Fear, The Green Lantern and Traffic Lights
Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in Green Lantern. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
I had the opportunity this weekend to sit down and watch the movie the Green Lantern. I have to admit I was blown away by the special effects and the realistic CGI. Beyond all that widow dressing was a story with a good biblical message interwoven in it. What I found very interesting is the different colors represented in the film and their meaning. Green, yellow and red, yes the color of a traffic signal. Like a traffic signal each color has the same meaning.
In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!!!
I guess that is what is called the Green Lantern’s oath. I love all the symbolism in this oath. How light overcomes darkness. The sound of determination and courage in this oath is pretty awesome. The color green here represents will or goodness. Green in a traffic signal means to go. The above verse shows that with faith, courage and determination, love is never ending. God has given us a free will to do with as we please or as He pleases. The other cool aspect in the film is the green ring is only limited by your own imagination. This is the aspect of faith. God does not want us shrinking back and giving up, He wants us going through the green light into the realm of the unknown. We have to allow our faith to give us courage to move to the next level that God has planned for us.
The next color is yellow. This in a traffic signal means to be careful. It’s also the color of fear. You know the old saying, “He had a yellow streak a mile wide on his back.” Fear is what keeps us just mediocre. It takes the excellence away in our life and gives us the attitude of “that’s good enough.” Fear in my estimation is the ultimate evil. It makes you do things that you would not normally do if you had courage to face what needs to be faced; whatever that may be. Fear puts us on the fence between good and evil. It makes us lukewarm. In Revelation John tells us that being lukewarm makes God want to toss His cookies. That’s why I say fear if unchecked, as in the film, can be the ultimate evil. God would rather us be just plain evil than sitting on the fence between green and red. The enemy feeds on our fears and can use our imagination to our great disadvantage. As always Satan twists things around to the point of taking the good God meant for us and making it a negative. So like faith, lets use our imagination to keep us moving forward to where God wants us to be. Fear uses our imagination to cripple us into believing the negative thing will happen.
Finally red represents evil. Or in the traffic signal it means stop. Which if you are in a hurry to get somewhere can be the ultimate evil. Red was not represented in the film at all, but it is in the animated series (yes I’m a kid at heart). Yes there are Red Lanterns out there. Guess what they are, all very evil. Rage and hatred is what powers them. Evil is just plain evil and when it happens it can stop us dead in our tracks. It can keep our momentum in check. Tragedy, trials and tribulations can be devastating to our lives if we continue to wallow in them. Staying strong in the word and allowing friends to encourage us can get us past these anchors that can keep us from the path. Fear can set in as well when these things happen.
I’m not saying that we can eliminate all fear, that’s impossible. As Hal Jordan said in the film, “We are human!!” Fear can be our best friend or our worst enemy. We can make a choice to accept the circumstances and face them head on, or we can go the other direction and run away. The green light is faith and courage, these will move you onward. The yellow light is setting yourself up for bondage and slowing your momentum. The red light is evil, it is there to destroy you. Thank you God that your light is green and that because of that, we can move on through life without being scared and fearful and possibly stopped dead in our tracks. Funny how a movie and a traffic light can symbolize our life and our walk with Christ.
Life Lessons from an 80's Movie
I revisited an old favorite 80′s movie tonight, The Last Starfighter. I love its ridiculous premise and it’s extremely dated 80′s-style CGI. However, I wasn’t prepared to have a powerful life lesson dropped in my lap.
The main character lives in a trailer park when the movie starts. He does odd jobs like fixing antennas and dreams of leaving for something better.
Second Mile Week 8: The Meaning Of It All
On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart. John 7:37-38
Last night was an incredible night for the last night of Second Mile classes. Pastor’s Mundo and Dan brought some awesome teaching to us last night. God was really moving in our last class in a powerful way. I can’t add on to the teaching that was so strongly and passionately taught. If you went through this class and you were not changed somehow you really missed the mark. For myself I can say I have lived the Second Mile lifestyle, but the class and the teaching has really sharpened what I have already known. Not to say I have not learned anything, I learned a ton, and a lot more about myself. This class has taken me to the next level in my growth with Christ.
