30 Questions About God, Answered in 1 Hour

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How do you know if it's God who's asking you to do something? Two years ago, I gave up caffeine cuz I felt like God was asking me to do that. How did I know? I had a full-time job, a three-year-old trying to build a YouTube channel, just started a business, and I would often find myself getting 4 to 7 hours of sleep at night. So, on those days, I drank a lot more cold brew, coffee, energy drinks, whatever to be able to get me throughout the day. And I started to get this feeling that I needed to cut back. I realized on weeks where it was really stressful and I was drinking lots of caffeine and I felt my body pushing itself, the next week I'd get sick and then I'd find myself crashing lots of sleep to eventually recover again and then go back into the same loop of feeling really busy, drinking more coffee to survive to only find myself sick again. Notice the pattern, but what was I supposed to do about it? I had to do all the things, but was I going about it the right way? And that's when I got that feeling. Instead of drowning more caffeine, what if I just rested? Of course, then my mind races. if I stop, if I rest, everything will fall apart. And then the other side of my mind is saying, when you're sick, you crash anyway and are forced to rest. So, I told you 2 years ago, God asked me to give up caffeine. How did I know? Well, that particular day, I just chugged a cold brew because I'd been up till 2:00 in the morning the night before and had a day full of meetings and I felt my heart racing. And you know that feeling in your throat when you start to get sick? I had that again. And I just had this feeling like rest. I'm like, I can't rest. I don't have time to rest. And then I was in my next meeting and I zoned out and I had all this scripture come to mind. One of them says this. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them. Now is caffeine a sin? No. And I had this feeling that I was supposed to give it up because instead of resting, instead of saying, "God, help me through this day." I would chug caffeine. My pastor once said this and it changed my life. If you want to know God's will for your life, think of the four letters that spell out will. W does it align with the word of God. I, the influence of others, the people that God has surrounded you with. How is he using them to speak into your life? L leading of the spirit. What is the Holy Spirit telling you to do? The last L, life situations. Based on what's available in your life, is this something that you could do? Well, the Bible says I should rest and caffeine became an idol for me. Influence of others. People were telling me I needed to rest more. Leading the spirit. Internally, I knew something was wrong. Life situations. Could I actually do it? I felt like if I did, everything would fall apart. That yes, I could. So, that day, I gave it up. And it was hard. But scripture also says in James 4:7, "Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Again, caffeine's not the devil. But if we are going to something else before God, how are we going to know when it's him asking us to do something? Now, here I am two years later still doing all those things I was doing before and now doing it God's way. By resting, putting his priorities over mine. How do you know when it is God who's asking you to do something? You know, if he is asking you to do it, he will give you the strength to take the steps along the way. But you do have to take the steps to have a blessed day. How do you know if God's asking you to give something up? A few months ago, I gave up my favorite candy in the entire world. Now, obviously, I didn't want to, but here's the problem. I'd open the bag, I would eat one, get this craving to eat more, start to get this feeling that I needed to slow down. That even God was like, "Calm down." And then I would just shut it out. I would shut that feeling out and then just eat the whole bag. And then afterward, I'd feel sick. And then I'd apologize to God. I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have done that. Now, I didn't think too much about it until one day I came across this quote in a book. It said, "When what is not sin takes precedence or priority over the word of the Lord, it becomes sin." I realized when I was eating that candy and I'd get that feeling, I would ignore the voice telling me to stop and just eat the candy regardless. That's when I knew it was a problem. Now, the obvious answer is just slow down, cut back. Do you really have to give it up completely? Well, I thought about that, too. But then there's this story in scripture where God tells Saul, "Go and completely destroy these bad guys and all their animals." So Saul goes to destroy the people, but not all of them, and then saves their best animals. Why? When talking to one of God's messengers about it, he said, "I was going to sacrifice them to God." And then God's messenger, Samuel, replied to him, saying, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice." Now, it might sound crazy, but anytime I ate this candy, nerd clusters, by the way, I would ignore the feelings that God was giving me. To stop, to slow down. nerd clusters weren't sent, but I was putting it over the word of the Lord. Now, I actually had this revelation right after I bought a brand new bag of their new candy that has like juice in the middle, which is so good. And it was a buy one get one free. So, after eating the first bag, I got this feeling. I got this revelation. And as a commitment to the Lord, I just threw the second bag away and said, "I'm never going to eat these again." Now, does God say, "Give up all nerd clusters?" No. It's not in scripture. Nerds run around back then. But every time I ate that candy, I ignored the voice of God. The feeling telling me to stop, to cut back, to obey is better than sacrifice. So, how do you know if it's God that's asking you to give something up? One, check scripture to see if it blatantly tells you give this up. But nerds isn't in there. So, that's why the second thing is if you notice that when you do this thing, which may not be sin, starts to take precedence over the word of the Lord. Meaning, he's telling you to stop and you can't control yourself. It's time to cut it out, to give it up so you could be obedient to the word of the Lord. And there's a place in scripture in Deuteronomy 28 that talks about blessings from obedience. And yes, that was a long time ago. But do you really think that there's not going to be any blessings from obeying him today? Maybe not in the way that we want. But now there's one less time where I'm pushing away God's voice because I'm so caught up in what I want. And if there's something like that for you, I'm praying for you today. God bless. What do you do when what you want isn't what God wants? Years ago, I was dating this girl in college and I thought she was going to be my wife. I mean, there were some things we didn't agree on, but everybody has that. Now, at the end of college, we ran into some tension. We had been dating for some time. She graduated the year before me and she wanted to see some progress in our relationship. So, I said, "Let's move back to my hometown, move in with my family, and see where this goes." Now, I did have dreams to go back to college, get my master's degree, pursue these other achievements. But making this move with her felt like the only way to keep her in my life. So, we did that, and a year later, she left me. Said the relationship wasn't moving forward fast enough. So, out of desperation to keep her, I bought an engagement ring and left it outside of her window. And she said it was too late. So, what do you do when what you want isn't what God wants. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. I didn't get what I wanted. I questioned if this was even real. But after she left me, obviously I had a lot of time to myself and with God. And I realized I spent so much time away from him, stopped talking to him, asking him what he wants me to do, reading the Bible. First half of the verse says, "Take delight in the Lord." I wasn't doing that. So, I started to pray, "God, bring her back." And since it talked about desires of the heart, I said, "God, bring her back." or take this out of me. And then she said she didn't want to talk to me anymore. And when I brought that to God, I felt like he just gave me two words, be patient. And then one day I realized, take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. It doesn't mean he'll give you what you want. He means he will give you the desires. Place them in your heart. Although there was no immediate progress, other things started to happen in my life. I got new friends. Got to see God move in these little things. Started to document those little things. Fast forward a year and this girl got engaged to somebody that she had met at work during the time we were together. Of course, I was crushed. Prayed for God to reverse it, but also so much had started to happen. I'd seen God start to do so many things and I kept hearing those words, "Be patient." So, I just started to do the things that God put in front of me. Eventually, that feeling left my heart. And although I thought she was the best thing for me, I started to consider, what if God actually had something better? Well, years later, I would come across Elevation Church. Hear about how the lead pastors didn't kiss until their wedding day. Feel prompted to do that, but I never lived like that. And then a friend randomly sent me an article about a husband and wife not kissing until their wedding day. I'm like, is this what you really want God cuz I don't have that desire in my heart. But take delight in the Lord. Trust in him. So, I committed to it. That same week, someone named Megan would move from Texas back to where I was in Pennsylvania. 6 months later, she'd walk into a church I was a part of. We'd become friends in October, hang out in November, have our first date in December, engaged in January, married in March, and one year after I made that commitment, we'd kiss for the first time on our wedding day. I knew that God sent her to me. And she was the something better that I couldn't have predicted when that other girl left me. So, what do you do when what you want isn't what God wants. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Watch him turn what you want into what he wants and see how it's so much greater than you could have ever imagined. God bless you. I'm praying for you. