Answers to 92 Christian questions.

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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've been up till 2:00 in the morning the night before. And I 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 available 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. But yes, I could. And 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 2 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. So, on day 45 on the road to 100,000 YouTube subscribers, 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. Have a blessed day. When I was a kid, I used to love watching Dragon Ball Z. They used to break it down into different sagas. The Cell Saga, the Boo Saga. It was different sections of the show with a lot of different episodes in between, but it was like a major story arc. Do you ever think about your life like that? Like if you go back 10 years ago, do you remember what saga you would have been in? For me, I would have just been ending the Iceman saga, training and studying with Wimhof, the Iceman, to learn how to keep my body warm in freezing cold temperatures. But the biggest thing that I gained from that saga was my faith. I learned that God can do seemingly impossible things through anybody. Then I entered into the elevation saga where I found this church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Through this ministry, lives were being changed around the world and I wanted to be a part of that. In the middle of the elevation saga, I heard this sermon about the church giving away a lot of money to the people and encouraging them to go and bless somebody else with it. I ended up taking that message and teaching it to a group of people. I didn't know my future wife was in that group, but she ended up giving her life to Christ. Through that message, we would eventually come to know each other and get married. But that message also impacted me because during that saga, I felt like God told me one day, I'm going to give you the opportunity to trust me with your money and live off 10 and give away 90. I didn't know if it was God, but why would it not be God? Why would it be the devil? So then the giving saga began in the middle of the pandemic. I felt like God told me that with any new endeavor outside of my salary that I now have the opportunity to give away 90% of the profit and live off 10. When I got that feeling, I immediately gave away the 90% of the profit that I had from the Iceman stuff that was sitting in my bank account. And what's funny is the History Channel reached out to me and offered to do an interview on the Iceman stuff. I had published the Iceman book like almost 10 years prior and I got paid for that and I gave away 90% of that profit. So, it's like God kept giving these opportunities. I just remember one day God giving me the opportunity to help people through YouTube, people that feel stuck. I still get stuck, but God has always given me a way forward. And so, I want to use that gift to help other people find a way forward. So, that's what this YouTube channel is. And I started this podcast on this road to 100,000 YouTube subscribers cuz I felt like God told me to document the journey cuz one day there's going to be other people trying to do the same thing who are going to need some help too along the way. So, thanks for joining us in the giving saga, which also has YouTube in it. Just wanted to give you some transparency. The heart of us doing this is not because we want to be big on YouTube. We're doing it from a place of obedience. I was able to co-author a book on how people could do impossible things because God told me to research the Iceman. I was able to find my wife and build a family because God called me to a church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I listened. And then in this saga, we feel challenged to give, but also show that God can do so much when we feel like we have so little. Sometimes I forget that there's someone like me on the other side of the camera that I wish could have talked to me back then. Help me realize there is more beyond what I was facing. If I could just find a way to push through, God is with you. Even if you feel lost and is right now helping you find the answer, he is the answer. And the only way to get to the next level is through him. Don't forget that. What saga are you in right now? Now, can I be praying for you? 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 leaves 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. But 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 and 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. 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 had 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. And 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 the light 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. 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 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 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. How do you know when it's time to change plans? Well, for 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. 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 me." And I heard these two words so clearly, not out loud, but anytime I prayed it, 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 cuz 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 kronos, the chronological order of time, the one we're familiar with. But then there is chairos, which is a god orained moment in time. We sometimes call a 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 it to 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 to 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. 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 freakout, the emotional part is taking over. And so the reasoning part starts to shut down because 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. 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 asks 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. that says, "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Give all those emotions to God." He said, "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. And 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. 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 this 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 asks 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. 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 of 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 from 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 till 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 to light the Lord. How will you do it? Let me know so I can be praying for you. God bless. 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 are at. Yes, we can have our prayer closet, 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 don't 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 could be praying for you and have a blessed day. 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's 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 it 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 Penny 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 out, 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 prioritize the thing that God is 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. Is it possible to change our calling? Years ago, God called me to write a book. He 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 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, that he still wants to give you that opportunity. Will you accept it today? Let me know what that is so I can be praying for you. God bless. 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. 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 take it. It's a free dollar 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." 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 ourselves 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 want it. 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, or 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 on 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, and 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 out 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, this pops up to encourage you, to help you make decisions? Here's mine. And 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 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 guides 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 he 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 so 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. 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 Cubby 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 bring 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 just 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. 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 9 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 2:00 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 the 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 face 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'd you do this weekend?" I can say, "I went to church." And not feel weird about it. Cuz 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 that 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 MelkiseDC, 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 them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. The money we have came from God. As a thank you for 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 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 it 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. that 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, because 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 enem 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, 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. 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 because I felt like I tried everything. 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 apologized 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, 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 this 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, 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 sun. 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 stop comparing yourself to others? A couple weeks ago, I made a bad decision. I went to the store when I was starving. Now, I had a specific list of things I needed to get when I went into the store, but because I was hungry, I got distracted along the way and started grabbing random things that I thought would be amazing. And I realized I do the same thing with social media. I might hop on to check my notifications. But then I get distracted by all the things that other people have. The six-pack, the beautiful home, the million-dollar lifestyle. And then if I'm not careful, I would find myself chasing the things in that life rather than embracing the unique gifts and calling that God has given me. Scripture says, "Where there is no revelation, vision from God, people cast off restraint both in the grocery store and on social media, I got distracted from the mission. But there are specific gifts that God has given us that if we could tap into them, it would become our superpower. And would you really want to give away your superpower? For example, there is this amazing framework by this guy named Patrick Lencion called the working genius saying that there are two geniuses or gifts that if you invest in them, they will bring you so much joy. But there are also two gifts that will frustrate and drain you. And then two other gifts that you're like, I don't mind. I can do it either way. Let me name the six and you tell me which two you think brings you the most joy when you do them. First, the genius of wonder, the ability to identify what's broken and what could be better. Two, the genius of invention. The ability to come up with tons of ideas to fix what's broken or what could be better. Three, the genius of discernment. Being able to see a list of ideas and getting this gut feeling to make the call on which idea is best. Four, the genius of galvanizing. The ability to take the decided idea and get people excited about it to want to move toward it and make it happen. Five, the genius of enablement. Hearing somebody share the idea and getting so excited about it and just want to do it, be a part of it, making it happen and encouraging others while you're doing it. And then six, the genius of tenacity. The ability to organize things perfectly, knowing the right order it needs to go in, and getting so much joy when it's actually checked off the list. Now, it's easy to say, "I wish I had galvanizing the ability to get in front of a room of people and get them excited and charged up and go." But that's not me. Scripture says, "If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves." Each one should test their own actions, then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else. Which of those two geniuses did God give you? Because if you can figure that out, you can start to tap into your superpower that God wants to use to change the world rather than trying to chase the gifts of others. I'm praying do you battle intrusive thoughts? Yesterday, I was driving home on a single lane road where I'm going this way, another car is coming this way. And I had this thought, if I move my wheel a little bit, we'll crash. And I immediately had this thought, that's not me. Get out of here. Do you ever have moments like that? They're not healthy. They're not helpful. But how do you win a war when it's in your mind? Well, scripture says, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have the divine power to demolish strongholds. Think of a stronghold as a place where the enemy lives." It goes on to say, "Take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ." So, what's that mean? Well, practically for me driving that car, when I had the thought of crashing, I needed to one, grab that thought, two, analyze if it's from God. It wasn't. Three, cast it out loud. I actually said, "I cast you out in the name of Jesus. Be gone." And it left my mind. I did this because the Bible says he, Jesus, humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a 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. So, what's that mean? When we have a thought, we are to take it captive. ask ourselves, does this align with God's word? And if not, cast it out. But what if it keeps coming back? That verse earlier said, make it obedient to Christ. So if it comes back and you realize that's not from God, take Bible verses about what God really says about that and speak them over your situation. This is a war. The enemy will fight back, but scripture says that there is a divine power that can demolish those strongholds, the place where the enemy lives. I'm praying today that the intrusive thoughts would be cast out of your mind in the name of Jesus. That you'll be able to do what it says in Ephesians 6. Put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. Take up the shield of faith, believing that God can save you, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of your salvation. Jesus already saved you, so block your mind with it, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. How do you battle intrusive thoughts and win the war within your mind? Put on the full armor of God and make it obedient to Christ. I'm praying for you today, friends. You can do this in Jesus' name. God bless. How do you calm compulsive thoughts? When I was younger, I developed this thing where I had to do things in sets of three. When I washed my hands, I'd have to wash them with three pumps of soap. This eventually grew and manifested in other ways where I felt like if I had turned my body around left too many times, I'd have to turn my body around right a certain amount of times to get back to being balanced. Couldn't control these feelings or these thoughts. And after years of this, this escalated into sinful thoughts. Where before washing my hands three times isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's annoying, but it didn't feel like a battle of good and evil. But for the sinful thoughts, someone in the Bible said it like this. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. This guy was a Christian. Yet, he still struggled with sin with these compulsive thoughts. But wait, I thought if I became a Christian, those thoughts and feelings would go away. Here's what's interesting. When I accepted Jesus into my life, whenever I'd get the feeling to pump the soap three times, I started to have this feeling that I could say no to that. Like, I had the power to resist. And it was a choice. So, I'd say, "God, help me stop that." And after so many times, it stopped. But what didn't stop was the actual sinful thoughts, kind of like that guy in the Bible. But they did eventually go away when I learned and applied something very specific. When we accept the sacrifice that Jesus did for us, declaring he's the Lord of our life. We are a new creation, but our old habits are still there. Scripture says Jesus sends the helper, the Holy Spirit, to guide us. The Bible says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." It's not going to be easy, but it says, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." Meaning God is now giving us the desire to do good and the ability to do good through the helper, the Holy Spirit. Okay, but what does that actually mean? It means 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. Those sinful thoughts I was having, I just felt disgusting. But then I read, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind." Meaning God has seen this before. And if he has, he knows how to get us out of it. So, how does God actually provide a way out? Well, Jesus said, "If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away." Now, is he talking about actually cutting off parts of the body? No. So, what was Jesus actually saying? If there is something in our lives leading us to sin, cut it out. Take it to the extreme. If it's a social media app, delete it. If it's a computer, don't use it during the time that you're most vulnerable. I have cut out caffeine, my favorite candy, certain video games, all because they were triggers to leading me to compulsive thoughts that go against God. So, how do we calm compulsive thoughts? that and this final scripture where there's no revelation vision from God people cast off restraint when we lose the vision of God we lose our restraint giving into those compulsive thoughts and we can download more vision from God by reading his words in the Bible having a conversation with God in prayer but also when we have those compulsive thoughts saying to God help me do what you want me to do here in Jesus name because he has given you a desire and a way out praying today that you will be set free from your compulsive thoughts in Jesus name God bless you How do you hear God's voice? When I first became a Christian, I started to hear people saying, "God told me to do this or God called me to do this." And I always wondered, how are you hearing from God? Is it audible? Is it like a feeling? Most of the time, people would tell me it was a feeling that they got and it was confirmed that it was God. So, in college, I tried to act on a feeling to confirm if it was God. Specifically, I told a girl, "I believe God told me you're going to be my wife." Man, that did not go well. So, how do you figure out if what you're feeling is actually from God? Well, in scripture, Jesus uses this picture of him being a shepherd and us being sheep. The shepherd takes care of us, guides us, and it says, "His sheep follow him because they know his voice, but they will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." So, how do we recognize Jesus's voice versus a stranger's voice? Okay, I'm going to share with you how this works for me. Because, fun fact, years later, after studying this and moving in the things God nudged me to do, God eventually sent someone into my life that said, "God told me you're going to be my husband." I flash back to that earlier moment, said, "I appreciate that, but God didn't tell me that." But then within a week, he did, confirmed it for me, and now we're 11 years in, happily married. But that would have never happened if I didn't learn how to hear from God. So, the first thing I did was study how God talks by reading God's words. In here, not only do we see how God spoke to people, but all of this is telling the story of how God communicates. Scripture says, "All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Step one to learning God's voice, start reading the Bible. Step two, to hear from God, we need to make room to listen. In the Bible, there are so many examples of Jesus going off to be alone to talk to God through prayer. So, we can follow his example, finding a quiet space, maybe even laying in bed, and starting up a conversation with God, whether out loud or in your head, saying something like, "God, can you speak to me? Can you teach me how to learn your voice? What do you want me to do? Then just wait. Then what do you hear? Things God said in the Bible coming back to mind. Be strong and courageous. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Cast all your burdens on me and I will give you rest. Sometimes it's directions. When I'm praying, God, do you want me to do this? Do you want me to do that? I feel like I'm supposed to go in this direction and then scripture will come to mind. Like when God told Abraham, go to the land that I will show you. Go and then I will show. So then I'll move on things in faith. And then after doing it, I see, oh, that was God. Which leads me to the third and final thing. There's this thing in your brain called the reticular activating system. The way that it works is let's say you buy a car and then you start seeing the car that you bought everywhere. Your brain just filtered on something you connected with and you started seeing it everywhere. So what happens is when you start studying God's word, spending time with God in prayer, moving on it and seeing confirmation. You're going to start seeing more of those confirmations everywhere. That was God. That was God. That was God. And as we see him in the little and the big things, we learn that was God. And then we can tie it back to the feeling when God nudged me to do this. He confirmed it for me with this. So, I'd recommend what works for me. Document the times where you've seen God in response to you being obedient to something that he spoke to you. Is it really going to be helpful if we hear God's voice, but aren't willing to listen to it? He's going to say some hard things, but he actually cares for us. And if he's calling us to do something, we can trust he has a great reason for it. I'm bless. How do you know if an idea is from God? It actually took me three broken teeth to figure out the answer to this. See, I used to love this candy called everlasting gobstoppers. They're basically a ball of candy that you suck on until it dissolves. It's kind of like a mini jawbreaker. My favorite part of it is when it's small enough, you can bite it and it's going to turn into lots of little pieces of candy that kind of have the texture of pop rocks. But here's the thing. The first time I got the idea to bite the Gopstopper way too soon. A piece came off, but it wasn't the candy, it was my tooth. A couple months later, I got the idea to bite it again. Same thing happened. Not just two times, but three times. Because I didn't take time to analyze, is this a good idea or a bad idea? It's a silly analogy, but it's now a physical reminder of what can happen when I don't process my ideas with God. First, the Bible says, "Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." So, how do we actually do that? Here are three ways that work for me. Number one, when I get an idea that I wonder, is this from God? The Bible said, "Make it obedient to Christ." So, I take that idea and compare it to what I've learned about the character of God in the Bible. For example, does it go against the Ten Commandments? Does it go against something that Jesus said? Because if it does, in my mind, it's not from God. Like, hate that person. Well, Jesus said, "Love your neighbor." Or I could just take this from them. They're not even going to notice. Commandments say don't steal. See, easy filter, not from God. But it does require us to learn God's character by starting to read scripture. We don't have to read all of it at one time. Cuz in any relationship, you slowly get to know them. Second, after taking that idea captive and seeing how it compares to God's character, we pause and pray about it. God, is this from you? What do you want me to do with this? Sometimes scripture will come to mind. Sometimes you'll get direction, peace, a feeling not to do it. But we need to process those ideas with God while also analyzing the motivation because why we're trying to do it also matters. Is it something that aligns with what God wants or strictly to get what I want? And three, the most important part, especially if God is giving you an idea that requires obedience. There are two parts of this to fully get it. First, do not conform to the pattern of this world. Don't just move on ideas because everybody else thinks it's a good idea, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind by reading the Bible, bringing it to God. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. And then we'll see, was this what God wanted me to do? But there's one more important part to this. We might have an idea of what to do, but how we do it also matters. The Bible says, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, whether it's an idea to say something or do something, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." So when we move on an idea, we don't just check in with God and go on. We keep him in mind with us thinking, "God, I'm doing this in Jesus' name. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for this idea. I am doing this for you." And while we do that, we will get better at learning which ideas are from God. And we're not always going to get it right. I got three cracked teeth to prove it. But eventually, I got to the place when I learned the proper way to go about it. I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do you get direction from God? When I was a little kid, I heard about God, but didn't really experience him for myself. So, one day, I was sitting on my bed under the blankets, and I said, "God, if you're real, make this coin land on heads." And I flicked it, and the coin disappeared. As a kid, I freaked out. I'll get back to that in a moment, but asking for signs is actually super popular in the Bible. For example, remember Jonah, the guy that got swallowed by a whale? When he heard from God, "Go and preach to these people, he was afraid and ran in the opposite direction. And while running away on this boat, a storm breaks out. And it says in this section, the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." That's kind of like saying, "Let's roll the dice to see who's responsible." Or later on in the Bible, God tells Gideon, "I want you to go do this." Gideon's afraid. So he says, "When I wake up, can there be water on this blanket and no water in the grass?" And then when that happens, Gideon said, "Okay, okay, one more time. Tomorrow, can you make the blanket completely dry? Put water all over the grass." And then God does that. So, we see all these examples of signs in the Bible, but is this really what we're supposed to do? Because honestly, I'd love to move through life knowing this is the direction that God wants me to go in. Like bowling with bumpers. If I go too much to the left, it'll bounce me back to the goal. And in the Bible, there is a mention of something like that. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way. Walk in it." So, is the way to know the way by asking for signs? I think we have to be careful because in the New Testament the devil says to Jesus if you are the son of God remember God if you're real the devil says throw down yourself and then he quotes the Bible saying angels will catch you won't get hurt but then Jesus says it is also written do not put the Lord your God to the test later I heard this sound saw the quarter beside me and heard don't test me trust me what if there is a better way to get direction from God than asking for a sign remember the verse this is the way walk in it what is the way in In the book of John, Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." We don't get to God without Jesus. We're looking for signs and things like this, but Jesus was the sign. Yes, performing miracles, healing people, walking on water, but the ultimate sign that he was God was that he died and rose again. And for anyone that believes in him and confesses with their mouth, Jesus is Lord, they will be saved. So, how do we get direction from God? One, we need Jesus when we accept him into our life and say, "I'm going to live by your way." Two, God sends the helper, the Holy Spirit, guiding us. This is the way. Walk in it. Number three, Jesus said, "The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and remind you of everything I've said to you." And you might be wondering, "What did Jesus say? What's the direction God gave me?" We got to read the words of God, the words of Jesus in the Bible. This is the way. Walk in it. Ultimately, the question is, will this lead me away from God or closer to God because anything that leads us closer to God is the right direction. He is the way. Let's walk in it. I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do you know which step God wants you to take? This last year, our bank account was slowly going towards zero. And I prayed, "God, please get us out of this." And then one day, a friend of mine offered to rent us their home at a lower price than what I was paying my mortgage. But to do it, we'd have to move in quickly, meaning there's almost a guarantee we would have to pay two house payments for an unknown period of time while our bank account is almost at zero. So, it makes the answer pretty clear, right? Don't do it. But remember, I had been praying, "God, please get us out of this." But it didn't make that fear of not having enough money for food and clothes any less real. But then I remembered this verse. Do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the pagans, non-Christians run after all these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need them. Now I know God. I'm a Christian. I go to church. I say that I trust him. But it's true. I was worrying about all those things. So what am I supposed to do? The next verse says, "Seek first his kingdom and his be given to you as well." So, if I'm prioritizing God, it'll all work out. Well, even though it didn't make sense to my wife and I as we're taking care of our 5-year-old daughter, we decided to do it. Listing our house for sale, moving into the new home, taking on two house payments. Now, did we know if that was a step God wanted us to take? Well, the Bible said God would take care of us if we put him first. And we chose to believe that instead of believing that we can take care of it ourselves, we did know that this step would require us to rely on God even more. And is getting closer to God a bad step? Fast forward a couple of months. Our old house did not sell. So, it was about time for us to make two house payments. And we did not have enough money. Well, kind of. Because every time my wife and I get paid from our jobs, we make the decision to tithe or give a portion of our money to the church first before anything else. Meaning, we did have the money, but we would have to make the decision to not give that percentage to the church. Is that the stuff that God wanted us to take? Now, if we kept that money, we would have enough for one house payment, but we'd still have nothing for the other. And the Bible does say to tithe. God says, "Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it." So withholding that money honestly felt wrong, even though it would kind of half save us. So we decided to give it in that week. Our job gave us a surprise bonus, just enough to cover both house payments and our groceries until the next paycheck. But seek first his kingdom and his be given to you as well. Initially, I thought it meant just prioritize God. But there are two parts to this. One, seek versus kingdom. In the kingdom, there is one ruler and here it's God. Are we choosing to seek the kingdom? Release all control to God. Well, if we release all control to God, does that mean I do nothing? Part two, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. What does that mean? Living God's way. So, first we release control to God and we choose to live God's way. And when we did that, every time we had to pay two house payments, God came through with some financial miracle to give us just enough every time for almost five months. And yesterday, our house officially sold. What step is God asking you to take? I'm praying for today, friends. God bless. Does God care about our bills? Yesterday, I shared a story about how our bank account was slowly going towards zero because our bills and mortgage payment was too much. So, I prayed, "God, please get me out of this." And as a result, God gave us an opportunity that led us to having two house payments, which feels like the opposite of what I asked for, right? But in choosing to continue to tithe, not only did it lead us closer to him, God provided financial miracle after miracle for 5 months, paying all of our bills up through 2 days ago when we finally sold our old house. And now we're one week away from being completely debtree. Now, as a result of sharing that story, we started to receive testimonies from people experiencing the same faithfulness of God. There's one I need to read to you. In January of this year, my other truck was tagged with a red tag from the city for expired tags. I had 24 hours to correct this or my truck would be towed. It was payday and I didn't know how much I was getting paid and I had to pay rent and give to my church. My truck is heavy and it's always expensive to renew registration and I had been putting it off for that reason. But I came to the wire and I had to make some decisions. I rolled up the tag and I said, "I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I trust you, Lord." And started to walk to my place from the street. I looked to the ground and found a $20 bill frozen into the ice and snow by the road near the front of my truck. I pushed it out of the ice and snow, folded it up, and asked God to let me use it according to his will. I went inside. My boss called, had to pick up my check and run to the DMV, fully expecting to spend around $350 because that's the norm. I got to the counter and handed in my paperwork. The lady typed everything into the system and blurted out, "That'll be $10." Wait, no, that sounds wrong. She cleared her computer, broke out all the folders, and started meticulously handling my application. Finally, after 10 to 15 minutes, she looked at me and said, "The system will not let me charge you anything but $10. I have to give you this registration for $10. I don't know what happened." I gave her the money and got my $10 back. I put that in my tank on my truck and moved it from that spot just so they knew it runs. The Bible says, "So do not worry saying, "What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear? For the pagans, non-Christians, run after all these things. And your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Seek first his kingdom means submitting the authority of our life over to God, trusting him with it. And part two is living God's way, the way he asks us to live in the Bible. He's not a genie that grants wishes. He's a father, the perfect provider. If you don't believe me or want to hear another story about this, I linked yesterday's story below called, "How do you know which step God wants you to take?" If you got a story of God's faithfulness, we'd all love to hear it. So share it below. I'm bless. Are we supposed to tithe only to the church? When I was little, I went to this summer camp for kids. They had jet skiis on a lake, horses you could ride, and then at night, they'd have these giant campfires with s'mores and singing songs about Jesus. It's actually the place where I gave my life to Christ. And because of that, when I first learned about tithing, I would send 10% of the money I made to that organization, even though they weren't a church. Because not only was my life changed there, but I saw countless other kids' lives being changed. Now, as I continued to grow up, I started to hear how tithing was supposed to go to churches. For example, in the Old Testament, the money from the tithe would not only go to the people representing God, the Levites, but this old school church would also take care of the fatherless, kids that are orphans, the widows, those who lost their spouse, and the sojourers, which are basically foreigners living there who needed assistance. So, even the old school church model before Jesus, the church was using the tithe to help some of the people that needed it the most. And then in the New Testament church after Jesus, it says the disciples sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. And then later on as the churches become more established, we see the people with Jesus telling the churches, "Now about the collection for the Lord's people, do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up so that when I come, no collection will have to be made." So they're giving direction on how to help collect money in the church to help the Lord's people. So for me personally, after realizing that God set up a tithe to the church as an intentional method to not only help people around the world, but to also save people's lives by bringing them to Jesus, I switched my tithing to the church. Now, does it mean that I can't give to other organizations that help people with specific needs that I feel passionate about? No. There's a section in the Bible that says generosity encouraged. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. But I also needed to learn to trust God with the tithe when I gave it to the church. That he is ultimately in control and what happens to it after I give it. The church I'm a part of now, they give away 12% of every dollar given to help those in need around the world. What does tithing look like for you? I'm praying should I handle sickness as a Christian? This week, my 5-year-old little girl spiked a 102°ree fever. She was sitting at the table eating and just said, "Dad, I can't stop shaking. I just felt so bad." But over the next few hours, God would use her being sick to teach me how we should deal with sickness as Christians. So after she couldn't stop shaking, I picked her up. I held her. I told her, "It's going to be okay." And I prayed, "God, please get this out of her." And then she laid there for a sec just laying on me. And then said, "I have to use the restroom." And so I put her down. She ran into the restroom. And I heard this weird sound. And it's not what you think. I heard miracle on miracle, a million little miracles. She was singing a worship song while washing her hands. I don't know about you, but when I'm sick, I'm not in the singing mood. But when I heard that, I felt like God was saying, "Pay attention." You don't have to feel good to see my goodness. And when I'm sick, first thing I do is I ask God to take it away. Cast it out. Pray God, help me feel better. But hearing or seeing made me think, what if God healing our body isn't the most important thing? What if he wants to heal our soul, heal our perspective? Could that be part of the reason why he lets us get sick? To hit the reset button and fix our minds on him? I didn't even think about it until that moment. But you know, there's an interesting section of the Bible titled The Father Revealed in the Son. And Jesus says out loud, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children." My daughter got it before I did. God was using her to teach me. So after she comes out, she sits on the couch and starts saying, "Daddy, I need you. Hug me, please. Can you hold me?" If you ever had someone hold you when you don't feel well, you know that somehow it does just make you feel better. So why wouldn't acknowledging that God is holding us help us feel better? In the Bible, Jesus says, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." How often do we approach our father as Christians, not just for healing, but to be comforted, to be close to him, to refresh a relationship with God. So how should we handle sickness as Christians? One, instead of seeing the bad, how bad we feel, how we hate this and can't wait for it to be over, speak about how good God is, the miracles he's done in your life and speak out loud that he still is good, even if we don't feel good. And two, give all those feelings of being sick, those burdens, the fatigue to God and ask him to hold you, to take care of you. Use this time to find rest for your soul. Later on that night, my wife and I were laying in bed with our daughter, just holding her, patting her back, and through her fever, she said, "I love you, Mommy, Daddy." And isn't that a great picture of what we should do with God in the middle of feeling sick, overwhelmed, helpless, just say, "I love you, God. I know I don't feel well, but thank you for holding me, taking care of me, being there for me. I love you." She ended up having us play that million little miracle song by Elevation Worship on repeat all night while she slept. And the next day, she felt better, all healed, but she didn't wait to worship. I'm praying today that when you feel sick, yes, that you'll get physically better, but more so I pray that you'll feel spiritually whole in Jesus' name. God bless you, friends. What if I'm afraid of talking to God because of what he might ask me to do? I used to feel the same exact way until I learned this one thing from my pastor that gave me so much peace. God will never ask us to do something that goes against his will. Well, how do you know if it goes against God's will? Great question. W. Does it align with the word of God? God's not going to ask us to do something that goes against what he's teaching us in the Bible. So if it contradicts the Bible, it's not from God. Go and steal that. Not from God. Hate your neighbor, not from God. Because in scripture, he tells us to do the opposite. I influence of others. The Christian influences that God has surrounded us with in our life. What do they think about what God is asking us to do? Do they think it aligns with God's word? Life situations. Am I going to become an NBA player today? No. It's not my life situation. The last way to know if it's God's will, L. Leading of the spirit. When we get alone with God and we pray about it, do we hear the Holy Spirit telling us this is what we need to do, giving us scripture to affirm it? Because the Bible says, "For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline." The New King James Version says, "A sound mind." Now, does that mean that if we're feeling afraid, then the thing we're being asked to do is not from God. You know that famous scene where Peter is walking on water? Jesus called him to do it. He said, "Come." Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sing, cried out, "Lord, save me." So why is this important? Peter got afraid doing the thing the Lord asked him to do. But it's also important for us to not miss his response to being afraid. When he began to sink because of his fear, he cried out, "Lord, save me." When we experience that fear, we can bring it to God and say, "Lord, save me." The Bible also says the Lord will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. We may get afraid of the whatifs or even the what is actually happening. But it says keeping our mind focused on God. Trusting in him, he can keep us in perfect peace. And if we start to fail at that, we can do what Peter did and say, "Lord, save me." And he could bring us right out of that again. So what do we do if we're afraid of what God might ask us to do? Three ways that have helped me. One, take comfort in knowing that God will never ask us to do Remember, he cares for us. Two, if I feel God is asking me to do something, I could really discern if it's God by going through the WL checklist. And three, if after doing all that and I still feel afraid, I remember that God said, "Do not be afraid over 70 times in the Bible." Why? Because people were afraid. And that's why God reminds us to keep our mind focused on him. God often told people, "Be strong and courageous." Not because they had the strength to do it or because there wouldn't be trouble along the way, but because if he's calling us to it, we can have confidence knowing he will be the one to guide us through it. Let me know how I can be bless. How do you beat lust as a Christian? Growing up, we hear don't have sex before marriage because you can get STDs and die. Or don't look at stuff you shouldn't on the internet because you'll get a virus on your computer and it'll crash. But does it actually stop people? No. Because people are smart and it's easy to figure out ways around that. So, how do you actually stop? Well, I found three proven ways on how to beat lust from the only source we can actually believe, the Bible. First, you remember that story of David, the guy that used a slingshot to take down Goliath? The one the Bible says was a man after God's own heart. And yet, David lusted. In the Bible, it says one night when he should have been sleeping, he got out of bed and looked at something he shouldn't have looked at. Another woman naked who wasn't his wife. Now, he could have easily gone back to bed. But not only was he tempted to keep looking, he decided to take action and mess around. And that's not uncommon for someone to do. I mean, the Bible says, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind." But here's the thing. If a man after God's own heart couldn't resist temptation, how can we? Well, in that same verse, it says, "God is faithful. He will not let provide a way out so that you can endure." We saw that David had a way out. He saw the naked woman, but instead of deciding to just go back to bed, he took action. So the first way on how to beat temptation, look for the way out that God is providing. According to the Bible, there will always be one. The real question is, how do we see that more clearly instead of being so focused on the temptation? Well, the Bible also says where there is no revelation, which means vision from God, people cast off restraint. So God may give us that option, but if we don't actually see it as an actual option, we will cast off restraint and just do the thing. So, how do we get vision from God? Well, going back to David's story, not only did he mess around, but that woman got pregnant and she was already married. So, then instead of admitting his mistake, he tried to cover up the problem. So, how did David get vision from God to be set free from this path of sinning? Well, God sent a man with a story specifically for David. He said, "Hey, look at this other person's story and see how they saw something they wanted that they couldn't resist and they made the decision to act on it, taking it for themselves." Well, the Bible says David burned with anger against the man from the story. As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die. And then the man telling the story says, "You are that man." David finally got vision from God and said, "I have sinned against the Lord." So, how do we get vision from God to not cast off restraint? Well, this is an example of that. We have a story from the word of God that could help us have vision and perspective. And the Bible is full of stories like this. So by reading some of these stories, God will give us vision to not only see the way out when God presents it to us, but to be with a third thing, Jesus. When we confess with our mouths and believe in him, he sends us the Holy Spirit, the helper. So that when facing temptation, we can remember the words of God, get vision, change direction, and have the power to say no to sin. With the helper, the Holy Spirit. It's not easy, but with God, it's possible. Praying for you today, friends. God bless. Why won't God heal me? When I was about three or four, I went to the doctor with my mom and my baby brother. While my mom was holding my brother, I was standing on this little step stool. My brother grabs my hair like this. My mom turns and I fall off the stool and break my leg. Now, my leg healed, but because I broke my leg while the other one kept growing, this one was shorter than the other, leading me to get scoliosis in my back, which gives me pretty consistent lower back pain. Now, I prayed for God to heal it. I've gone to chiropractors. I put things in my shoes to try to level me out, but nothing seems to work. So, why won't God heal me? Jesus healed people that were blind, deaf, dead. So, is something wrong with me? Well, when we look in the Bible, there's somebody who met Jesus and did not get healed. Why? Let's see. This guy's name is Paul. And he said, "To keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." But does it have to be this way? Could I just be healed and not become conceited? When I first had that thought, God reminded me of something he said in scripture. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. But honestly, I also still think about the illnesses that are a little bit more visible. You remember the lepers that had skin disease? People didn't want to touch them. They called them unclean. God healed them. For me, I would get these bumps that would appear on my lips whenever I'd get sick or stressed. I remember being in elementary school. It turned from one to something that didn't cover the entire bottom half of my face. I refused to go to school. I was so embarrassed. How could that point people to God? Well, first, every time I got it, I'd say, "God, please take this away from me. Please help me." And it really did bring me closer to him. But then I also noticed something. As I got further in life, whenever I would get these visible cold sores, I started to see it like Paul, something sent from Satan to torment me. And yes, I asked God to take it away. But more so, I said, "God, give me the strength to get through this." Because if the enemy is throwing this at me, there's something that he must be trying to distract me from that could be a huge win for the kingdom of God. For example, I got a massive cold sore right before Christmas Eve when I was asked to preach one year. So when I realized, oh, this is the enemy, it gave me a different position like, "Oh no, you're not going to do this. I know your tricks now. I'm not going to back down because God is going to get us through this." And every time I took that approach, I saw a miracle happen that day. People gave their life to Christ. That guy Paul, he took on the same perspective. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, and hardships, and persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Now, it was hard for me to believe in the beginning, but after reading testimonies in the Bible, like Joseph, when the enemy threw attack after attack after attack, Joseph said, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." What if what we're experiencing now, God will use to produce the saving of many lives. It doesn't mean we stop praying for healing. But even if he doesn't heal us, God is still good and we can know that he will use it for good. How has God used something you walk through? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do you worship God? When I first heard about it, I was at a Christian summer camp and they said, "Let's worship." And started playing music. And so, for the majority of my life, I thought worship just meant singing to God. But I was wrong. If you look up the word worship, it means to give reverence to. And honestly, when I first looked that up, I had no idea what reverence meant. So, after defining that, it meant to love, to value, to cherish, and offering all of that to God. But then I thought, should I really be going to Google for the definition of how to worship the God of the Bible? So, the Bible says, "True worshippers will worship the Father in the spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks." Does that sound a little confusing? Because it did to me until I did a little bit more digging. If you didn't know, there are Bible commentaries out there where people do their research and then share their insights about what specific verses mean. For example, the Tony Evans Bible commentary says, "Worship in the spirit means pursuit of an intimate relationship with God." So, what's that practically mean? Well, the Bible gives some pretty great examples. Be filled with the spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, yes, singing is a part of it, but it also said giving thanks to God. We can do that in prayer silently, prayer and praise publicly. We can thank God in a gratitude journal, or one of my favorite methods, let me show you this. My wife and I take pictures and screenshots of things that God does in our life that we're so grateful for. And they're in a folder so that they show up in our home so that when we see it, we can thank God again. This is when our family got 5,000 subscribers on this channel. So, those are examples of how to worship in the spirit. But what about worshiping in truth? Well, that Tony Evans Bible commentary said, "In truth is to worship God in a biblically accurate way through the one who is the truth." And who's the truth? Jesus answered, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." So worshiping in truth means not only learning the word of God, but also practically applying it in our lives. So when the Bible says forgive each other and we sacrifice our preferences and do it anyway, we are worshiping God in truth. How did I learn that? Because the Bible says, "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." This is your true and proper worship. Now, it'll look different for everybody, but I'd love to know, how do you worship God? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. Does God want us to know his will? Growing up, I always wondered who's going to be my soulmate? What college should I go to? What job should I take? And although I prayed for a sign, I don't feel I ever got one. So, does God want us to know his will? Well, I found this verse in the Bible that says, "Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." Okay, so it is possible. But what is God's will? Well, if we go back earlier in that chapter, we get some direction. For you were once darkness, and that's how I used to feel in the dark. Which direction should I go? But now you are in light in the Lord, which once we accept the salvations of Jesus to cover our sins, we are in the light of the Lord. So live as children of light and find out what pleases the Lord. It makes me think, have you ever bought somebody a gift? And before opening it, they start guessing what it is. Is it a cat? Is it a dog? Is it what I asked for? And then we're just like, could you open it and find out? And I wonder if that's the perspective we're to understand here. Understand what pleases God by living God's way. So, what is God's way? Well, Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Okay, so Jesus is teaching us God's way. But what if my specific question about God's will isn't taught by Jesus? Well, Jesus says, "If you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever." The spirit of truth. So, when we accept Jesus, we are given a helper, the Holy Spirit, to help us make those decisions. But remember, Jesus says we need to follow his commands. So, the things that are in God's will are going to align with us following his commands. So, we can start with his specific teachings, but we can remember that all scripture is God breathed. The Bible also says, "Do not merely listen Do what it says." So to understand God's will, we can read the words of God. Then we're asked to do God's will. By applying the word of God. But how do we practically know if this is the thing that God wants me to do? Well, I think I found the Bible's answer for that. Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Remember, living God's way. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the patterns of this world. Remember, before Jesus, we just did what everybody else was doing. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind by reading the word of God and applying it. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. But which way am I supposed to go? I have found looking at options, I pray about it, but then also consider which of these options will help me apply God's word even more because that is what pleases the Lord. Not so much the option we choose, but the way that we'll live as we pursue it. Let me know how I can be praying for you today, friends. God bless. What is God's will? I recently found out that it explains it very clearly in the Bible in one verse. As a kid, I've always wanted to know what is my purpose in life. What is my calling? What is the mission that God gave me? Well, the answer to that and to understanding God's will can be found by tracing the mission of Jesus. It's summed up in one verse. For the son of man, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. And we've all felt lost at some point where we make a mistake, feel like we messed up our life, like there's no coming back. But that doesn't have to be true because Jesus completed his mission. It says by this gospel you are saved. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried. That he was raised on the third day. And that he appeared to Peter, the disciples, and over 500 more people. But why does this matter? Because if we make a mistake feeling like we've gone off course, God has given us a way to be redirected onto the right path. The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, Jesus, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." So because Jesus completed his mission to seek and to save us, we have the opportunity to accept the gift of eternal life. But what does this have to do with God's will? My calling in life, those are actually two separate things. But first, let's read what God's will is. Jesus said, "For my father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son Jesus and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day to live eternity together with God." So, first, before anything else, God's will is for us to believe in Jesus, to be saved, and have eternal life. Before understanding our calling, this is the most important thing. So, how do we do that? The Bible says, "If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead." Remember, over 500 people saw him after he was raised from the dead. Then you will be saved. Once we've done that, not only will we have access to heaven, eternal life with God when we pass away, God has a specific calling that he wants us to live out now. And because we're saved, he sends us the Holy Spirit, which the Bible calls the advocate to guide us. So now, what is the specific calling that God has given us? The Bible gives us direction here. For you were once in darkness, lost, but now you are in light in the Lord after we've believed in Jesus. So now live as children of light. For the fruit of the light, what God produces through us, consists in all goodness, good things, righteousness, holy things, and truth. The truth of God's words being lived out. And find out what pleases the Lord. So we are to live as children of light, children of God, and find out what pleases the Lord. And how do we do that? We go way more into this on the video on our channel called, "Does God want us to know his will?" Let me know how I can be praying for you today, friends. God bless. Does God want us to win? Growing up, I was really competitive in games. Video games, basketball games, any type of game. Now, I don't know about you, but when I started learning about God, when the game began, I'd have this extreme confidence that I'm going to win cuz God is with me. Now, did I win all the time? No. And it wasn't just me, because I had this friend in college, very competitive in video games. Also believed in God, and whenever he'd lose, he'd take his Xbox controller and just throw it across the room. So, what does that mean if we're losing while God is with us? Does God even want us to win? Well, the Bible does say, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." When I first read that, I thought it meant that I need to be the one to win. I even have these other scriptures come to mind. The Lord will fight for you. There's more of us than there are of them. The Lord will act on our behalf. But then I remember the story of how the devil tried to use scripture to mislead Jesus. He took him really high up to the cliff of the temple and said, "If you are the son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. But Jesus, knowing more scripture than just those few verses, said, "It is also written," do not put the Lord your God to the test. Now, this brings up an interesting question. What is winning? Because if Jesus jumped and the angels caught him, that would have seemed like a huge win over the devil. But God's view of winning looked different. Think of it this way. God's people were oppressed for years. They were begging for someone to save them. And through scripture and prophets, they knew that one day a savior would come. And the way that they were expecting to win was that God would raise someone up to take out everyone that was against them. And so when they saw Jesus performing miracles on behalf of God, healing blind eyes, raising people from the dead, no wonder they thought, "This guy is going to save us. This is the one we've been praying about. This is how we're going to win." So imagine how they felt when it ended with the same people that were holding them back killing Jesus by hanging him on a cross. But in God's eyes, winning looks different. What would be more important than saving himself and saving the people from their oppressors? Saving their souls. Win where it matters most. And the Bible teaches us how to do the same. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves. Not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. Jesus could have appeared to win the game, saved himself, but he cared about saving their souls more. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. So now we ought to read that prize verse from this new perspective. Do you not know that in a get the prize. Who models the way we should run to get the prize? Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." The ultimate goal is to take on the mindset of Jesus. When we accept the salvation he gave us by dying on the cross for our sins, believing in that our soul is saved and we will get to spend eternity with God. God has won our soul. Nothing matters more than that. How have you seen God waiting this week? Praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do you stop forgetting about God? I had this habit where I'd pray at night before I go to bed, but then as soon as I'd wake up, I'd feel like I was running late, rush to work, feel extremely overwhelmed, go to bed early cuz we needed to do it the next day, and then oh yeah, I need to pray again. And I realized I had forgotten God the whole day until everything got quiet and I was praying before I went to sleep. Now, at least I was doing that, but is that the way it's supposed to be? Now, I know there is so much for us to do. If we don't, we're not going to have enough. We're not going to pay the bills. Everything's going to get shut off and we'll be even more stressed. But the Bible says, "Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth." This made me realize I needed to do things differently. And since making the changes, I am now fueled daily because of the three principles I implemented from the Bible on how to remember God throughout the day. First, there is this story in the book of Joshua where the Israelites come up to this body of water. And as soon as they step into it, God dries it up. They see it as a miracle. And so to remember, Joshua had people get 12 stones representing the 12 different tribes that God performed the miracle for and put them in the ground where the water once was to remember the God moment. And so the first thing I do is this is my family getting baptized. I took a picture of the God moment, saved it in a folder, and it pops up as memories here for me to remember the faithfulness of God. But then also when people ask, I could tell them the story. It's hard to forget about God when you see visual reminders. But also start training yourself to see them more. For you, maybe it's writing it in a notebook or in the notes app on your phone. The second principle is this also in the book of Joshua. Keep this book of the law, the word of God, always on your lips. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Simply put, memorize scripture. Not in an overwhelming way, but if I knew I was going to be overwhelmed that day, that I was going to need God's strength, I memorized the scripture, be strong and courageous. Meditating on scripture is that easy. If I felt afraid going into a hard conversation, be strong and courageous. Or if I was really overwhelmed, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. I would just keep saying these things to myself, simple memorization of scripture that's intentional, purposeful. I thought I needed less stress, but what I really needed was a reminder that God's strength could get me through it. And the final principle to help me not forget about God throughout the day is by speaking to one another filled with psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit. What's that mean? Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord. Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Simply put, listen to worship songs that fuel you up. Every morning when I wake up or if I'm driving, I listen to a worship playlist to encourage me. I used to listen to all these other songs, but they didn't help me remember the Lord. These do. A lot of them have scripture built into them and they can fuel us with the strength that we need to take on today. Now, did you catch the bonus principle there? Speaking to one another with Psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit. It's what we're doing here. Find someone that you have access to daily where you can talk about God. Share your favorite Bible verse. Share your favorite worship songs. So, let's practice it. What is your favorite worship song or Bible verse? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. How can God give you rest? You know that feeling where every day it just feels heavier and heavier where you just get more and more work and then when you get home there's still a lot to do. You even feel like God gave you dreams but they just feel impossible with everything you got to do. Jesus who is God in human form says come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest. So how do we get that rest? First remember that feeling we talked about at the beginning where sometimes it can feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders and we have to do all of these things and keep up to be a good person. But what happens when we mess up? Well here's the thing. We've all messed up at some point in our life. There's nothing that we can do to save ourselves from what is going on in the world. So that is why Jesus is saying, "Come to me and I will give you rest because he died for all of our mistakes, took on the weight of that so that we could have a relationship with God and live lighter." There's nothing we can do to earn it. Jesus is just saying, "Come to me." Not figure out how to save yourself or go to this person that will save you. Come to me. The Bible says, "For it is by grace you've been saved." Grace is getting something you don't deserve through faith, by believing. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, not by anything we can do, so that no one can boast. So there's no requirement of good things we need to do before we can deserve it or bad things we need to not do before we get it. Jesus is just saying, "Come to me and I will give it to you." But how do we come to Jesus? Well, the Bible says, "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." Okay, so now that we've come to Jesus, come to me and I will give you rest. How do we part two receive that rest? It says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." Real quick, a yoke is a bar that they used to put on a very mature ox who've had been doing it for a while. And they strap in a younger ox who had no experience so that the mature ox could guide them. So Jesus is saying, "Lock into me and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." When we submit ourselves to lock in with Jesus, saying, "I'm going to let you guide me. I'm going to let your words, the Bible, lead my life." The load is lighter because he's leading us. But how does he actually lead us? Two ways. One, we got to read the words of the Bible. Not all of it at once, but bits and pieces to understand it. Because Jesus goes on to say, "If you love me, keep my commands." And then part two, "And I you forever." The spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. Meaning when we come to Jesus and accept the sacrifice, submitting to his ways, we receive the advocate, the Holy Spirit, God living inside of us, guiding us. And we can submit to his will found in his word and walk in his ways because the Holy Spirit. So how can God give us rest? The burden doesn't actually get lighter. We've just locked in the one who can carry it. And our job is to let him lead us. Let me know how I can be praying for you today, friends. God bless. How can God calm your mind? Recently, something happened at work that I could not stop thinking about. When I was trying to go to bed, I just kept playing over and over in my mind, thinking about all the different ways I could have done something differently. And then after finally falling asleep in the middle of the night, woke up again and it just started replaying. What are we supposed to do with that? Well, the to make it obedient to Christ." Meaning, when we start getting those persistent thoughts, we are to hold it and analyze what does God want me to do with this? Because thoughts could be helpful or hurtful. If it's hurtful, the Bible says we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. In other words, if a thought is hurtful, going against the words of God, we need to attack it and cast it out. But if it's helpful, aligning with God's words and commands, we need to receive it and do something with it. So, how do we know which thoughts are helpful or hurtful? Well, God taught me this in three parts. First, it says to take out anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And how do we learn about God? The Bible. As we read stories, hear what he said, we learn his character, how he thinks, what we should or should not be thinking, and what we should or should not do. So part one, we need to pull out the knowledge of God and say, "How does this measure up against it?" But what does that look like practically? My wife and I once had this huge argument and I just kept spinning on all the things I should have said, all the things I could have said, all the things I shouldn't have said. And while I was at church, I had this thought, go home to your wife and fix things. And I could not get rid of it. She was already very angry. I thought it would make it worse if I did that. So I took it captive, said, "God, what do you want me to do with this?" And you reminded me of this verse. 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 and first go be reconciled to them, then come and offer your gift. So the thought that was stuck in my mind, if I'm making it obedient to God's word, matching it up to God's standards in the Bible, it was something helpful I needed to act on. So I did it. God was with me and everything got resolved. Thank you, Jesus. But what about the hurtful thoughts? Part three. I once said something at work that I thought ruined my career. I thought I lost trust with everybody that knew me. even though they said it was fine, I just kept thinking, "You're just saying that. I should have known better." And I couldn't sleep or eat cuz I kept thinking about it. And I just kept beating myself up. And then after waking up in the middle of the night and getting so fed up, I finally grabbed that thought and cried out to God and said, "What do you want me to do with this?" I felt so ashamed. And then he reminded me of this scripture. He himself, Jesus, bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. The Bible says we are to take those thoughts and make them obedient to Christ. Jesus died on the cross for our mistakes before we ever made them, knowing we would make them. So, I don't need to feel the shame of that thought because he died to get rid of it. So, yes, I can get better, but I'm not a failure. I didn't ruin everything. Because I believed and accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, I can be set free from that shame and cast out that thought. That's what finally gave me peace. It's not easy taking every thought captive, but marking it safe or casting it out based on the word of God is much more effective than letting it continue to mess with us. I'm praying that you will be set free today in Jesus' name. God bless you, friends. How do you know what God is calling you to do? When I was little, I thought God was calling me one day to be a famous singer and dancer. And then a month later, I started to get into basketball. I thought maybe God's calling me to be a basketball player. Then someone told me I was good at acting. So I thought maybe I'm called to be in movies. With so many options, how do you know what God is calling you to do? Well, God led me on a journey to learn three ways to understand what he's calling us to do. And it starts with this Bible verse. Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. I was thinking years into the future, God, what are you calling me to do then? And I felt like he was telling me, "Focus on what I'm calling you to do today, right now." Then he showed me the three ways to know what that is. And they all start with the letter R. The first way to know what God is calling us to do right now is by focusing on relationship. Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. So, what does that actually mean? God's calling on our life today and every day will always be anchored in that relationship with him. If we don't spend time talking to God in prayer, sharing what we're thinking and feeling, and then also reading his words through the Bible, how are we going to know him when he's calling us to do something? The second way to know what God is calling us to do today is found in this verse. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the will. The second R is renew. You know, my daughter's 5 years old. She's growing very quickly. But recently, she started coming home from school talking like a baby because that's what other people at school were doing, conforming to the patterns of the world. We told her, "As you're maturing, you can choose not to do that. Grow into the person that God is calling you to be." There are some things in our life we picked up from the world around us that God wants to set us free from. So sometimes what God will call us to do today will be to renew our minds. For example, breaking out of old habits, releasing toxic relationships, renewing our mind to do the things that God is asking us to do in the Bible. You see how the relationship part is important because it's all preparation. What God is calling us to do years from now is tied to the renewing of our mind that he's asking us to do today. So what God's calling us to do is rooted in relationship in renewing our mind. And the final R we learn from Genesis 12:1. The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your So knowing what God's calling us to do today is rooted in relationship, in renewing our mind, and in responding. God said, "Go to the land I will show you." And in the response, he tells Abram, "Good things will come from it. 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. Good things will come from it." 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. By loving God through relationship, renewing our mind daily, and responding even when we don't know the details, we will be fulfilling what God is calling us to do today. Let me know how I could be praying for you today, friends. God bless. How do you praise the Lord? My 5-year-old daughter's been singing the song. Maybe you've heard it. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Every time she yells it louder and louder. I think it's the only part of the song she knows. But it brings up the question, how do you praise the Lord? We know it's something we're supposed to do. It's all over the Bible. The last line in the book of Psalms says, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." Praise the Lord. And then if you go over it at the time of Jesus, you actually see it happening in real time when he's walking down a road. It says, "The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest." Now, it makes sense to praise someone when you see him. We tell our kids, "Good job." And they do something great. When someone helps us, we're taught to tell them, "Thank you." And in this instance, they're praising God for the miracles that they've seen Jesus do. But how do we praise the Lord when we don't see him or his miracles easily? Well, we have an example of that in Psalm 43 where it seems like someone's depressed and they start talking to themselves saying, "Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God." So, even though they're not feeling it, they're telling themselves, "No, we will choose to praise him because he is still my savior and my God." That's powerful. But what are some other ways to praise him if it's not necessarily calling out miracles? Well, we have an example of that in David. That song they were singing in the beginning, David opens up with it. Praise the Lord, my soul. Wonder where they got it from. And David goes on not to call out God's miracles, but says, "Forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, and crowns you with love and compassion." So, even if we don't necessarily have miracles to point to right now, we can still celebrate God for his character. Has anyone ever celebrated you for being kind, for being patient, for being helpful? God is all of those things, and we can praise him by simply acknowledging it. But when we praise God, what does it actually look like? For most of us, the first thing that comes to mind is probably singing, which comes from here. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. So, we immediately think of worship and praise songs, which is great because even if we don't feel it, those songs are typically filled with scripture and speaking things out in faith, fueling our soul, praising God. But there's more to that passage that's titled a psalm for giving grateful praise. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name for the Lord is good and his love endures forever. Important thing to remember regardless of how we feel, God still sacrificed himself as Jesus to die for our sins so that we could have a relationship with him. That is why we are praising God. So we can praise God by singing by saying thank you by just knowing he's God and living a life that shows that sometimes we're not going to feel like praising God. But that's where we have to do what David did and make the decision to command our soul that we are praising God because his goodness isn't depending on if I am feeling good. Got a promotion at work? Praise God. Made a new friend, praise God. Hardest day of our life, we can still praise God because he will get us through it. Let me know how do you praise God. I'm bless. Why do you fast for God? When I was little, the idea of fasting was extremely weird to me. Why would you purposely starve yourself when there's people starving around the world? Now, I had tried a 24-hour water fast because the youth group I was a part of asked if I wanted to join. But the entire time I was just counting down the number of hours until I could eat again. It just felt pointless. Well, it felt pointless until I became a Christian and started to learn the Bible more. For example, there were some Christians in the church in the Bible who were worshiping and fasting and God used that to speak to them. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them." So, I learned that God can tell us the next thing he's calling us to do while we're fasting. And actually, the same spirit that told them what to do is the same one that led Jesus to fast for 40 days and 40 nights. It says, "Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry." Question: Why would the Holy Spirit lead Jesus to be tempted by the devil? Well, I think part of the answer is in their interaction. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Who wouldn't want to eat after 40 days and 40 nights?" But Jesus answered, "It is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." What if part of the reason the Holy Spirit led him to be tempted was to get an example of how we're supposed to depend on God's words over our desires. Shortly after learning that, my church group asked if I wanted to fast with them 3 days. This time instead of just doing it, I went in with a purpose, prioritizing God over my own desires. So every time I would feel hungry, I would say, "Man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." That experience broke something off of me. It taught me that I could choose to be driven by God over my desires. Even Jesus had to put aside his desires to prioritize what God wanted. He could have chosen to turn the stones to bread, to not get up on the cross, but his mission was to seek and to save the lost, us. And he encourages us to take on the same mindset. Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Fasting isn't something to flaunt to make us seem holier than we are. Jesus actually speaks against that. But to give you an idea of what this looks like practically now, for me, every Sunday when I wake up, I now intentionally fast until 3 p.m. Because Sunday is when I go to church, when my focus is worshiping and spending time with God to say to God in my head, I want to make this time all about you. I want you, God, more than what I want. If there's something that you want me to learn or see, like those Christians who are worshiping and fasting in church, I'm open and willing to hear it. Every week, I see it as an opportunity to reset my mind, to reset my soul, to prioritize the thing that matters most. Every word that comes from the mouth of God. If you've ever fasted, let me know. Friends, why do you fast for God? I'm praying for you today. God bless. How do you submit to God? I used to have this Jesus fish. You ever seen it? It's called an ichthus. Well, it was this paper weight that sat on my desk that had one of the most popular Bible verses written on it. It said, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him and he will make your path straight." But I used to look at that thing and wonder, what does it mean to submit to God? Well, if we look at different versions of the Bible, instead of the word submit, the King James and other versions say, "Acknowledge him in all your ways." Which does get us a little bit closer to the root word in Hebrew that means to know God. Which brings up another question. Why are there so many different words to represent one thing? Well, because it's a complex topic, but whether it's submitting, acknowledging, or knowing God, the concept can be simple to understand. There's this guy named Tony Evans who has this Bible commentary, which is where they do this research and share insights on Bible verses. But he speaks on this verse using the analogy of a bank account. So, imagine I'm going to go to the store to buy groceries. While I'm deciding what things I need to put into my cart, I need to know what's in my bank account because if I don't acknowledge it, it may cost me more than what I'm able to pay. But that's also why I like the word submit because I can know what's in the bank account. I can acknowledge it, but I will only have the intended experience if I submit to it. Now, we know God's resources are unlimited. His bank account will never run out. But similar to how we're keeping our bank account top of mind when we're shopping, do we keep God top of mind when we're making any other decisions? Have we logged into God's bank account to know what's in there? The Bible says when we trust in him and submit to him in all our ways, he will make our path straight, not smooth, but straight toward his intended purpose. You know, when we accept the salvation of Jesus and choose to follow him, God sends us the Holy Spirit to guide us. And so, when we're talking about God making our path straight, there's this really cool scripture in Isaiah that helps me envision what it's actually like locked in and rolling with the Holy Spirit. It says, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way. Walk in it." Practically for me, I think of my experience making these videos. What you don't know is I typically record 40 minutes to an hour and then trim it down to three minutes for you. Because I'm praying, studying the words of the Bible, and asking God, "What do you want me to say next?" And then sometimes I'll say something and I'll get this feeling, "No, that's wrong. Don't say that because the Bible says this." And essentially, I'm hearing this is the way. Walk in it. I don't get it perfect, but I'm doing my best to acknowledge God, to know God, and to submit to what he's asking me to do. But what if what God wants isn't what I want? Well, one, this verse gives me peace. And we know been called according to his purpose. So, I can trust that as God is making my path straight toward his purpose, he will use it for good. Maybe for myself, for somebody else, that God uses it for good. Part two of what if what God wants isn't what I want, that's where we're asked to trust him, to submit to him. If I want to operate from a place of never checking the bank account, I definitely can, but it's going to hurt me. Not because God isn't good. He is. But because he cares for us and has such a higher perspective, he wants to guide us on the right path. But we have to acknowledge him through this and bring him into daily decisions through the Holy Spirit. Let us know how we could be praying for each other. God bless you. Friends, how do you know if God wants you to move on an idea now or later? A few years ago, I got this idea to build an app. I was pretty sure it was from God because when I received it, the intention was to use it to help God's people. But here's the thing. I don't know how to make an app. So, I thought, God, do you just want me to drop everything and learn how to code or is this something you want me to learn later on after I develop the skills? But then I came across this Bible verse. Sew your seed in the morning and at evening. Let your hands not be idle for you do not know which will succeed whether this or that or whether both will do equally well. So then I felt behind like I should be developing the skills. I should be figuring out how to make the thing. But then I heard somebody quote this. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. So then I thought, wait, do I just need to relax? What is God trying to tell me? And after getting really anxious about it, the Holy Spirit reminded me of what happened in Genesis. God spoke something to Adam and Eve, gave them an idea, direction, and then the enemy came in and said, "Did God really say that?" And it led them to being confused. So instead of going back to God to confirm what he said, they did what they thought was right. Which I understand because if I don't know what to do, that's all I have to go off of. Now, we know because of Adam and Eve's mistake, we were all separated from God. But because of Jesus in dying for all of our mistakes, God in human form sacrificed himself so that if we choose to believe in him, believe what he said and did, we could be brought back into a relationship with him. So pause for a moment. What if God wants us to prioritize the way we do something over the timing of when we execute an idea? The Bible says, "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." But that word for wait doesn't mean wait and do nothing. It means to put our hope in. Waiting with expectation. So whether we move on an idea now or an idea later, the Bible says, "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." Whatever we do, whenever we do it, we are to do it in the name of God, giving thanks along the way. Because the way we do it is the most important thing because Jesus says, through me." If you really know me, you will know my father as well. How do we know Jesus? How do we learn the way? by doing what Adam and Eve should have done. Going back to God and learning what did he really say? How do you want me to build this app? How do you want me to write that book? How do you want me to live my life? Even though you may wait to move on that idea, we don't need to wait to learn God's way. Let us know how we could be praying for each other. God bless you, friends. Does God want us to be happy? Growing up, every time somebody broke up with me or I didn't get what I wanted, I remember getting so upset and just asking God, "Don't you want me to be happy?" So, it got me thinking and I was looking it up. Did you know that the word happy or happiness appears about 30 times in the Bible, but the word joy appears in various forms over 300 times in the Bible? Why? Well, if you dig into it, the word happy is temporary based on circumstance. Whereas joy, regardless of what's happening in the world or in my life, I can still experience joy. So through that lens, does God want us to be happy or does he want us to be joyful? And what does joy actually look like? Well, in the Bible, there's this prophecy that talks about one day after Jesus comes, which has already happened. It says, "Then young women will dance and be glad. Young men and old as well, I will turn their mourning into gladness. I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow." So, instead of dwelling in sadness, God says he can replace it with joy. But how do we get that joy? Thankfully, the Bible has the answer to that. It says, "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." This is in the section where it talks about doing life with the Holy Spirit. Which as a reminder, God sends us the Holy Spirit after we make the decision to believe in God that he came down in human form as Jesus. And even though he was perfect and did no wrong, died for our mistakes, then rose again 3 days later, proving how much God loves us. And when we truly believe that in faith, that is when God sent the Holy Spirit into our life. As a result, we have access to this joy. Life's not going to be perfect. We're still going to crave some of the things that aren't good for us. For example, even if I'm on a diet cutting out sugar, I'm still going to want that candy. But as I say no more and more, I experience so many other benefits that come from it because I didn't give into the craving. So as we obey the words of the Bible, the words of God and listen to the Holy Spirit when it's saying yes, do this, don't do that. The result of that according to the Bible is joy. In fact, Jesus's brother said this in the Bible, 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. By denying the thing that's bad for me now, I'm believing that I will become healthier and get stronger in my resistance to that stuff. So, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Now, notice here what James did not say. He did not say feel pure joy. He said consider it pure joy, meaning it is tied to a decision, not to a circumstance. Because the Holy Spirit, we can decide to experience joy at any time. In fact, one of the main communicators about Jesus in the Bible shares a life hack and says, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstance. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Whether wellfed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want, I can do all this through him, Jesus, who gives me strength." We get joy by walking through life with Jesus, following God's will, God's way. Does God want us to be happy? Forget about that. God wants us to choose joy. Let us know how you can be praying for each other today. God bless you, friends. How do you find Christian friends? When I was a teenager, it was really hard to make friends. When I became a Christian, it was even harder to make Christian friends until I went to this Christian summer camp about an hour and a half away where I was surrounded by hundreds of people talking about God. It was awesome because almost everyone I talked to was a Christian. But at the end of the week when we had to go home, it's like that Christian bubble popped and it got sent back to reality. Experiencing that set me on a journey to figure out how to find Christian friends where we could talk about God together, pursue our callings together, pray for each other when life gets hard, and help each other see God more even during the hard times. Today, I'm grateful to say that I'm surrounded by Christian friends. I found a wife who loves God. Our family centered on Jesus. So, I want to share with you what worked for me that came from the Bible. Now, we all know that Jesus had friends, right? And they weren't fake friends. They actually cared about each other. So much so that even after Jesus left, that group of Christian friends continued to grow and new people were coming to Christ because of it. So what if more people came to God simply because we found Christian friends? It says that group of Christian friends devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. What it's saying right there, talking about Jesus together, praying together, eating together, witnessing God's miracles. All of that happened at that Christian supper camp. That's what I wanted to happen in my daily life, but I couldn't see how to make that happen until I continued reading. All the believers were together and had everything in common. So, it made me think, should I start by just trying to figure out how to get together with other Christians. So, I tried going to church, ended up finding a couple of friends there. They had programs where they do activities together throughout the week. Found more Christian friends there. On social media, there would sometimes be Christian events happening in the community, and I found even more friends there. Now, although that wasn't the answer to it all, it was a start and it gave me more ideas as I continued to read. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. So, it made me think, okay, they're giving their time and their resources. Maybe if I volunteer at church or at Christian events, I'll find even more friends. And I did. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. And that's what my life started to look like. Attending and serving at church on Sunday, going to the movies with Christian friends on Monday, Bible study with them on Tuesday, playing games together on Wednesday. There was something available every day of the week. Now, going to these events was great, but I felt like something was missing. And I found it in this verse. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. I realized I was expecting other people to bring me into their friend groups. I was dependent on all their events that I was missing that I could bring them into my home, into my life, and be the one that creates a space for more people to find Christian friends. So, I made the decision to buy pizza every couple of weeks and invite people over to my home to talk about God together, to eat together, to pray together. And something wild started to happen. People who weren't Christians wanted to come. And because of that, we got to experience this last line in this passage. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. So, not only does that teach us an example of how to find Christian friends, but also how we can bring more people to Jesus, which is the ultimate goal. I'd love to hear, how do you find Christian friends? God bless. How do you know if God is asking you to give up something you love? 10 years ago, we moved to a new city and we were looking for something to do as a family. Now, this brand new game came out on everybody's phone that the world went wild over. I'm talking top of the app store, numerous countries. Everybody seemed to be playing this game. And what was awesome about it is it encouraged you to go outside with people, explore different parts of the city, and get some good exercise with people while doing it. I loved it so much because it could even make things like running or going to the store feel even more productive. But then there were some nights where I'd be going to bed, I'd look at the game on my phone, and then it would leave me to get completely dressed so that I could run outside to get this super rare thing that I only have 5 minutes to get, which it's not a super big deal, right? Well, imagine living like that for over 10 years. Anytime I'd have a moment to myself, that'd be the default app I would open to. Where this game started as an opportunity for me to hang out with my family, I'd now have it out for every conversation. I'd randomly leave them to go play it. And because I was at a higher level than everyone else, people would come to me asking for advice, help, all this stuff, which sounds great. But I had this feeling that something was off. I would get these random glimpses of God giving me ideas to do specific things, but I felt like I didn't have enough time for it. And this game seemed like the only way I could relax. But then in church one day, I heard this Bible verse and it made me rethink things. No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. It made me think, why am I pushing off the great ideas that God has given me? So, for the first time, I actually brought it up to God in prayer and said, "How do you want me to pursue those things? I don't have enough time." And I felt like he used that Bible verse to tell me, "You're letting that game drive your life more than me." And then he reminded me of one of the ten commandments. You shall have no other gods before me. I was choosing to let that game run my life over God. There's this amazing quote in this book called The Awe of God that says, "When what is not sin takes God, it can become sin." But here's the thing. No one was telling me that this is a bad thing because the people around me are still playing it, too. So I wondered, is God actually wanting me to give this up? Cuz it's how I'm connecting with other people. It's how I can relax. So then he reminded me of this verse. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. So I remember being in the kitchen and having this back and forth with God where I kept saying it's not that bad. I felt like he told me when you put it before me it is. And I felt like he asked me what's in your pocket. I thought my phone. And he said what's the name of the game? I said Pokémon Go. To which he said and what does Pokémon stand for? It stands for pocket monsters. and I felt like he said, "Do you really want to keep carrying around monsters in your pocket overseeing what could happen when you listen to me?" So, I took out my phone, opened the app, and deleted my account with over 10 years of experience in history. And the next day, God gave me the ideas for this YouTube channel that would lead us to where we are now with over 20,000 YouTube subscribers, where we get to talk about what happens when we put him first. So, how do you know if God's asking you to give up something you love? Go to the Bible to make sure it aligns. Have a conversation with God about it and be honest. Am I putting this before God in my life? And if so, it's time. Let us know how we could be praying for each other. Friends, God bless. How do you talk with God and not just to God? I wish I had a quick start guide when I first became a Christian. I know I got a Bible, but there were also specific questions that I wanted the answer to quickly. And I was reading it, but I also just wondered, is there a way that I could talk with God and learn from him directly? So, as I dug into it, there are tons of examples of people actually having a conversation with God before Jesus. But what about after Jesus came? Are there still examples of people being able to talk with God? Well, what I found is yes. There are tons of examples and even directions on how to do it all in the Bible. So, let's start with Jesus because he says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the father except through me." So, we have to look at his example. Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Now, we've heard this before. Prayer is super important. But at some point, some of us wonder, "Is this just me talking to God? Will I ever get to hear back from him? Well, again, looking at the model of Jesus, let's see what happened after he prayed. Jesus said, "For I did not speak of my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I've spoken. I know that his commands lead to eternal life." So, whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say. Now, we might say, "Yeah, but that's Jesus. He is God. I'm not Jesus." And that is correct. But it is because something Jesus said that enables us to talk with God. the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. So for anyone that believes that God came down as Jesus, lived a perfect life, yet chose to be the sacrifice for our mistakes, died and rose again, or anyone of us who believes that in faith and confesses it, not only gets access to eternal life with God in the future, today, God sends the Holy Spirit to live inside us so we can be taught all things and be reminded of what he said. So, here are the four ways that talking with God has worked for me. First, if we want to hear what God is saying, it's right here. The Bible says the word of God is alive and active. Although it may have been written a long time ago, God knew what we'd be going through. He could put a message in a bottle thousands of years ago and know we were supposed to read it today. So, number one, we hear what God says by reading the Bible. Two, Jesus went off to a quiet place and prayed. In those moments, it's not only talking to God. It's making space for God to speak to us through the Holy Spirit, reminding us of words he said here, but then also using our life situations to teach us new things. Three, sometimes God speaks to us, sometimes God shows us. 