For one thing it has given me a group of people that I can be accountable to at church that are for me. The above scripture is what I am talking about, living water flowing from hearts. What does this living water look like that Jesus was talking about? First it’s non-judgmental. It does not see the sin, it sees the saint. It sees the person that is trying desperately to be the person God wants him or her to be. Second Mile living is knowing you are not alone in your walk, and that “no man is an island unto himself”. We need community. What I learned is that my burdens are my godly friends burdens. I can probably say for the first time in my life I really understand this concept of living water flowing. The living water is the agape love that the Holy Spirit puts into our hearts so that our living water can flow out from us to someone else. Strength in numbers is what I learned, God wants us to have people in our lives that can give us the extra push through to the next level.
Another leadership idea I took from this class was the idea of servant leadership. Leading by example. Doing what needs to be done with a smile on your face and a great attitude. It’s the living water concept all over again. What a better way to lead than to inspire those around you by getting you hands dirty along side them. What an awesome way to love people by showing them an attitude of servant hood. Jesus was the best example of this, He was in charge, but He also could come down to everyone’s level and serve. In fact it says in the scripture that He came not to be served, but to serve. The living water leaks out when you lead like this, leading from your heart.
The last thought I have is the idea of passing on what I learned. We have to bring up other leaders, and what a better rewarding way to go than to replace yourself. Teach others what you know so that when you move on to something else, the gap will be filled. The world does not lead this way, they want to keep everything damned up in themselves. We have to let the living water flow from us and touch others lives. When we build leaders, we make people stronger and more confident to finish this life strong. So I guess the meaning of it all is this one simple thing, let agape love be your guiding light in this dark world. It can never steer you wrong and it will always see the good in people and the potential of future leaders. We need each other, we need to serve each other and we need to build each other up. That is the Second Mile attitude.
Second Mile Retreat: Credit where Credit is Due
Similarly, encourage the young men to be self‑controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. Titus 2:6-8
The Second Mile Retreat this weekend was life changing for many including myself. The teaching from all the Pastors was top notch and straight from the Holy Spirit. I wish I could but down all that I learned in this blog, but I don’t have the time or your patience to write all that was talked about. I am as always, going to write about a side topic that Pastor John mentioned during his awesome message about having emotional security. One thing he was taking about that reminded me of a conversation I had with him once on my weight loss was just saying thank you when someone gives you praise. He had asked me how much weight I lost and I told him my loss was 242 pounds, and he said wow, that’s awesome. I was trying to be spiritual because after all this is my pastor, and said it wasn’t me, it was God. Which he gave me this deep truth that I will never forget, he said, “Well, you need to take a lot of the credit because you made the choices to get to this point.” I’m not sure if that is exactly what he said, but it’s the essence of what he said.
Up to this point I have given God all the credit, but in reality God put some people in my life to help me make correct choices that ended up in self-control. Self-control is just that, controlling yourself, your actions, your choices YOU make. You ultimately can make or break your life. When you are angry, you had a choice either to get angry or to not get angry. One of the greatest gifts God has given us is our own free will. We have a choice, should we accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord, or reject Him. Life is full of choices, both good and bad. It’s no wonder God chooses to reward us when we choose to do something good. Making a godly choice brings us closer to Him and makes us more Christ-like. The above verses illustrate this. I think for me to give God all the credit cheapens what He truly did for me and that was make me the way I am. Individual identity goes a long way toward loving ourselves the way God loves us. The enemy makes us think that if we give ourselves too much credit for our own choices that we are bragging on ourselves. The truth is, there is a fine line. You can be humble and accept the credit for your own godly choices. If you want strong Holy Spirit direction in your life, self-control is the starting point. It is after all a fruit of the Spirit.