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. But how do you take delight in the Lord? The next verse does say, "Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him." But how do you delight in the Lord? Think about the last time you were so cold, freezing, shivering, and then saw a warm fire. As you got closer to it, you could just feel the heat, and you just wanted to stay there until you got warm again. What if delighting in the Lord is kind of like that? Jesus said, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest in your soul. Think about somebody that you like. How did you come to like them? You spend time with them, right? Would you say that you delight in them? We get there by spending time with that person. Jesus is saying here, "Come to me all who are weary and he will give us rest." In the beginning, we don't want to spend time with God because how do you do that? If we're upset, we'll try to do anything to get our mind off of it or to go fix that thing. Here's what's been helpful for me. Number one, the easiest place to start instead of sharing it with other people, bring it to God. Wherever you are, just close your eyes and say in your head or out loud, "God, I'm upset. I don't know how to handle this. I'm hurting. I'm angry. I'm sad. I need help." Here's someone doing that in the Bible. Save me, oh God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths where there's no foothold. I have come into deep waters and the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help. My throat is parched. My eyes fail looking for my God. You know who's talking there? That's David. from David and Goliath, the one that took out the giant, bringing his raw feelings to the Lord. It's okay to bring how we feel directly to God. We do that with the people we like, we spend time with them. We share how we're feeling with them. That's the first way I found to take delight in the Lord. The second way we just did it. When you're spending time with someone, it's not all one way us sharing things. They also have words of encouragement for us, too. And that's what this is, God's words. Watching this video is telling you a story of how I handle it. But the Bible is filled with thousands more stories. And I once heard someone say, "The Bible is God's love letter written to you." The third way is to take action. You're going to start to feel things in the Holy Spirit while you're reading this Bible. If God is telling us to do it in scripture, there's a reason for it. My pastor once said, "Sometimes you need to faith it until you feel it, not fake it. To believe in faith that the word you got from somebody that cares about you will help you if you act on it. Even if you don't feel it yet, do that until you do." And the last one, which ties directly to faith it until you feel it. Listening to Christian worship music. I love specifically elevation worship and elevation rhythm for lyrics like this. Look at what the Lord has done. I'm never going back to the way I was. Did you catch that? It's encouraging us to look at what the Lord has done. Even if we don't see it, even if we don't feel it, it's a reminder for us to do that. And then also believe in faith. I'm never going back to the way I was. Because we're always supposed to be growing, especially as we see the things that God does. There is an enemy that wants you to stay stuck forever to distract you from God. But you can believe in faith. Even if you don't feel free yet, one day you'll be able to say, "Thank God I'm free and feel that, too." That's how I take delight in the Lord. How will you do it? Let me know so I can be praying for you. God bless. How do you see God more? Years ago, I was dating this girl for multiple years who then left me for another guy. How do you see God in that? Now, at the time, I was a newer Christian. So, I just desperately prayed, "God, bring her back or take this heartbreak out of And I heard these two words so clearly, not out loud, but anytime I prayed. And it was simply this. Be patient. But be patient for what? For her to come back. For everything to be fixed. So I had this idea. I took these two words and made it my phone home screen. So every time I pulled out my phone, I saw the reminder to be patient. A week later, I was feeling really depressed and just struggling to cope with everything that was happening. And I got a text message from a friend telling me how I was handling the situation, was encouraging him in his walk with God. Now, I thought I sucked at it, but I saw God in that moment because it was the perfect time. Now, I didn't want to forget that moment. So, what I did was I took it and I forwarded it to my email, creating a new folder called God folder, saving that moment. Now, when you look at the word time in the Bible, there's actually two different meanings. The first word is chronos, the chronological order of time, the one we're familiar with. But then there is chyros, which is a god orained moment in time. We sometimes call it coincidence or a godwink or a god moment. So, after I saved that text in my God moment folder, nothing happened until a few days later. I was with my friends playing ultimate frisbee and there was this incredible sunset. Do you ever just see something so amazing and be like, "That is really special." Completely unrelated to this girlfriend breaking up with me, but it felt like another godwink. So, I took a picture of it and sent it to this God moment folder. Well, what's crazy is every few days I would have more and more of these moments pop up. And whenever I saw it, I would either take a picture of it, screenshot it, and send it to this folder. What started as one or two a week turned into one to three a day. Years later, my pastor would say it like this and it made so much sense. Any moment in time, a Kronos moment can be turned into a Kyros moment, a God moment if we're willing to see God in every moment. So, anytime I took a screenshot and sent that folder, I'm like, I think that's God. And he started showing up everywhere. But what do you do when you have a horrible moment pop up? How do you still see God in those moments? The Bible has something for that. It says, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." God works in all things. So, here's what I did. I started to take pictures and screenshots of those bad moments, too, and send it to the same folder, like the text confirming that girlfriend was never coming back. But I sent it that folder because the Bible talked about how God worked all things together. Meaning, at some point, that bad moment that I sent into the God folder where I was saying, "God, do something with this." that one day he would and I would have evidence from the bad turning to good. And it did. I now have a wife, an awesome family. Now, everything's not perfect, but I still capture God moments. I save all those God moments now in a Google folder that automatically updates to this. This is the day my father-in-law gave his life to Christ when my daughter got to meet her childhood hero. So, how do you see God more? Acknowledge God in the little moments, the Kronos moments, and you'll start realizing they're not ordinary moments. God is in every moment if we're willing to see him. praying for you to see God more today. God bless. As a Christian, how do I grow in my faith? You know that famous story when Jesus is walking on water, Peter walks on water, Peter sees the winds, the waves, falls into the water, and then yells, "Lord, save me." So then Jesus immediately grabs him and says, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" First of all, with little faith, Peter was able to walk on water. When I first read this years ago, it led me on a journey to figure out how to grow my faith. And I found something that actually worked. First, have you ever Googled the word faith to see the definition? It says complete trust in something or someone. Can you think of the last person that broke your trust? What they did to do that? What about the person you trust the most? How did that happen? Because if we can figure that out, we can build our trust in God more, growing our faith. Thankfully, there's this guy named Steven Cvy that did this research and found that there are 13 things we all do that are always building up or destroying trust with one another. And I found that these translate perfectly to growing my trust, my faith in God. Number one, straight talk, which is simply telling the truth to God. Simple, right? Number two, demonstrate respect. We're taught to treat our parents and elders with respect. How much more should we respect God, the creator of all things? Number three, creating transparency with God. Am I not only saying the truth, saying it respectfully, but also being vulnerable about what I'm really feeling, what I'm actually thinking. Number four, write wrongs. Not only are we confessing that to God, but are we actually taking action to grow so it doesn't happen again? Number five, showing a loyalty. In the King James version of the Bible, God says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Sometimes we can place our wants or addictions before God. So, practically, are we not just meeting him on Sunday at church, but bringing him into our daily lives throughout the week? Number six, deliver results. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. When we're reading the Bible, do we actually put it into action? Number seven, get better. We're not always going to get it right. That's why Jesus died for us, but we want to take action to continue to get better and better. Number eight, confront reality. There will be times where the Holy Spirit will reveal something to us or speak through other people in our lives. Maybe it's sin or a pattern we need to break free of. We can grow in our faith by confronting it to get better and live the life that God called us to live. Number nine, clarify expectations. This is bringing our expectations to God and laying them on the altar, saying, "This is what I expect, but I want your will over my own." Download God's expectations so I can live them out. And the majority of them are found in the air. Number 10, practice accountability. When we make a mistake, God, this is the part that I played. Even if it wasn't technically our fault, God still wants to grow humility in us. And there's always something that we can own to get better. Number 11, listen first. We can hear what God's saying by reading the Bible, his words, or by praying and hearing it from the Holy Spirit. It's so easy to say, "God, I want this, this, this. Why aren't you moving faster?" We also need to make time to listen to God and what he's trying to speak into our lives. Number 12, keep commitments. When we say, "God, I'm going to do this." Actually keeping that commitment. Doing it not only grows our character, but grows our faith. And then finally, number 13, extend trust. There are going to be a lot of times where we don't know how God is going to do it. And that's okay because his ways are not our ways. He has a much higher perspective than us, seeing a lot more than we can. And so, we have to extend the trust to him, believing that even if we can't see it, we can know he's working. I'm praying that God will use these today to help you grow your faith as he's still growing mine. God bless. Have you ever been in an argument with someone and they do something mean? It hurts you. Then you take it to the next level to try to be mean back. Is it natural? Does everybody do that? Cuz that feeling is what I have to fight against whenever I'm in a battle. But what feels like a battle now to other people, they're like, "Yeah, you're doing the right thing." They gave you the silent treatment. Now you give them the silent