Him normal like, no need for ritualistic “Our Father thou art in heaven”, prayers. Just talk to Him with reverence but as a friend, sing to Him a love song as you would to someone you’re madly in love with and wherever you are or whatever you’re doing, acknowledge Him with thankfulness and don’t forget to listen. So what are you waiting for? Make it fun, get creative with your Creator today.  May He fill you my friend with the fullness of His joy, so when the rains of life pour, you’ll be splashing in rain puddles with God,  lost in the moment, just “Singing In the Rain”.

Psalm 16:11
“in your presence there is fullness of joy;”

Psalm 42
For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.
1
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”

My first job ever, I worked for a greenhouse growing flowers and various plants. I worked during the hot summer days for eight hours on my knees in the dirt picking weeds. I helped set up sprinklers and even did some planting but what I remember the most was how hot it would get under the sun. All I could think about was taking my first break so I could get some water. I would bring with me a gallon of frozen water in one of those plastic milk jugs, so by the time it was break time, that frozen block of ice would transform quickly into a nice cold refreshment of water. Once our boss made us work a little bit longer without a break. All I kept thinking in that moment was I’m going to pass out, I’m not going to make it. I would look over to where our cars were parked. It was quite a distance and somewhere over there was my water jug calling out my name.   I could barely see it but there it was lying on top of the trunk of my car melting in the sun. I started to wonder is this how people feel when they’re stranded in the desert sun? I was so thirsty I expected to see mirages of swimming pools or cascading waterfalls.  All I wanted was to quench my thirst but under the circumstances, I was not able to fulfill that need that I wanted so desperately.  In Psalm 42, we read the Psalmist was so desperate in wanting his needs to be fulfilled, he compared himself to a deer panting for water in a dry land. Here the Psalmist is lamenting the fact that He is lacking in spiritual refreshment and even dealing with some circumstances that are causing him great grief. Instead of drinking from the living wells of His God, he is having to drink the water of his tears. He longs for being in God’s presence in Jerusalem again with God’s people so he can be refreshed once again. But for whatever reason God is not allowing that, He is not providing for him. He is faced with doubts, “where is your God”, “why am I downcast?”, he even feels distant from God. In verse 6, he mentions being in “the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.”. There was a considerable distance between being where he was in his physical location to being in Jerusalem where the tabernacle was, and so he longed for this, his heart ached for home.  How about us? Do we ever find ourselves drinking the water of our tears because the true source of our sustenance is taking too long to deliver us? Do we find ourselves spiritually dry, struggling with doubt, feeling God is distant, all is lost, hopeless? The Psalmist here was in that very position but what we can learn from him, was that even though he knew his needs were not being met, he made sure he did one thing, he remembered. He reminded himself of the times that God was there for him to meet his needs. Throughout the Psalm he says, “These things I remember as I pour out my soul:”,”therefore I will remember you”. The Psalmist knew that even though he was in a dry spell, God had refreshed him many times in the past and because of this , he could find a renewed hope to keep trusting in His God throughout his difficulties. When spiritually dry, we who are believers should remind ourselves that God is sufficient for all our needs too. This remembrance will encourage us to continue to trust Him while we go through our temporarily distressing periods. Thirsty? Remember, He’s got the Gatorade, hold fast, put your trust in Him, break time is coming. 

Psalm 42:11
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Psalm 46:7

“The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah.”