A couple of dangers that go along with this thought. You can get a big head and start really bragging on yourself. You can avoid this by remembering what you once were, and where you came from. Had grace and favor from God not been in your life you would never have achieved what you achieved. That’s where we give credit to God, in His grace and favor. The other danger is going too far with the self-control and becoming controlling. You put yourself in complete control of your life. This means you have taken God off the thrown of your life. Really these two dangers go hand in hand and can be thwarted by knowing your place in Christ. It comes down to another choice for you to make. Should you have an attitude of pride or of praise? Pride puts you on the thrown of your life and makes you arrogant. Praise is knowing who you are in this great big universe and knowing who God is and compared to Him, you are not big enough to be microscopic. Pride will eventually lead your life to ruin. Praise will make your life flourish and grow. So, don’t let pride or false humility keep you from accepting praise from people. Take credit, but also know where you are from, and know that God had a hand in getting you to the place you are today. Don’t forget God gave us a free will and is not the almighty puppet master. He allows us to make our own choices and rewards us with fruit when we make the godly ones.
Second MIle week 7: Chicken Spirit, or Holy Spirit; Your Choice
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:6-7
Some of the most awesome thoughts come to me during the early part of the morning when the Holy Spirit is moving. I have to let the sleep go and write down theses thoughts. Pastor Dan shared this nugget of scripture this week in our Second Mile Leadership class. He focused on verse 7, but I want to talk about both verses. In the last two blogs I emphasized how people that God chooses for us can be very effective in eliminating strongholds in our lives. This week I am going to focus on how God uses people not only to get us past strongholds in our lives, but make us bold.
Verse 6 speaks of how the on laying of hands can strengthen us. God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit when Jesus left us; when we encourage each other we make that gift even stronger. The very act of laying your hands on someone who needs prayer can make that person bold for the cause of Christ. Last night as a case and point I had hands laid on me and a strong powerful prayer was delivered to me by a friend. I needed that prayer to give me boldness to go the next step God wants me to take. There is strength in numbers, God wants us to have that boldness; not the spirit of a chicken as Pastor Dan so eloquently put. God has really laid on my heart to say we need our godly friends. There are so many examples in scriptures of different men of God that had friends beside them. Moses had his brother Aaron, David had Jonathan and Jesus had Peter, James and John. We can’t just pick anyone to be there for us, we have to use Holy Spirit discernment. God will show us the right people if we focus on Him. If you feel alone, sometimes it’s you that has to take the first step of friendship. The spirit of a chicken is a choice, and some people choose not to come out and connect with others because of some fear of being hurt. That trend can end if you work toward taking a step of faith.
Verse 7 is so awesome. The gift of the Holy Spirit is not there to keep under wraps. He can’t be silent if we have strong godly friends fanning Him into flame. When that happens as it says in verse 7, we have power. Not like power over the world or forceful strength, but humble strength; the strength to love unconditionally. Taking the negative of the world and turning it to a positive. When we enter a room God wants us to be the light that shines in that dark room where everyone else is down in the dumps. To change the atmosphere of a room takes a bold step. You can’t shrink back and be timid. The final cool thing that the power of the Holy Spirit gives us is self-control. Let me put it this way, if you can give unconditional love, you are bold and you have major self-control. Self-control in essence is confidence. The fruit of the Spirit is confidence in yourself and what you are doing. You know who you are in Christ. When that happens there is no chicken spirit within you.
We need the laying on of hand of godly people in our lives. They will make us bold and love the right way. We will have self-control that will produce confidence to make us the bold leaders God wants us to be. A spirit of a chicken or the powerful, loved filled boldness of the Holy Spirit of God; your choice.
Second Mile Week 6 Part II: A Mighty Fortress Replaces The Stronghold
For you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the foe. Psalm 61:3
I don’t usually write a follow up blog, but I felt I needed to add more to the strongholds blog I did last week. As a review, strongholds are weaknesses in our lives we allow the enemy to set up camp in our backyard. These are to be taken care of with other believers in your life that can support and encourage you through love, and not judge you. We all have to remember we are works in progress, we should have an under construction sign on us. It’s so easy to allow pride to come in when God blesses us with some major growth. We have to remember it’s Him and not us. Sure we made the correct choices, but ultimately the good that is in you is the Holy Spirit.