treatment. But God gives us a different way to approach it. Not to be walked all over, but practical ways to show love in action. Because isn't it interesting that the people we have the most heated arguments with seem to be the people that are closest to us? Scripture says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." But how are we going to do that if we're already in a heated argument? Well, the Bible says, "Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse." It's interesting he said bless twice. Like, did you hear me the first time? If they're persecuting you, bless them. No, really, bless them. Don't curse them or curse at them. But how do we practically do that? Well, scripture says where there's no revelation, people cast off restraint. Revelation is vision from God. You ever feel like you're losing vision from God cuz you're so in the moment and heated and seeing red or blue or through tears as you're crying? Now, I'm not saying our arguments aren't valid. The pain isn't real. They are. But God also wants us to trust him to put it in his hands and handle it the way that he's asking us to, not to be walked all over. God does call us to honor others. But sometimes honoring people can look like giving them space, saying, "Let's pray about this." Researching the Bible together, how does Jesus say we should approach this? Once you accept Jesus into your life, you get the Holy Spirit, the helper, the one that will help us in those situations. So, if we could find a way to bring it to God in the midst of the chaos, in the midst of the argument, and say, "God, what do you want me to do?" Ask the helper. Ask the Holy Spirit. He'll give us direction. Sometimes it's not the direction we want to take. Remember, cuz it says, "Bless, do not curse. Bless." But God's ways are higher than our ways. Cuz he can see more than we can. He can see somebody's whole life, what they went through before and where this moment will lead them now. And our job is to lead people into a deeper relationship with Jesus. And so God says, instead of taking revenge, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let me ask you this. Can you tell me about a time when you chose to do something good to somebody who maybe didn't deserve it, and God used it in a powerful way? I'm sure that story you comment will encourage other people. I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. Do you think God wants us to help everyone who asks for help? When I was a kid in elementary school, my parents would give me $5 for lunch. And every day, I would have friends come up to me telling me they didn't have enough money for lunch and ask me to help. And so, I'd buy my main meal for $2 and give the other $3 to my friends. My parents would tell me that my friends were taking advantage of me. But feeding my friends felt like the right thing to do, right? Internally, I didn't want to say no to people asking for help. And whether or not that was the right thing to do, that saying no thing stuck with me my whole life. I became a massive people pleaser. Years later, when playing sports with my friends, we'd have sweaty jerseys. Someone would say, "Hey, Justin, do you mind washing them?" And then it would turn into Justin is always the one washing our jerseys. Following the same theme, I don't want to let people down. Is that bad? Is that good? Does God want us to say yes to everybody asking for help? What if someone said, "Help me rob a bank." Now, that might feel more clear cuz it's against the law. But what if somebody asked you to do something that goes against what God wants, but is technically legal, like the friends that ask you to lie for them. Does God want us to help everyone asking for help? And it gets even messier when you think about all the people that actually need help in the world. I can't help but think of the scripture that says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." There is a priority order. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. As someone who's been a people pleaser his whole life and wants to say yes to everybody, I will often say yes to people before I say yes to God. So what if we prioritize the things that God wanted first? If we say yes to everybody out there before prioritizing what he asked us to do in here. I think of the one quote from the book a of God that says when what is not sin helping people takes precedence over the word of the Lord it can become sin. There's a difference between doing good work and God's work. So are we supposed to say yes to everybody asking for help? I would suggest that if it goes against the priorities that God has given us in scripture or what the Holy Spirit is telling us or even leading us away from God. I think the answer is no. We're not supposed to say yes to all people asking for help because God says seek first his kingdom and he has a priority order. And yeah, we're going to disappoint people. I don't want to disappoint people. I don't want to let them down. I want them to like me. But more importantly, we are called to lead them to God. We aren't supposed to be the answer to their problems. God is. He will use us to help them, but we need to not compromise God's values to help other people feel better. It's hard, but it's possible. And I'm praying for you today. God bless. Is it possible to change our calling? Years ago, God called me to write a book. Even gave me the title for it. But here's the thing. I hate writing. I just kind of put it off and just thought battle if that's God. So instead, I focused on the other things he was telling me to do. Long story short, God showed up in crazy ways by simply obeying all those other things he was telling me to do. And then he brought back the idea of a book again and said, "All that stuff I did in your life, I want you to put it into a book and tell people what I did." That feeling of I hate writing was still very real. But I could not deny the miracles he did in my life. So through a lot of frustration, a year later, the book was done. But I made a huge mistake. I focused on telling the miracles, "These are the things that happened." Barely talked about God. I thought talking about God would turn people away. As soon as I published the book, I felt this massive weight that I needed to go and put God back into the book. But remember, I hate writing. So, I just ignored the feeling, ignored the calling. And then the book reviews started to come in. I co-wrote the book with somebody else, they praised him. The reviews I got, pathetic American hipster Rosales. 10 years went by and anytime somebody asked me, "What was the last thing that God told you to do?" Put him back in the book. I thought the calling would change. So, after 10 years and really wanting to dedicate my life to the Lord and live in a place of obedience, I finally faced writing again and re-edited the book, Putting God Back into it for the 10-year anniversary edition. Guess what happened immediately after? I got a call from the History Channel asking me to be on a TV show doing an interview. In the 10 years that I wrote the book, that has never happened. That God was making it extremely clear that his way of fulfilling the calling, writing the book, was way more effective than the way I thought it needed to be done. In fact, God even says in the Bible, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Now, is it possible to change your calling? Cuz remember, I didn't want to do it. Let me give you one more real time example. Since starting this YouTube channel, God has been telling me to tell you the things that he's done in our life so you know what's possible in your life. That I don't like talking to the camera. I'd rather talk to people. So, I tried changing the calling. I'd make random videos like trick shots or how to sound like Elmo. And it kind of worked. I'd get stories from people saying that this is helpful, but I wasn't completely obeying the calling. But the Bible says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So, I thought, even though I don't want to do it, I made a video like this to test to see if it was God's will. And after posting it, I received a significant amount of testimonies, people saying that this is what they needed, asking me to do more of this. And even though I still don't feel comfortable doing it, it was significant confirmation that this is what God wanted me to do. And we've seen more people reached in the last two weeks of making these videos than we have in the history of our channel because of God, because we obeyed and stop trying to change the calling. Now, is it possible to change the calling? I believe so. Because if somebody calls you, do you have to pick up? If somebody needs you, but you're not answering, can they call someone else? I do think it's possible that you can ignore the nudges long enough that God will get somebody else to do it, but he still wants to give you that opportunity. Will you accept it today? Let me know what that is so I could be praying for you. God bless. What do we do if we don't have enough time to do the things that God has called us to do? As someone who has a wife, two girls, a full-time job, serves at his church, when God asked me to do more of what he was calling me to do, I felt like there's no other option but to give some of those things up. But I have to provide for my family. What are they going to wear? What are they going to eat? But then God showed me a new way that didn't make sense but actually worked. And it started with Jesus saying this. So do not worry saying, "What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his be given to you as well. God showed me that for us to be able to take on more of what he's asking us to do, the answer isn't to take things away. It's shifting the order in which we do them. Now, I know that sounds like it won't work, but because it did for me, let me give you an example. First, what do you like to do on your day off? Like, what recharges you? For some people, it's going on a run, watching TV, reading a book. But there's something that comes to mind that actually energizes us. That if we do those things first, we somehow get more energy to go to the other things like chores, the things that have to be done. You found that to be true, right? Did you notice the priority order there? Do the thing that's energizing? So out of the overflow, you get more energy to tackle the things that need to be done. So let's apply to the things that God is calling us to do. If God is calling you to do something, do you believe that he can give you the energy to do it? I used to like to wake up at 7:00 in the morning, right before I need to get my daughter ready for school and get myself ready for work. But then I saw times in the Bible where Jesus got up early to pray and talk to God. And I didn't want to do that because I was already tired. But then Jesus says, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." My friend once said it like this. So you really want to rest from rest. So I started doing it tired at first, but God used that to fuel me with more energy to take on all the other things because I was putting him first. Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness, the priority order. So then he told me to start making these videos. I'm like, "Come on, I don't have that much time." But then he reminded me of this scripture. Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Meaning, if I tried it, tested it, I'd be able to discern, is this what God really wants me to do? When I was finally obedient to it, even though I was frustrated while doing it and thought I was really bad at it, God decided to make that video go viral. And I heard testimonies of people all over the world saying, "This was so helpful." That wasn't me. That was God. What would happen if you prioritized the thing that God was asking you to do first? I know it doesn't make sense, but imagine what your life could look like, the people that you could help, the lives that could be changed because you simply said yes. Let me know what that is so I could be praying for you today. God bless. How do we control our emotions more? Think of the last time you've been around a kid that absolutely loses it. Freaking out, yelling. It could be at the dinner table if you got kids, or freaking out in public in the middle of a grocery store. They don't care who's around. Now, our emotions may not be as public, but we feel them just as much. When I got my own kid, I learned this incredibly helpful hack, not just to calm her down, but also helps me control my emotions better. Okay, so imagine a kid full freakout mode. In the brain, what is happening is there's an emotional part and a reasoning part. Now, during the freak out, the emotional part is taking over and so the reasoning part starts to shut down cuz they don't operate at the same time unless you're able to somehow trigger the reasoning part of the brain again. So, practically, here's what it looks like. When my daughter is freaking out, maybe because she wanted a different blanket than the one I gave her. Psychology says when people are freaking out and the emotional part of the brain has taken over, you ask a question that is completely unrelated to what is happening. So my daughter's freaking out about the blanket. I will ask her, "What's that on your shirt?" Through tears, she'll be like, "What?" I'm like, "That's really cool. What's that on your shirt?" Again, completely unrelated. She might say like a a dinosaur. And you see what's happening? The reasoning part is starting to open up and trigger. And at that moment, I'll just start encouraging her. I think it's a really cool dinosaur. I love that you chose to wear pink today. And it just diffuses her. And I'll ask, do you want a hug? And everything changes. She starts to calm down. Yeah, I want a hug. Becomes more reasonable. And we've taken the level 100 emotion down to like 10 where we can have a conversation again. Now, we're not all kids, but we do have the same things happening in our brains. And it's not always going to be helpful to ask random questions because we're also so determined and focused. We're not going to talk about a dinosaur because somebody else asked us a question while we're freaking out. So, how do you break out of that? Now, for me, I'm most susceptible to the emotion of anger. when I was in my teens and my 20s, I can go from 0 to 100 and just get really upset and hold on to that. Now, I still get angry and upset, but I've used this hack to be able to turn it off or at least reframe. And here's how. In the Bible, it says, "Where there is no revelation," which means vision from God, people cast off restraint. Okay, so how does that help? Well, the second part of it says, "But blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instruction." So remember that hack when we were so emotionally charged up crying for no reason just so angry we need that third party to trigger a reset in our mind and help us calm the emotions and increase the reasoning. So what I do now is I built in this habit that when I get upset doesn't matter what emotion I ask God what do you want me to do with this and sometimes honestly I will target those emotions toward God. I will express my anger to him. I will cry to him. The Bible says we can do that. It says cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. give all those emotions to God and say, "What do you want me to do with this?" And I'm opening the door for that ultimate third party that created me, knows how I'm wired, knows how the situation ends. I'm giving him the chance to give me direction. Remember, it said, "Blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instruction." And because we pause, we can receive a feeling from the Holy Spirit by reading scripture during that time, listening to worship music, or God could use somebody else to send us the perfect word at the right time. But we have to be open to it to receive it, right? So, I'm praying that the next time you feel you're losing it, that for a millisecond, you could pause, give it to God, and say, "What do you want me to do with this?" That just watch him move. We can do this. I'm praying for you tonight. God bless. What's the last thing God asked you to do? I read in this book about this pastor who felt in his heart he needed to go to Walmart. Random, but while there, somebody ran into him and said, "I can't believe you're here." I was feeling depressed tonight. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. And so, I felt I just needed to get out of the house. And I went here to Walmart and I asked God to give me a sign. and I turn the aisle and you're here, my pastor. Sometimes God asks us to do things not just for ourselves, but to be the answer to somebody else's prayer. You know that famous part in the Bible where Moses parts the Red Sea? Do you remember what happens right before that? The Israelites are running away from the Egyptians. They're freaking out thinking they're going to die, and then they come up to the Red Sea, have no idea what to do next, and then Moses says this to the people, "The Lord will fight for you. You need only be still." Wouldn't that be awesome if that's what God was telling us to do? Do nothing. Stand still. Sometimes he is telling us to do that. But if you're watching this video, I imagine it's something else. But watch what God says to Moses in response to him thinking, "Just need to do nothing." Then the Lord says to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the waters so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground." God gave Moses something specific to do. And that's what led to the miracle. If I could be vulnerable for a moment, I don't want to do these videos. But this is the last thing God told me to do. I wake up in the morning. I get on my knees right over there. And for a half hour to an hour, I pray, read my Bible, listen to worship music, and ask God, "What do you want me to say today?" And today, it was silent. Most days, I get an answer. I come over here, I record the video, but today it was silent. So, do I be still? I got this feeling that I needed to set up the stuff anyway, knowing that God told me to do this, even though I didn't know what to say yet. So, I set up the camera, the tripod, turned on the fire, and as soon as I sat here and prayed, God told me to ask you, "What's the last thing he asked you to do?" You often won't know how it'll help or the specifics, but sometimes God will say, "Go and then I will show you. Take the step. Move on. The Lord is fighting for you." But it doesn't always mean to just be still. You got to move to see the miracle. What is the last thing God asks you to do? Let me know in the comments so I could be praying for you. Have a blessed day. What do you do when you don't know what to do? Here's the situation. 10 years ago, my wife and I were newly married, living in Pennsylvania, next to our family, pregnant with our first baby together. But we both felt like God was calling us to move 9 hours away to be part of a church we recently visited. The thing is, we had already been trying to move there for months. But now that we were pregnant, it changed things. You know, when you think you hear from God, but you're not really sure? Well, then it got even more confusing because my job offered me a promotion that if I took it, it would require me to stay in that role in Pennsylvania for at least a year. So, what do I do? Move 9 hours away to a place I don't know with my pregnant wife with no promise of financial stability because we think God told us to do it? or do I take the promotion and provide for my family and our baby to be? I thought maybe I heard God wrong since it wasn't going easily. So, I took the promotion. The next week, we had a miscarriage and lost the baby. It was really hard. In that broken state, I tied it to my decision to take the promotion, thinking that's why it happened. But that weekend, the pastor preached how to deal with disappointment. And in it, he read the scripture. A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard for 3 years now. I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil? Sir, the man replied, "Leave it alone for one more year." "Remember how they asked me to stay at the job for at least 1 year and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine. If not, then cut it down." The message goes on to say, "Stop blaming people. Stop blaming your situation. Stop blaming yourself. Dig down to the root of it and figure it out." Now, I didn't blame God. I know the devil is very real. And the Bible says that what the enemy meant for evil, God can use for good. God was using the messages from that church online to give us hope and healing in such a hurting season. So we decided to drive down 9 hours and volunteer at that church. Loved it so much. Felt so fulfilled, like it was the right thing to do, we drove down on the weekends, 9 hours for 8 months, still keeping the commitment to work at the job for at least 1 year. But since we didn't know what to do, we decided to do everything we could to listen to the last thing that we thought God was telling us to do. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? That same pastor preached from the scripture. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So even though we didn't know what to do, we said we're going to chase after what we feel like God is telling us to do in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father. And you know what happened? Tired, bank account draining, but God provided every step of the way. And after 8 months, my wife got a job in Charlotte. My job let me work remotely. In June 30th, 2016, we moved into our home, the place that God called us to be. And today we have a beautiful 5-year-old girl who absolutely loves this church, loves God, loves people. God restored everything we lost. So, what do you do when you don't know what to do? Do not turn away from God. Chase after the last thing he told you to do. And even if you don't know if it's right, yes, see if it aligns with scripture. Yes, consult the Christians that God has surrounded you with. Consult the Holy Spirit. Consult if it's even an option on the table. But no matter what you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. God does not waste faith. He was with you then when you suffered loss and he's with you today. Praying for you today, friends. God bless. You've ever seen your bank account slowly going towards zero and have no idea how you're going to get out of it. You're trying everything you can, but still it's about to go red. Me too. We're there right now. But let me tell you about a story that happened 3 years ago, which leads us to not be concerned right now. 3 years ago, we moved into our friend's home to be closer to our church and to our friends that we loved. Now, when we tried to sell our old home, it didn't work. So, not only were we paying two mortgages, but over the last 11 years, our family has felt called to raise the percentage that we give above the tithe every year to our church. Well, as you can imagine, paying two mortgages and that can hurt. We were trying. We had two jobs. We were listing our home in different Facebook groups, selling stuff in Facebook Marketplace, and then the natural thought came in. Do we lower the amount of money that we're giving to the church? Now, the obvious answer is yes, cuz it would slow down that drain to zero. But when we actually prayed about it, we felt like that would be saving oursel. And honestly, in that situation, we needed God to just help sell our home. So, we kept giving from our salaries, every paycheck. And yet, every month, right before it hit zero, something crazy would happen. Whether it was a random refund, a surprise check from a settlement from years ago, God would give us just enough at the last moment to be able to pay the rent. Now, after 3 months of this, I was praying to God, "How long are we going to do this? Can you please sell the home?" Now, that day, I had just gotten paid, and my job generously gave us raises that year. So, I needed to go back into my paycheck to calculate the new amount of what I needed to give. And as I looked at the new amount that came in my account and prepared to calculate how much to give, I had this horrible revelation that for almost the last decade, I had been giving off of the money that came into my bank account rather than the actual paycheck before taxes. Meaning, I was paying the government and everybody else before giving to God. And that was bad. I was like, "God, why are you telling me this right now when our account is about to hit zero? Why?" And I felt like I had the chance to make another decision. That revelation was not an accident. So, I decided to be obedient. And I gave the new percentage off of the original amount before taxes. And I kid you not, less than 24 hours later, after 3 months of our house being on the market, we got an offer on the house that stuck. That sold our house. Fast forward to today. You know where we are? 3 months in our house sitting in the market again. Bank account ready to hit zero every month. Yet again, over the last 3 months, at the last minute, God provides just enough to pay two house payments. Now, we're trying everything, posting it everywhere, praying about it. My wife said something the other day. Maybe the house isn't selling because God needs to do something in somebody else's life first. Now, I tell you all that because maybe God hasn't given you the next step yet because one, he wants you to act on the prompt that he gave you. Two, he wants you to continue to trust him. you took the step of faith. Can you continue to trust him as it gets harder? Number three, he wants to use your situation to help somebody else. Number four, he's trying to bring something better together that you can't even think of. Or number five, it's all of them. God works all things together, then he's with you, even if you don't believe in him. But I do encourage you to try trusting him and see what happens. So let me know in the comments how can I be praying for you. Where's the best place to pray? Is it in the car? Is it in bed before you go to sleep at night? Is it at church? Jesus says, "But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen." So, is that the only place to pray? I pray in my car. That's where I used to say he felt the closest to God. Is that wrong? When you look deeper into where Jesus prays, you'll see that sometimes he'll be traveling with his friends and then go off onto a mountain and pray before the whole cross sequence. He's praying in the middle of a garden or before a miracle when one of his good friends, Lazarus, is dead and he's in front of all these people, he prayed out loud to God. So, we see a lot of instances of where Jesus prayed, giving us a hint that prayer isn't limited to where we were at. Yes, we can have our prayer closets, but I like to think of prayer as an ongoing conversation with God, like a text message thread where I can text something to a friend at any time and I know at some point I'll get a response. I will need to wait until I have 5 minutes to call somebody. I can be in the middle of something really hard and just say, "God, I need you. Help me with this. Give me peace. What do you want me to do here?" That can happen anywhere. And yes, I do have preferences of places to pray where I can just get alone with God uninterrupted, put on some worship music, and feel like I'm having an in-depth conversation through the Holy Spirit, but then also by reading God's words. What if it's not so much about a place, but more about how we are prioritizing God throughout our day? Are we bringing him into those big decisions? What about the little ones? I know some people might say, "I don't need to ask God what shirt I should wear." But would you be willing to? I think it's more of that posture. So, it's not about the place where we pray. More about the posture of prayer, realizing that God is with us everywhere. We don't need to wait to get to church to talk to him or until things get better. He's with us right now in the good and the bad times. It's the awesome thing about God. Let me know how I can be praying for you and have a blessed day. Why would God put us through hard situations? Have you ever seen a movie where there's this football team doing exercises on the field and the coach tells one of the players, "Get down on your hands and your feet, kind of like a push-up. We're going to put another player on your back and you need to carry them as far as you can while crawling on your hands and your feet." And so they do this, it's really hard and they can only go a little bit. So then the coach says, "I need you to do this and get to the 50 yard line." But then the guy says, "I can only go 20, maybe 30 yards max." So then the coach blindfolds him so he can't see where he's going and just tells him to go. And what do you think happens? Not only does he pass 30 yards, not only does he pass 50 yards, but he goes the entire 100yard length of the field, crushing what he thought was possible. My pastor once said it like this. If God put you in a situation, even if you weren't ready for it, even if you hate it with all your heart, and you don't think you have what it takes to get through it, if God put you in it, God put it in you. That was Pastor Stephen of Elevation Church. But the Bible also says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds." because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. So why does God put us through hard things? Is it to produce perseverance by growing our faith, realizing that even if we can't see where we're going, God can help us get further than we ever thought possible? Or is it because God said this, "My grace is sufficient for you." Grace is God giving us something we don't deserve. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Why would God put us through hard situations? What if it's because God wants to use you to make his power known to the world? So that when people ask, "How'd you get through that?" You could say, "It wasn't me. That was all God. I didn't think I could do it." And even though I didn't know how I was going to get through it, I believed God when he said, "His power is made perfect in my weakness." If God put you in it, trust him to walk you through it. Let me know what that is so I can be praying for you today. God bless. How do you quit an addiction? We've all heard stories of people being set free from an addiction, but how does that happen? When I was younger, I would play video games all the time. And not that video games are bad, but I'm just sharing an addiction that is acceptable because if I mentioned other ones we've really struggled with, it'd probably get pretty awkward. But stick with me for a minute. Because I was so addicted to this, I had no social life. I couldn't think about anything but video games. I'd also do it late at night so I wouldn't get shamed for it for 15 years. But then I came across something that actually set me free from it. And it was this phrase right here. Where there is no revelation, vision from God, people cast off restraint. Okay, but how does that apply to addictions? Well, think of it this way. If I were to put a dollar bill on a table in front of you and say, "It's yours. Do you want it?" Well, of course, you'd take it. It's a $3 bill. There's no reason you'd say no to that. Unless if on the same table I also placed a million dollars and said, "You could have your choice." You'd say no to the $1 bill and obviously take the million, right? We often do this with our addictions because we only see the $1 bill, not having the vision to see that there's actually a million dollar option. So, how do we get vision from God to see that $1 million option? Three ways that worked for me. The first way is the second half of that verse I just read you. But blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instruction. What's wisdom? The Bible. Tons of million-dollar options in here where God is telling you, I have this for you. And I know it can be a lot, but God's not saying, if you read this whole thing, I will give you the million- dollar option. He wants to bless you right now by simply starting. My pastor once said it like this, extraordinary acts of God start with ordinary acts of obedience. So just pick a Bible reading plan and just see how God moves. Two, we often try to quit our addictions by quitting our addictions. Meaning, we just try to say, "I'm not going to do it anymore." But then the situation changes. We get cravings and we find oursel back in it. But my pastor once said this, "If you released a dog into the backyard next to a busy street, what would happen?" We all know. But if you placed a fence in that backyard, what would happen? We all know they'd be safe. So sometimes boundaries can be a blessing. We can often see them as somebody forcing us to be restricted, but in the dog analogy, it's just keeping us safe. So for me practically sometimes I would delete or sell my favorite video game to reduce the craving to go do it whenever I wanted. Three, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. The Bible's going to suggest boundaries, but also tell you about how we can't do this by oursel cuz we're going to keep feeling shame and guilt and all this stuff. But God sent himself as Jesus to die for our mistakes. Pastor Steven Ferdick said it like this. Jesus died as if he sinned so that we could live as if we didn't. So how do we quit our addictions? Now, I know addictions run very deep, especially when it's chemically, emotionally, physically involved. But if you could see that million-dollar option, wouldn't you take it over the $1 addicted option? It's not easy. But scripture says God's strength is made perfect in your weakness. You got to trust him to walk you through it. But we have to be the ones to take those steps forward. I am praying for you today. God knows what you need and he's with you. Even in the middle of doing that addiction, he still loves you and is always presenting that option. We just have to be willing to look to see it. God bless you friends. How can God help us get rid of fear? Last night we arrived at this hotel on the beach and I took my daughter out here to take a look. She would not get close to the edge because that is an 11story drop. There was nothing I could do to help her calm down. So as I was letting her go back inside, I looked over the edge, had this horrible thought, what if she fell and that sad afraid all at one time? What do you do when that happens? When that fear takes over? Or how about this? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, 3:00 a.m., and just have this horrible bad feeling? You have no idea what it is, but for some reason, you're just very afraid. How can God help you get rid of fear in those moments? Well, there's this interesting passage in scripture where Jesus sends out 72 disciples to go and help people. And after they complete this mission, this is what happens. The 72 returned of joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." So imagine that 72 followers of Jesus went out into the world, faced demons whose goal is to instill fear to have people take their eyes off God. And yet with Jesus, those things that everyone's afraid of submitted to the people in the name of Jesus. When I was a kid, I had this weird experience where after waking up in the middle of the night and having that terrifying fear, I went back to sleep and had this dream. I was in a home. It was extremely dark and I saw myself say Jesus. And when I did, this giant light shot out of my mouth. And when I woke back up and that fear was there cuz it's still the middle of the night, I just started saying, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." And that fear started to go away. I mean, this has helped me personally, but I've also had tons of Christian friends tell me they do the exact same thing, and it just brings them peace. But how can saying the name of Jesus be so powerful? Well, we see why in Philippians 2, talking about Jesus, says, "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. When I had that fear last night of my daughter falling, in my head and out loud, I said, "I cast you out in the name of Jesus, be gone." And it left my mind because that bad thought also has to bow to the name of Jesus. Wake up in the middle of the night, scary thoughts. I just say, "I cast you out of the name of Jesus, be gone." There's no magic to it. If we really believe that God is in charge of everything and conquered everything, do you think we'd be able to trust him to conquer our fears, too? I'm praying for you today in the name of Jesus. When you feel fear rise up, that it would be cast out in the name of Jesus. God bless you, friends. What's your core Bible verse? Yesterday, I was showing my daughter a memorable meme from a couple years ago. Have you ever heard, "Can I bet that dog? Can I bet that dog?" All day my daughter was quoting it. Or maybe you remember Charlie Bet. Isn't it interesting how these quotes will get stuck in our mind and we'll remember them years later. What about scripture? That's much more powerful than a funny phrase. And they can actually give us hope when things are crazy. For example, when we start to feel sad because we lost something, we can remember Jesus wept. That it's okay to cry sometimes. But do you have a core Bible verse that you go back to that instead of memes pops up to encourage you, to help you make decisions? Here's mine. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So when I'm confused about what steps to take next, I pray about it. But if I don't feel like I have a clear answer, I remember. And whatever I do, give thanks to God the Father. and I don't know what to say to somebody who's hurting. In whatever I say, give thanks to God the Father. Now, you could do this with as many Bible verses as you want, but what has been your Bible verse to encourage you when you needed it the most? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do I start with Christianity? This is such a great question. When I was in high school, I went to church because a girl invited me. Now, although I didn't understand any of the messages, they did tons of things for high schoolers, like sending me to a summer camp on the lake with jet skis, rock walls, and really great food. And one night after a day playing on the lake, they put on this awesome music event. And at the end, this guy stands up. Then he starts to talk about Jesus, asking if we understood how to get into heaven. Saying that a lot of people think you have to do all of these good things in order to be okay with God and get into heaven. He goes on to say, "According to the Bible, those things can't save us." It says, "For it is by grace you have been saved." Grace is giving us something we don't deserve. For it is by grace you've been saved through faith, which is trusting God, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. saying that we can be saved as a gift by trusting in God. That didn't make sense to me. As if reading my mind, he said this. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. So God is offering it to me because he loves us. I mean, I get that cuz I heard parents love their kids without them needing to ever do anything. Cool information, but how do you receive this gift? How do you start this Christianity thing? Then he touched on this final verse. If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And then he gave people the opportunity in the room to take a moment and make a decision if they were going to trust that God sent himself in human form as Jesus to take on all of our mistakes, all of our bad decisions, and die for us. And then believing that God raised him from the dead, proving not only is he who he says he is, but that also he loves us as much as he says he does. and he said something like, "If you're choosing to believe that, confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and you will be saved." And so, I made that decision. Now, I know for many people, it's not that easy. We want to do some more digging, get a little bit more proof. If you're somebody that's like that, yes, I recommend start reading the Bible, talking to others in church. But there's also a lot of people that can point you to proof that not only was Jesus real, but that the events happened exactly as they say in scripture, which is crazy, right? So, look up this guy named Wes Huff. He's been on the Joe Rogan podcast, Diary of a CEO. Do your research, but also bring it up to God. Now, if you want to make that decision today, you can. You don't need to wait to get to church or get your life in order. God loves you now. Start there and just see what he'll do. Praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do you start reading the Bible? When I first got my Bible, I thought I needed to read it like a normal book from beginning to end. But then in church, it would seem like they would open to a random page and start talking about it. So, I remember after I first became a Christian, I read the Bible like this. Now, sometimes that can be helpful, but is there a better way to start? In this one Bible, there are 66 books. Tons of stories spread out across thousands of years. A lot of people are going to have different opinions on how to start and what versions to read because this book has been translated throughout time. Somebody once asked what version of the Bible is best, and the response I heard was brilliant, the one you actually read. You could do your research if you want. The ones I'd personally recommend that are easy for me to read are the Christian Standard Bible and the New International Version. Now, you could get a physical Bible, and at some point you should, but I would first recommend downloading the Uver Bible app. 100% free and almost all the versions you can think of are on there, even in different languages. So, if somebody says, "Turn to the book of John," you don't have to try to figure out where John is. You can actually just select the book of John and easily jump to it. Speaking of the book of John, that is where I would recommend starting because it tells the story of Jesus. It'll be important to get to the other things, but I have found hearing the life and story of Jesus was foundational in me becoming a Christian. And if you want, you can also jump to the book of Proverbs, which is great for wisdom, or jump all the way back to the first book in the Bible called Genesis, which is the start of everything when God created the earth and you find out why we needed Jesus. Okay, so we know where to start, but how do we understand it? Now, when I first started, I really just wanted to get something out of it for my life to be better. So, I wanted to make sure I started in the right place. But the Bible says all scripture is God breathed and he's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God, you and I, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. God can use all of this to help us, which is encouraging, right? But it brings up the question, what if I find something I don't understand? For example, if I open to a random page and read and I will bring charges against your children's children, are they talking about my children's children? This is where understanding the context of what you're reading is going to be really helpful. Who wrote it? what was happening in their day and time, who were they writing it to? Now, some of those answers are pretty clear, but as somebody who's just getting started in the Bible, it can already feel overwhelming. So, one of my favorite resources of all time is something called the Bible Project. It's a group of people that started a YouTube channel that have spent over the last 10 years trying to make very simple and digestible videos to help give you the right context when reading books of the Bible. So, if you're going to start by reading the book of John, I highly recommend looking up the Bible project John and watch that overview. It'll give you all the context you need before you jump in. They also have a reading plan in the Uver Bible app I told you about that simply guide you through, hey, watch this video. Now read these chapters to understand. If you're someone who's already read the Bible, drop your recommendations of where you think people should start. And for those of you just getting started, I'm so excited for you to read God's word and hear what he's speaking into your life. I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do we find the right church? A while back, a church campus that I used to be a part of closed down, leading me to a decision of what church do I go to? Now, someone recommended a church to me that was actually 9 hours away, which sounds ridiculous, right? But I went on to their website, saw the list of values they believe straight out of the Bible, and I thought, "This could be a place I could grow if I was actually there." I saw that they had their sermons posted online. I watched a few, and I felt both challenged and encouraged to get better. But church online isn't a real thing, right? Well, let me pause for a second. Have you ever heard the term COVID Christian? I hadn't until a few years ago. Apparently, when the world shut down and people couldn't get together in person anymore, there was a flood of people that came back to God watching church online and giving their lives to Christ and they called themselves COVID Christians. Now, just because church was online, did it make their salvation any less real? Now, go back in time to me watching a couple of their sermons. I was visiting a lot of local churches, but really felt like God was using that church 9 hours away to grow me in my faith. So, after visiting, we did decide to move 9 hours. But that was only after a year and a half of experiencing that church online. Now, I know that's not for everybody, and some people would rather say, "I don't need to go anywhere. I can just read my Bible. I don't even need to watch online." I felt that way for a season until I came across this principle in scripture, learning about how much Jesus valued the church. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never walked into a church that was perfect, that felt completely holy and blameless. But because of Jesus, his church could become that. Because although we are imperfect people and so are the people in the church. Jesus died for broken people so that we could become better and have a relationship with God. But how do we know if it's the right church or if we could trust the people in the church? First, more than anything, we need to trust God. If he values his church so much that he died for it, we can give it a chance. Second, you can try watching their messages online. And while you do pray about it, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you for a season. Maybe you need to watch online to experience it until you can get there in person. But the important thing is to just start. Third, God cares more about this than we do. and he wants to be a part of the process. Check out the values on the website and see if they align with scripture. Ask God, "Is this where you want me to go?" And you may not get a clear answer. Sometimes you'll have to just go there, but God's not going to waste the faith of you trying. But also remember this, even if we don't like it, he died for his church that we could have a relationship with him. God wants to use it to help us grow cuz he loves us. He loves you. He's a good God. Praying for you today, friends, as you find your church. God bless. How do you achieve the dream that God has given you? The day I got baptized, I remember walking up the stairs and then down into the tank. And as I was doing that, I felt God tell me in my spirit, I'm going to give you your wife through this church. Well, here's the thing. I was visiting that church 9 hours away. In scripture, Abraham also received a dream or a word from God. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. It's not crazy to sometimes receive these big visions from God. Visions of you publishing the book, starting the business, helping a lot of people on social media. And although it gets us really excited because in our heart it is something that we'd love, how do we get to the point where that actually happens? So imagine me. I'm back home nine hours away from the church I got baptized at with this vision from God. I'm going to give you your wife through this church. What am I supposed to do? Well, right before God tells Abraham, "I will make you into a great nation and I'll bless you." It says this. The Lord had said to Abram, who's eventually called Abraham, "Go from your country, your people, your father's household, to the land I will show you." So, he's telling him to leave everything behind, start going, and then the Lord will show him the place he'll go to. So, God gave Abram a big vision and then one single step. Well, typically how we're wired, we would love to know the whole plan. Me being 9 hours away, I'd love to know the whole plan, but the single command he gave me was to start watching sermons from that church. Now, I did that, but I also tried to do all these other things to skip ahead to the part where I'd meet my wife, like applying for jobs in that area near the church or going down to visit that church more times. Have you ever tried to skip ahead to the vision that God gave you, ignoring the little thing he told you to do because you don't see how it's going to connect? Well, after making no progress of my own, I committed to just listening to as many sermons as possible from that church. Eventually, I got to one where I heard a story about how that pastor didn't kiss his wife until their wedding day. And I felt like God gave me my next step. Do not kiss anyone ever again until your wedding day. Have you ever been like, "Ah, I don't know if that's you, God." And just kind of put it off. Well, that same week, I got a random text message from a friend, and it was an article about a husband and wife that didn't kiss until their wedding day. So, I'm like, "Okay, God, I get it." So, I made the commitment to myself and to God, I will not kiss until my wedding day. Fast forward 6 months. I had listened to a few years worth of sermons from that church and my local church I was attending asked if I wanted to preach a message to the young adults group. I had no training in this. So I just kind of pieced together something from the sermons that I've been listening to from that church. Well, they asked me to do it again and again and one day this girl had moved from Texas, heard the sermon I preached, ended up giving her life to Christ, which is awesome, right? But then God told that girl that I'm supposed to be her husband and I'm like, I appreciate that, but God didn't tell me that. I mean, she was cool, but since I was in this place of I'm not kissing till marriage, God told me he's going to give me my wife through that church, I shut it down in my mind. But then one week later, while staying up till 2 in the morning preparing a sermon for the next day, God revealed to me she is the person he was talking about when I got baptized and he used the sermons from that church to do it. Now, if God gave you a vision, a dream, a calling, holding on to that in your heart is great. Ignoring everything else he's saying to chase after it, not so great. There is usually one simple step he's asking you to take that will seem completely unrelated, but you know he's asking you to take it. I would say take that step. And I'm praying today that God will make it clear. A simple step he wants you to take today. God bless you, friends. Is it okay to question what you believe? As a kid, I thought I was going to hell if I questioned what people taught me about God. Back then, I was told to do things simply because I said so. And if I pushed back or had questions, whether it was teachers, friends, family, I'd often get in trouble. So when people would say, "God would never give you more than you can bear." I just trusted them. But then when I felt like I was dying inside because I was facing something that felt harder than I could handle, I didn't know what to do with that. So then when I was 19, I was a counselor at a Christian summer camp. I hadn't really read the Bible. I just basically believed everything anyone ever told me about God. And here I was leading kids at a Christian summer camp. And then one night, the co-counselor that was helping me led a devotional with the kids and asked them, "Did you know it's okay to question what you believe?" And that rocked me because again, my whole life up to that point, I thought I would go to hell if I questioned what I believe. I had a conversation with him after and he started to show me what God actually said in the Bible. Taking me to scriptures and I started to see that a lot of the things that I believed about God that I learned from other people were wrong. For example, this whole thing where God will never give you more than you can handle. It's taken from this. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. It doesn't say God won't give us more than we can handle. Just that when we're feeling tempted to do something bad, God will always give us a way out. And then of course it's our choice if we're going to take it. And honestly that didn't convince me at first. I thought maybe I'm just understanding it wrong and everybody else got it right. But then literally in the next book of the Bible we see this. We do not want you to be uninformed brothers and sisters about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure. God won't give us more than we can handle. The Bible says the pressure they faced was far beyond their ability to endure it. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God. You can see how that's different, right? That led me on a journey to reading the Bible for myself and aligning my life to what God really says. One day, somebody's going to ask us, "Why do you believe what you believe?" Well, scripture tells us what we should do there, too. In your hearts, rever Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. What's the reason for the hope that you have? I'd love to hear it, and I'm sure others would, too. Praying for you today, friends. God bless. Why is it so hard to talk about God? When I was in school, no one talked about God. So, bringing him up just felt weird. It wasn't until I got around other Christians at church, Christian summer camp, where I felt like it was more acceptable. But we're not supposed to just talk about God with other Christians, right? Well, there is a benefit to it. Walk with the wise and become wise. For a companion of fools suffers harm. Okay, so walking with other wise Christians can help make us wiser. Perhaps learn how to talk about God. Make it feel more natural so that when we're with our friends and they ask, "What did you do this weekend?" We can say, "I went to church." And not feel weird about it. Because I don't know about you, but sometimes when non-Christian friends talk to me about church, I get a little shy. But from experience, getting around other Christians has helped increase my faith and get more comfortable talking to anybody. Now, there was a season where I felt like I didn't need to get to church, that I didn't need the church. I didn't need other Christians. In fact, I remember one summer where I made a lot of new friends. They love to party and do all these things. In my mind, I'm like, I'll go hang out with them and slowly tell them about Jesus and maybe he'll bring them closer to God. But do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. And that's what happened to me. I started to compromise so many of my values to fit into this group. Now, thankfully, God saved me from it. But it taught me a lesson. There is so much value in being surrounded by a church community with Christians. We can encourage you so that we can get more comfortable talking about God and so that when we're out in the world, our character isn't corrupted. What makes it easier for you to talk about God? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. Is tithing biblical? My whole life, I've been hearing from people about how important it is for me to tithe. But is it actually in the Bible? And if so, does it still apply? Well, the first verse that most people quote when talking about tithing is Malachi 3:10, where God says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house." "Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it." So, it is talked about in the Bible, but I've often heard people say, "Well, that was under the law that Moses gave from God." But then somebody took me back before God gave the law through Moses to when Abraham known as Abram at the time was hanging out with Melkchisedc which the Bible says was a priest of the Godmost high and he blessed Abram saying blessed be Abram by God most high creator of heaven and earth and praise be to God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand. Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Tithe means tenth. So Abram gave 10% to the priest offering it to God. But then of course there's a question that's Old Testament. Is that still relevant now? Well, first, the majority of the Bible is Old Testament and all scripture is God breathed. So, I'd say it's still relevant, but I get where people are coming from because I asked that question, too. And so, I want to know, did Jesus even say anything about tithing? Well, guess what I found? Jesus saying, "Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, and cumin. But you've neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness." Okay, so he's saying they tithe, but they're not doing the more important things. Then he says, "You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former, saying you should do both. Tithe and offer justice, mercy, and faithfulness." Well, that's just one account. Well, first, I believe everything that Jesus said and everything that's in the scripture is important. And second, it actually was in another gospel. That was Matthew's account before. Luke, the one people have said to be more thorough and researched because he was a physician. He accounted that Jesus said, "Woe to you Pharisees because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone." So, it does seem like it is in the Bible and still relevant. But the Bible also says that God wants us to be a cheerful giver. And giving the first 10% not knowing if we're going to be able to pay the bills or feed our family doesn't always make us feel cheerful. But hopefully, two assurances in the Bible can give us peace. One, this is the only time God said, "Test me in this." and then said he'll throw up in the floodgates. When I started, I tithed to test them to find out and he came through. The second thing is something Jesus said, "Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" He goes on to say, "So do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. The money we have came from God. As a thank you, we're offering 10% back to him saying we are prioritizing him in our life. Tithe, test, and see that the Lord is good. Praying for you today, friends. God bless. Have you ever been in church where you get this random feeling that you need to fix a tension between you and someone else? I have. And according to the Bible, it's not random. It says, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them, then come and offer your gift." I remember my wife and I had an argument this one time and it's one of those things that just sits and lasts for weeks and you don't know when it's going to get better. And so one day while praying over lunch, I got this conviction that I needed to go and fix the tension with my wife. And that verse came to mind. I didn't want to do it because I felt like I tried everything and nothing was working. But then that verse came to mind and I knew that prompt in that moment was from God. So I immediately got up while driving home. I prayed God just show me what to say. And I felt him just give me peace and say trust me. And in that conversation I apologize for the things that I could own and said I love you. I'm committed to you. I still want to spend the rest of my life with you and I'm willing to do whatever we need to do. But God did something special when I obeyed in that moment and brought him into the center of it. I did have to lay down my preferences of how I thought it was supposed to go and just submit to God in the moment. And it got better. Not immediately, but that moment was the defining start in the right direction. Who is God nudging you to fix things with today? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. Do you remember where you were the first time God called you? I remember I was at Penn State University on my way to class and in the middle of a garden, God told me to write a book about an adventure that he was about to put me on. Now, that might sound pretty radical, but here's the thing. I didn't really know that it was God, but at the time, I was seeking God. I had been praying for guidance, praying for clarity, and for specific next steps. Now, what's interesting is something similar was happening in the Bible. There was this boy that was seeking God, sleeping in the place where God was, but he had never really interacted with God. And so one night, God calls him and not knowing the voice of God, he goes to the closest person to him and says, "Here I am. You called me." And the guy's like, "No, I didn't." And then this happens three times. And eventually the guy that he's talking to is like, "Oh, God must be calling him." So then this guy tells the boy, "Go and lie down and if he calls you, say, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." And then God spoke to him. Now, I know normally for us, it's easy to go to God and say, "I want this, this, this. Can you fix this? Can you bring me my spouse? help me with money. But when's the last time that we said, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." Now, if you go back to when I was walking to class and the Lord called me to write a book about this adventure that he was going to send me on. This was one of the first times I was seeking God and not telling him all the things that I wanted, but saying in my own words, "God, what do you want me to do next? What do you want me to focus on?" And after just walking in silence for a little bit, when I got to the middle of that garden, that's when I heard, not audibly, but in my spirit, "Write the book to tell the story about what I'm about to do in your life." Now, some people might say, "How'd you know that was God?" Let's think about it logically for a second. Why would the enemy tell me to do something that celebrates God? Back then, I didn't know God that much. So, that was the only reasoning I went off of. But that moment was monumental, not because God gave me a vision of what he wanted for the future, but because I realized when I paused and asked God, "What do you want me to do? What do you want me to focus on?" He spoke. Sometimes impressions through the Holy Spirit, sometimes through words in the Bible, and sometimes multiple confirmations through people that he surrounded me with in my life. So, I want to encourage you today, take 30 seconds to simply say, "Speak, Lord. your servant is listening and wait see what the Lord might say and let me know what that is. I'm praying for you today friends. God bless. How do you view God? When I was younger, I used to envision him as somebody who was always angry at me for all the mistakes I was making. Maybe because in the beginning, all I heard was God hates this, this, this, stop doing that. But I also never read the Bible to understand the character of God. When I think of God now, I'm reminded of a movie I watched a long time ago where a dad and a son were walking along a mountain tied together by one rope in case they fell. Well, then the son's messing around, trips, and both the dad and the son fall off the mountain. the dad hanging below the son. And because of the weight of both of them, the rope is slowly starting to snap. The dad realizes it and knows the only way to save his son is to sacrifice himself by cutting himself off the rope. And he does. We've gotten ourselves into pretty bad situations. But God sacrificed himself as Jesus so we could live, paying the penalty for our mistakes. But the awesome thing about God is he didn't stay dead. He came back to life and wants to spend eternity in relationship with us. When we accept the sacrifice that God made, believing that he died on the cross, actually rose again, saying that we place our trust in him and live how he wants us to live, we get to have that eternal relationship. But did you know that God is much more than a savior? In Genesis 22, in a high emotional state, Abraham viewed God as the provider. In Exodus 15, God presented himself to Israel as I am the Lord who heals you, provider, healer. And in Judges 6, the Lord presents himself to Gideon saying, "Peace, do not be afraid." And then Gideon built an altar to the Lord and called it the Lord is peace, provider, healer, peace. God can give us all of these things. And yet sometimes we're afraid to go to him because of the mistakes we made. But remember, he is also savior. And because of that, we can call him friend, father, provider, healer, peacebringer. No matter how we're feeling, that's still who God is. Jesus says, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." So whether you're looking for peace, healing, rest, provision, we can go to God for all of that. Let him be more to you than just a savior. How will you choose to view God today? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do you know when it's time to change plans? Over the last 3 weeks, I've been testing trick shots on this channel. And although they've been cool and getting more views than the other videos we tried, I stumbled across something that's more effective. This. Eight days ago, I made a video like this that now has almost 100,000 views and brought in 1,500 subscribers, which is the most we've ever seen since starting this series on the road to 100,000 YouTube subscribers. Now, the trick shots have been getting better and getting more and more views, but I can't ignore the fact that just talking like this is something that I'm supposed to do because for the last 10 years, I had this feeling that God has been telling me I just need to every day talk to people on the other side of the camera. And I don't like talking. You see the problem? But the last few times I've done this, I've talked about obedience and the importance of doing it. So, from now on, I'm going to start trying this and give up the trick shots.