I was meditating on this verse one morning and I started to ponder on this statement and what it could mean. “The God of Jacob is our fortress.” Then comes the word “Selah”, which is to pause and calmly think about what has just been said or sung. And so I asked myself why the God of Jacob? Why not the God of Israel? Remember Jacob? He lived his life as a deceiver, manipulator, stole his brother’s birthright and lived most of his life running from God. It wasn’t until God had to finally wrestle with Jacob that he finally got his attention and that’s when he got the name Israel. So why not use that name Israel instead of Jacob? Well, I thought I’d do some more studying on the author of this Psalm.  I found out, it was not David.  No in fact, this is one of the eleven Psalms written by the sons of Korah. So, who were the sons of Korah? What’s interesting is that back when Moses and Aaron led the Israelites, there was a man named Korah who led a revolt of 250 men against Moses and Aaron to take over the priesthood by force. Moses stood in front of the people and declared if God was on His side, than let the earth open up and swallow Korah and his men, but if God was on Korah’s side, then let Korah and his men have success. Well, sure enough God opened up the earth and Korah and his men were engulfed that day wiping them all out. Yet, despite Korah’s wickedness, God out of His great mercy, spared the sons of Korah. The descendants of Korah eventually through the years became the door keepers of the tabernacle and then were shown great love and compassion by King David, that he eventually gave them a place in the tabernacle to lead the people in worship. The sons of Korah have written some of the most beautiful Psalms including “as the deer pants for water”. In all of their songs, there is a deep longing to be with God and a gratefulness for God’s love. And then as I discovered this, it all made perfect sense. Perhaps, the descendants of Korah knew that God should’ve never have spared them in the first place. Perhaps, they were so touched by the thought that God loved them so much, they called Him, the God of Jacob for this very reason. Perhaps, they wanted us to know that our God is the fortress for the SINNER! Not for the one who cleans up his act and does good and earns it but for the one who messes up more than gets it right, for the one who sins and doesn’t deserve it. How comforting it is to know that salvation is not based on what we do but on what He’s done out of love for us. He is our Savior and died for us the sinner to save us from an eternity apart from Him. Like Jacob, He loves us despite our tendencies to run from him and He reminds us, that He’s always there for us to run back to Him, where we can be safe and secure and loved forever.  Hallelujah! He loves to save imperfect us! All praise to the God of Jacob! SELAH!!!!!!

Psalm 84:1 “How lovely is your dwelling place, O God.”

Psalm 46:1–3
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”

Faith operates out of love. In order for faith to grow it is not up to us to muster up the strength to have more faith. Faith grows when we continually renew our minds on how much we are loved by God. The more we know we are loved the more we will trust in Him when faced with difficult situations! So enjoy Him today and thank Him for how awesome He is and all that He’s done for us! “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with him graciously give us all things?” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us”! Nothing can separate us from the love of God who is in Christ Jesus our Lord!!!!” Never ever stop dwelling on how much you are loved for that is how we will experience the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-18
17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God

You want a warranty with that toaster? A question we all get when buying something of value. Well, maybe not toasters but cars, electronics, houses. Why, this question? Cause we all have received a gift or bought something for ourselves only to find that it doesn’t work or it falls apart. Life happens and sometimes the rain pours and we find out that the new house we had built, has a leaky roof. Usually there’s a ninety day warranty for the products we buy at the stores. So that if anything happens to the product, we can return it and exchange it for a new one. After ninety days though, sorry out of luck, you’re either gonna have to fix it yourself or buy a new one. This has happened to me quite a bit. It can be very frustrating when a product I expected to work, breaks and doesn’t function properly and on top of that, the warranty expires. Yes, I’ve been there and it’s no fun. But for all those times something broke and I had a warranty, it definitely put me at ease knowing all I had to do was exchange the old one and receive the new. So, I was thinking about this and how this relates to our lives and our relationship with God. Hey, I’m a Christian blogger that’s what I do. I’ve been thinking about my life and how many times it seems like I’m a broken piece of equipment. I fail more than I succeed, my heart gets easily broken into pieces, and there are more times I don’t operate like the owner’s manual says I’m supposed to. I feel like I’m a vacuum cleaner and instead of sucking up the dirt, I’m spewing out dirt instead. I end up making a mess of things and instead of being useful and serving the true purpose for my life, I end up hurting others and myself, again and again. I fall apart and then I try and fix my own problems by reading the owner’s manual about the parts that need fixing but its all to no avail. I lose hope and then I compare myself to others and how they are living and they seem to be doing great. They don’t seem to struggle with certain sins, they don’t seem to have any issues, life is great for them, so what’s up with me? Where did I go wrong? And then God reminded me of a time years ago when I asked the Lord, I cried out to Him with all my heart, that He would help change me. “God change me!”, I cried out. Then He spoke these words and it was just a thought in my mind. It was this, “My Son, stop asking me to change you, and start thanking me that I’ve exchanged you!”. Wow, I never thought of that before. When I initially put my trust in Christ, I was exchanged. I became a new creation. Scripture says, “if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come”. The old man has died, I’ve been given a new life, a new mind, a new heart, a new beginning and it’s only found when I exchanged myself for His grace. That truth has been a blessing for me for years but I’ve been finding myself lately struggling again and that’s when God reminded me today, to renew my mind again with this truth. The Bible says “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but daily renew your mind”. That means exchanging the lies of the enemy for the truth of who we are in Him. And that means we do it daily. Sometimes I forget to do that. Thank you God for your grace and your daily reminder of this promise. This life can be hard and with the challenges and temptations we face on a daily basis, we can find ourselves broken once again, with a leaky roof. Sometimes we can struggle just to function properly and we can easily give up. But that’s exactly what we need to do. Just Give up! Give up trying, give up fixing it, and just give it up to the one who will take our brokenness, our struggles, our weaknesses, our lives and exchange it for His life, through His endless grace. So how about you? Frustrated your life is not working out, struggling with the same old sins? Breathe in and breathe out, and take those burdens down to customer service.  Present  your receipt bought with His blood, and exchange those lies for His truth that says you are already brand new. Remember with Him, the warranty never expires.