So, the stronghold has been taken and now there is a big wide gap in your life that remains to be filled. It’s the part of your life that you left weak, for whatever reason. Now it has to be strengthened. The gap cannot remain, if it does you will end up with another stronghold built up once again. By the way, if you are continuing to have to work against a stronghold it will cloud your vision of God and stop you cold to the purpose He has for your life. If you have a heart felt prayer of, “God, please remove this from me”, He will answer that prayer; and He will use people to help you beat the stronghold. How do we fill the gap? We start by continuing to be accountable to the people that helped us with the stronghold to begin with. For example Jesus had Peter, James and John as his BFF’s. He really did not need them to be accountable, but He knew He could share certain things with them that He couldn’t share with the other apostles. He is our model for how we need to live our lives. BFF’s do that for us. They stand in the gap for us and pray for us as we are dealing with this stronghold. Jesus knew we would have to deal with them, so He modeled for us a great example.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:19-20
Words being in red Jesus said this not just for corporate worship, but for our strongholds. If you want the power of the Holy Spirit over your life then gather two or more people to help you defeat this thing, and keep it defeated.
The next thing to do is to make it your ministry. God does not want us to shrink back after we overcome something in our lives. He doesn’t want us hiding the light that has changed us somehow. There are other people out there with the same weakness that we have that may need to overcome their stronghold. What a better way to build on the Mighty Fortress than to make it our ministry and continue to glorify God in how we overcame it.
Finally just the basics of building our faith, reading the bible and praying. The first two things are faith put into action. These last two things are the foundation for building the Mighty Fortress. If we don’t communicate with God how can we deal with anything in our lives? How can we get good instruction from the Holy Spirit? As I have said in prior blogs, you cannot have one without the other. If you just pray you can’t tell what God wants you to do without the Word. If you just read the Word how can you get direction without a prayer life? As the above verse says God is a strong tower a refuge. David when he wrote this Psalm had his mighty men to back him up. He knew God was a strong tower and a refuge and that God used people to build a Mighty Fortress in the weaknesses of his life. Enjoy this worship song that is so appropriate for the end of this blog. Christy Nockels wrote and performs this awesome worship song. God is a Mighty Fortress and nothing can overcome it. So, replace that big gap in your life with a Mighty Fortress, build on your faith, exercise it and use it for His glory.
Second Mile Week 6: Strongholds Are Never To Be Faced Alone
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phillippians 3:12-14
The seventh time around, as the priests sounded the long blast on their horns, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the town! Joshua 6:16
These walls are never meant to be built.
This week in Second Mile Pastor John shared some amazing truths, especially on the idea that leaders should have the spirit of push through. One of the cool things he said was that you can either push through to the top of the mountain or you can fall back down into the valley and allow life to overtake you. I want to talk on a subject that Pastor John alluded to, and that is the idea of strongholds in our lives.
A good definition of a stronghold is anything that is an attitude, habit, an emotional scar, a relationship or anything that can keep you from moving on in God’s purpose for your life. A snare or slippery slope to keep you from moving forward. Back in the Medieval times they would use strongholds to guard cities and to keep a waring nation out. The spiritual warfare is the same accept you have allowed the enemy to set up a stronghold in the middle of your backyard. Now I wish I can blame Satan for the strongholds in my life, but I can’t. To quote a new Casting Crowns song called My Own Worst Enemy:
God, help me get away
Break the chains and set me free
From the other side of me
I am my own worst enemy
I caught a glimpse in my rearview mirror
Of an old familiar face
Blurry image coming in clearer
Of a past I can’t erase
I could’ve sworn I put him in the ground
But looks like he’s found his way out
The interesting thing about strongholds is you cannot take one alone. In fact when they wanted to take a stronghold in earlier times, they would set up for a siege and try to starve them out. Once they opened up the gate, then the enemy was there to storm it. That strategy would take months or even years depending on how much provision they had in the stronghold. The other choice was direct attack. They would use catapults with large stones and also archers to soften the defenders, then storm the walls. Now how long do you think you would last if it was just you with a sword and shield going against a bunch of dudes behind a stone wall throwing everything they had at you. Not very long. It’s the same way in our spiritual warfare. The enemy wants us to be alone, then he can continue control over our own backyard.
How do we get this enemy out of our backyard? You might be thinking, “well I have God and God can do all things.” Which is true, you do have God, but you also have allowed the enemy to set up shop in your backyard. God loves us so much that He gave us a free will of our own. Sometimes God will remove the stronghold right away, but most times He will want us to use the best strategy and that is direct attack with brothers and sisters in Christ. The wisdom of this is that you really don’t learn much about yourself and others if it’s miraculously taken away. God wants us to use godly men and women to storm the stronghold in your life. Some of the strategies the enemy will use is fiery darts. They not only pierce skin, but burn you. This would be fear. Fear of sharing your pain with someone else. He will tell you, you will look foolish and not as put together as you portray. He will use hot burning oil to keep you from climbing the wall. Shame would be a great example of that. Shame and fear go together well to keep us from getting over the wall.
So, how do we destroy the stronghold and be able to shout like Joshua did in the above verse? By the way Joshua did not do it alone either when he faced the walled city of Jericho. He had to use people to get the job done. The first thing we need to do is to pray for God to show us the people that He wants us to choose as our own Peter, James and John. Then share your story with them and what you are going through and I promise you if they are God appointed they will love you and pray for you and get you to the point of taking down the stronghold.
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16
James said it so right and it’s so true. I only tell you this because I have experienced this first hand. The push through to finish the stronghold is to surround ourselves with godly loving people that won’t judge or care what you did, but will love you and pray for you. It’s come as you are to Jesus, we all have things in our lives that need to be taken out. A godly individual will have this wisdom within them because they have the Holy Sprint there showing them how to love others the way God loves us all. Don’t let shame or fear keep you from the future God has planned for you. Push through the strongholds one at a time in your life and you will be amazed at His grace and favor that He has for you. You know God always has good plans for you.
The Fear of Failure
25 Have no fear of sudden disaster
or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,26 for the Lord will be at your side
and will keep your foot from being snared. Proverbs 3:25-26
I had a dream the other night that was disturbing to me. I can’t remember the specifics, but it was about failure. It was as if I dug myself into a pit I could not get out of. Every time I would try to get out of it, I sunk deeper into it. I was falling behind. I used to look at myself as if I was a failure in life and in everything I would “try” to achieve. Most of you know my story of being obese and coming close to death. That is not a failure story, that is a personal victory that God gave me over my abuse of my body. My Pastor said something profound this weekend, he said, “Win in private. Win in public.” We can win in private that is where we need to begin. I started winning in private and was able to overcome a large mountain in my life. The above verses that God gave me today tell the whole story. We are not destined to fail, we have God at our side all the time. He will keep our foot from being snared. I still have some mountains to overcome, but I have no doubt I can because God is in control and is on the throne of my life. I wish I can sit here and say I have it all together. I wish I could say I have all the answers, I don’t. All I know is that when I stumble He is there to pick me up, when I fail He is there to turn the failure to victory. It was just a bad dream that’s all. It’s not prophesy because I have seen the coming attractions and they are awesome. We can still fail, but true failure is when we allow the world to overtake us and just plain give up. We have to keep striving toward that goal God has for us, we can’t give in or give up. You may be in a wilderness right now, learn all you can during that wilderness time and that will prepare you for the promise land. God has good plans. It’s not for you to get your foot snared.
Second Mile Week 5: Having Faith For People
But among you it will be different. Who ever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:43-45
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.~Martin Luther King Jr.
One of the points I want to focus on from this weeks lesson led by Pastor Johnny (The Spirit of A Leader) is the idea of having faith for people. The verse from Mark and the Dr. King quote go very well with the idea of having faith for people. If you think about it, there is no other way to love people more effectively than to just have faith in them. There are some things that happen when we have faith in people. The first thing that happens is we make ourselves vulnerable. As the verse in Mark points out being a servant and a slave makes the best leader. When we have faith in people we put our reputation on the line. We have to trust God that whatever hurt that they are going through, whatever sin that may be consuming this person, that God is going to deliver them from that. Who did Jesus hang with more, was it the religious people at the time? No, it was the sinners and the people that were hurting. We have to be vulnerable and take the risk and hope for someone to give that person hope for change in their situation.