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

“Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” I cried out loud over and over again. There was no way this could be happening to me but it was. I thought I was going to die. I found myself going from a nice evening stroll around the block, to then running like a maniac screaming my head off, while being chased by two stray dogs. Not just any dogs, these were mean dogs, black furry beasts of the night, growling and barking behind me, with bloodthirsty fangs ready to devour me at any point. Okay, maybe I’m embellishing a little bit but these were no Chihuahuas and they were not looking for a friendly game of catch the frisbee either.  I shuddered to think about what they were going to do to me. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to pass by an apartment under construction under dim lighting but too late to go back now. My adrenaline kicked in, my heart started racing and I transformed myself into the fastest runner on the planet and if I was being timed, I would’ve probably had the world record beat with no problem. And to think just moments ago, I was planning my future. I was going to accomplish big things, from my acting career, to my scripts, to the women I was going to date. There was no thought of God but it didn’t matter, I was in control of my destiny and I was achieving my happiness. Funny how all of that quickly changes when your life is on the line. What once was so important to me, suddenly became trivial and all I cared about was just wanting to live through another day. God was no longer a distant thought but now at the forefront of my mind. The only words I could muster from my lips was “Jesus” and just when I felt I couldn’t handle it anymore, the dogs retreated, they turned around and went back. Next thing I know, I ended up flopping myself onto a grassy median in a Walmart plaza, my heart pounding like it was going to explode. It took me probably a good half hour before I could get back up again and walk home. All I kept thinking in the back of my mind was how did I outrun a couple of dogs and how did I end up at Walmart? All I knew was God had answered my prayer that night and I really didn’t deserve it. In fact even though I was a Christian, I started to live my life apart from God and compromise my values. I was independent now of my parents, living on my own in the world and instead of holding onto the Christian values I was taught, I instead opted to live for my own selfish purposes, not for His. I forgot everything that He had done for me and I wanted nothing to do with Him. And to think that He delivered me that night was so inconceivable. Why? Why did He bother? If I was God, I would’ve just let “slip the dogs of war” and have them rip me to pieces, leaving me dead for the vultures to feast on in a Walmart parking lot. Then all who were driving to Walmart that evening could see this is what happens when you betray me!  So don’t mess with me, Walmart shoppers, I’m Tom Ryan Almighty!!  But thankfully God doesn’t react to us like we would when we are wronged or betrayed by others.  No, God doesn’t give up on us, doesn’t repay us evil for evil. In fact the Bible says “For God so loved the world”.  That means not just those in the world that agreed with Him, not just those who followed Him and loved Him back, no He loved the world. And that includes those who did not love Him back, those who did not obey His teachings, those like Judas who betrayed Him with a kiss, those who shouted”Crucify! Crucify!”, even you and me who should’ve died on that tree. “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us”.  Wow, what a Savior,  that He would love us despite our sinfulness and give up His life for us to deliver us from hell,  so that we can receive eternal life and salvation by His grace alone. As I walk this life with Him now, I often look back on that night and I realize God did much more than just rescue me from becoming a Scooby snack. He taught me a valuable lesson of His unconditional love and that there is nothing I can do to earn or lose His love.  He loves me because that is who He is and because of that love, it compels me to love others the same way, whether they deserve it or not.  Each night God laces up His sneakers and invites me to join Him for another evening stroll.   I find there’s nothing better to end the day than a moonlight walk under the stars with the one who made the stars.  I am forever grateful and just like the Psalmist David, proclaimed, my heart cries out with awe and wonder, “Oh God, ‘what is man that You are mindful of him?’ “.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Psalm 103:10
He does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

Psalm 8:4
What is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?