The next thing that happens is we strengthen our own faith. Like the MLK quote we cannot see the whole staircase. Taking that first step is blind faith and we have to trust God that we are doing the right thing. Blind faith does not come without Holy Spirit discernment. It’s funny what appears to the world as blind faith is in reality the Holy Spirit leading us and giving direction. So really our faith is not blind. We have to continue clear communication with God and that is what Bible study and prayer bring us. That’s our wireless connection to God that builds our own faith. When we start to see healing happen and change beginning in the person we put faith into, it will give us strength to continue. A momentum of change begins to take shape. Not only is the person who we have faith in is changing, but we are as well.
Finally the last thing that happens is we inspire people to change by having faith in them. I think one of the most important things we can learn from having faith in people is they don’t have that faith in themselves. They have a small amount, but not enough to get the change momentum going. It’s like their car battery is dead and it needs a jump start. It needs just enough juice from someone’s battery to give it enough spark to start. Jesus did just that when He came into contact with sinners and people hurting. He always said afterward that their faith has healed them. And God will use you to do that. 4 years ago God put a friend in my path that had faith enough to jump start my faith to get me healed from my food addiction. That person inspired me, and still does to this day. Now my goal is to inspire others for that change. How do we have faith in people? By putting our heart on the line and loving them, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. Stepping out in faith and believing for that person. And by being the change agent to give them the spark they need by inspiring them. Change momentum starts with you having faith for people.
Just A Small Step of Faith Can Lead To a Fresh Start
Transformation Photo
“Excuses are the nails we use to build a house of failure.”~Don Wilder and Bill Rechin
The words fresh start mean a great deal to me. It’s the language of my church the Life Church of Memphis. It’s a place that I needed as I began my fresh start with God. Fresh start means either salvation or overcoming a situation where you are spiritually unhealthy. For me when I began my fresh start I was overcoming being not only spiritually unhealthy, but I was overcoming my physical health issues. I was 449 pounds and because of the weight had sleep apnea and congestive heart failure. As you can see in the photo above, I was very big.
May is a very special month for me. It is my rebirth month, when God put people and dreams into my life to save my physical life. Plus get me back on track spiritually with Himself. I began my program at the heart clinic to get healthy. Then a year later I was starting to run. I spent the whole month running everyday to get up to my base run of 30 minutes. It was slow at first, but I would walk then run a couple of minutes then walk again. It slowly built up my stamina to get to the 30 minutes of straight running I was determined to get to. As I progressed the pounds kept dropping off and my walk was slowly being dominated by my run. Finally the day I was to run my first full 30 minutes of straight running, I was nervous. I’m certain when I got done running that first 30 minutes of straight running the people who witnessed me jumping up and down and crying thought I lost my mind.
One of the most important parts of my spiritual resurgence or fresh start was becoming a part of this incredible church called The Life Church Of Memphis. It was probably a couple of months into my weight loss journey that I saw the end of a TV broadcast of The Life Church and Katie, who by the way is married to the man in the video playing the piano, came on and was so positive about coming to visit the Life Church that I was very interested. I really needed positive influences in my life and we were not really in church. The first time we went we fell in love with the church an started attending. It was sporadic a first, but then the next year came and we decided to attend every week. The interesting part was we attended our Discovery class, which is a four week information class on how to get connected into the Life Church. We did the first two weeks in April, then we got sick one week, and then finished it up in May for the last two weeks. Which is the same May I started running.
I’m so thankful for the many people who believe in me and support all my efforts in my church home, they are my extended family. I want to make a point that thankfully Matthew Barnett made tonight that I thought was pretty amazing. He said when you hit rock bottom that is where some of our greatest dreams are found. That one step of faith can see a dream become reality. Thankfully that is what I did and what I continue to do. Having people to believe in you and what you are about is the icing on the cake. A small beginning is all it takes to get to a fresh start with God. When you take that first step it will be incredibly wonderful what will happen.
I love this song because shows how God can take people at rock bottom and lead them into a new transformed life. They had no place to look but up. The people you see in this video are real people with real hurts. They overcame them through Jesus Christ’s changing their life. I’m proud to call many of them friend. The bridge to the song is amazing. Jarod Welch wrote this song and plays the piano in the video. Enjoy the video and I put the bridge down below for you to read and ponder.
Your love is unfailing, your mercy unending,
your plans are always good.
You light up the darkness, and heal the broken and
all our hope is in you.