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?" Jesus used real life to speak God's principles to us. The things we sometimes overlook or take for granted, God is still using them to teach us if we'll just take a moment to see them for. We are to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. As God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, we see him in the world. We read his words. We always want to make sure that we are saying thank you. Because even if we don't always hear it, he is always speaking. Let us know how we could be praying for each other today. Friends, God bless. How do you pay attention in church? Whenever I went to church as a kid, I always had trouble paying attention. So, I always found myself taking out a pamphlet and just drawing on it. But that's not how it's supposed to be, right? In the early days of the church in the Bible, people loved it so much that it says, "Every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They met every day. all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. So these guys were meeting together every day, having fun while doing it, and it led to even more people coming to know God. But how do we even get to the place of enjoying church like these guys when we sometimes struggle to pay attention? Well, after going to the same church now for over 10 years and loving it, here's what works for me. First, part of the reason we go to church is to reset and rest with God. Jesus says, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Not so we can take a nap at church, but to remind ourselves that everything that's burning us out that feels like it's too much to handle, we are to place that in the hands of God and allow him to guide us through it. The Bible says, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." So for me practically, whenever I go to church, I think about all the things that are weighing me down and I bring that to God because he cares for us. Now, does that mean that the problem will be solved as soon as I walk out of church? Probably not. but he could give us the idea or the wisdom that's going to help us get through it. I know when I go to church, I'm not just hearing someone talk. I'm hearing God speak through someone that he intentionally placed there on purpose to give me what I need in the Bible. I've learned that if something appears boring, there's something that I can do to change that. Because the Bible says, "Be alert and of sober mind." This isn't just going to church. There are lives at stake. Our peace is at stake because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. resist him standing firm in your faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. It goes on to say here that God can restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. The enemy wants to distract us from receiving what God is trying to say to us. We can choose to lock in. So I need to remember anytime somebody reads the Bible or teaches from the Bible, God is using that to try to speak to me. But how can we know this? Because the Bible says all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of equipped for every good work. Whenever we go to church, whenever we read or hear the Bible, God is equipping us with what we need to walk through this season that feels too much to handle. And remember, when we accept the salvation of Jesus, God also sends us the Holy Spirit to guide us and direct us and remind us of what he said in here. because he doesn't want us to do this alone. We're not supposed to. So that's why when we go to church, we can choose to lock in. Think about that thing that's keeping you down and believe that God will give us what we need if we would just pay attention enough to receive it. Let me know. How do you pay attention in church? I'm praying for you prioritize God? A couple months ago, my wife reorganized our bedroom. We have this little chair thing that opens up and you can put towels in it. She had moved it to the end of our bed for easy access. Well, in the middle of the night, I got up to use the restroom and I ended up slamming my shin into that chair. The noise was so loud I woke up my wife. I fell on the floor and all I could think about was the pain. Isn't it interesting how our body prioritizes pain? It's like it's saying, "I don't care what you're doing. This is the most important thing right now." How do we get to the place of prioritizing God like our body prioritizes pain? Well, what's interesting is the word priority does not appear in the Bible at all. So, is prioritizing God that important? Well, when Jesus is talking to the people about their necessities, not having enough to wear, eat, drink, he does say, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." That word first in the Greek is called protos, which means before anything else. Sounds like a priority order, right? Jesus is saying, "Seek God and the ways of God before anything else, and he'll take care of you." But how do we practically do that? Well, here are the four ways that worked for me that I got from the Bible. First, prioritizing God weekly. There are two places in scripture where we see people coming together on the first day of the week. So, for me, I also choose to prioritize God by going to church on the first day of the week. To say God before work and anything else this week, I'm putting you first. Second, the Bible says very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, went off to a solitary place where he prayed. The second thing I do is going to a quiet place in my house where I listen or read the Bible and pray, saying, "God, I also need you before I take on this day." Because he's not just with us when we're at church. And if we treat it like it's the only place that can charge us up, then at the end of the week, our battery could be dead. Remember Jesus's prayer, give us this day our daily bread. God has something he wants to share with us daily. But not just daily, because the third thing comes from this Bible verse. Rejoice always. Pray continually. God wants us to be with him every moment to bring him into every situation. And I used to think it's just not possible. But then God reminded me that he said he would send the Holy Spirit to us once we accepted the salvation of Jesus to guide us and remind us of his teachings. Because if we were to try to do all that on our own, not happening. Prioritizing God means we are doing it with God. Now, the fourth way has been one of the hardest, but certainly the most helpful. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Throughout the Bible, there is this principle of first fruits where we see God asking us to give him the first and best of what we have. First part of our week, first part of our day, first 10% of our money, all to lead us to this place of remembering that God's ways are the best ways. And without integrating him into our daily life, moment by moment, submitting our finances, I'm more likely to prioritize whatever I want over what God wants. And what he wants is what's best for me. And because he can see everything, I got to trust his perspective over my own. That's what works for me. So tell me, how do you prioritize God? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. Why do you believe in God? If you would have asked me that question as a kid, I would have told you, I believe in God because people told me I should. And although it is an answer, should it really be the answer? I'm asking this because the Bible says 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. So, what would you say if someone asked you, "What's the reason you have hope?" For me, I didn't really have one until I developed a personal relationship with God. But it wasn't because I just decided to one day. It was because I made a series of bad decisions that led me so far down a path that I felt like I could never come back. But while I was lost, God sent me someone to teach me that the Bible says, "The Son of Man, Jesus, God in human form, came down to seek and to save the lost." So I started to dig into the Bible and listen to messages about God. And I learned that the Bible says God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Knowing that Jesus came and died for me for that moment where I felt so far gone is what gave me hope. But I did think this can't count. If I sin, then a penalty has to be paid after. But the Bible says the death he died, he died to sin once for all before and after. To truly experience that freedom, I needed to believe that he did all of that in faith. Confess that Jesus is Lord and then repent, which means to pivot, to turn away from sin, aligning my life with the directions of the Bible, God's words. Now, is it the perfect answer? No. But that's the point of asking this question so we can practice figuring out how to articulate it. Because at some point somebody will ask, "Why do you believe in God?" And we know that we do. We have hope because we experienced something and God set us free from it. Or at least that's my reason. But I'd love to hear that for you. Why do you believe in God? I'm praying for you today as we figure out how to share this together. God bless. What did God show you to deepen your faith? Years ago, I was visiting a friend of mine at their church in Brazil, which was at the edge of the Amazon jungle. And one of the ways that they served their community was by going into the Amazon jungle where there's a tribe that wears no clothes at all, but they spend time with them, bring toys to their kids. And while there, the tribe does put clothes on to help everybody feel comfortable. While visiting this tribe with my friend's church, my friend pulled me aside to introduce me to two volunteers, a mom and daughter, who had this radical testimony. So, she started sharing this story about how church had gone really late one night, like midnight, and the pastor was talking about how sometimes the spirit of God will tell you to move and you just need to obey. So after church was done, they helped pack everything up and by the time they leave, it's around 2:00 in the morning. The mom and daughter get in their car and start to drive home. Now in this part of Brazil, they don't have street lights and so it's kind of sketchy when you're driving around in the dark. So they pull up to the stop sign and all of a sudden they hear someone open the back door and get in the car behind the mom. The mom feels the pressure of a gun pressed against her head and the person says, "Drive." Scared, the mom starts driving. The person tells him to pull off into the corner in an alleyway. Person asks the mom, "Are you afraid to die?" and then pulls the trigger. He then turns to the girl in the passenger seat and does the same. 30 minutes later, the mom wakes up covered in blood but is somehow moving. Looks to the daughter. She's not moving. And then hears this voice inside of her saying, "Spirit of God, spirit of God, move." So, she starts driving. About a minute later, she comes up to this bridge where this car pulled over to the side where two people are fishing. She pulls up behind them. They approach her. Turns out they are two doctors specialized in head trauma. They go to their car, get their kit, start working on the mom and daughter while also driving them to the nearest hospital. They get to the hospital, finish the surgeries, save their life, and then the dad of the family comes, who did not believe in God, gave his life to Christ because he figured if my wife and daughter could be saved from a point blank shot to the head, God has to exist. So then that mom shows me the scar on the back of her head and then the daughter shows me the scar on her cheek where she got shot. I had never seen anything like that. But there was one story in the Bible it made me think of where all the disciples saw Jesus after he came back to life except Thomas. And he said, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." But then a week later, they're all together in house and even though the doors were locked, Jesus appeared in the room and said to Thomas, "Put your fingers here. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." And yes, it was wild to hear the story from the mom and daughter, to which I learned everyone knew because it was all over the news. But I still didn't really believe it until they showed me the scars. Sometimes God will have us go through something to deepen our faith. But he can also do it by seeing the scars of others. I'd love to know, what did God use to deepen your faith? Let's keep praying for each other today, friends. God bless. How can you see more miracles from God? Yesterday, I posted a story on here about a mom and daughter I met in Brazil who got shot in the head and both survived through this crazy miracle circumstance. That was over 10 years ago. But it sent me on this journey wondering, how do we see more miracles from God? Well, there's this principle in scripture that I've been applying since then that has now led me to experience and see miracles every day. And I want to share that with you. So, after Jesus's raised from the dead, biggest miracle of all time, Peter and some of his disciples are fishing. They fish all day, all night, and catch nothing. The next day they're still out fishing and it says, "Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus." He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?" "No," they answered. He said, "Throw out your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Okay, first part of the principle. Jesus told them to do something. And when they obeyed, even though it didn't make sense because they fished all night and nothing worked, when they obeyed, they saw the miracle. First part of seeing more miracles from God. When he asks us to do something through scripture, through the Holy Spirit, we should obey. There's a chance we might see a miracle. Part two of seeing more miracles from God. It says, "Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord." As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord." He wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off and jumped into the water. Now, how did they not recognize that it was Jesus? They had spent years with him. Well, first, the Bible did say it was early in the morning. Second, if you go down a little bit, it says they weren't far from shore, about 100 yards. That is the length of a football field. So imagine that the sun is still rising, kind of dark, and you are a football field's life away from somebody, tired and frustrated because you've been trying to do this thing all night, and someone yells to you, "Toss it on the right side. You'll find some." Even though they didn't know it was Jesus, something led them to obey. And when they did, not only did they see the miracle, they realized it was Jesus. Part two of seeing more of God's miracles. When we obey and see a miracle, realize and acknowledge that it was God. Peter didn't do this at first. He saw the miracle, saw the large number of fish, and someone else in the boat had to say, "It is the Lord." for him to realize it is Jesus. Sometimes we do need somebody else's perspective to realize a miracle was God. And the final part of this, they arrive on land and Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught. Come and have breakfast with me." Part three of seeing more miracles from God, enjoying the miracle with them. Jesus asked them to take the fish that he had just blessed them with. Bring it to him so they can eat it together. Enjoy it together. So for me, what does this look like practically? Sometimes I don't recognize God's miracles right away. So what I started to do was find some way to take a picture or screenshot those miracles, the things that when I obeyed the words of God, either from scripture or something the Holy Spirit may have led me to do. I take a picture of the result and put it in a God folder acknowledging I think this is God. And so now what I have are moments where I brought it back to God and said, "Thank you for my wife getting baptized. Thank you for bringing our family to church. Thank you for baptizing my siblings and my daughter. I'd love to know for you what miracles from God have you seen lately? Even if it feels small, I'd love to hear it. Everything matters to God. Let us know how we can be praying for each other today. God bless you, friends. How do you balance life and Jesus? Yesterday was a very overwhelming day. I had 50 things to do and only enough time to do five. So, my wife and I were talking this morning and she reminded me, "Hey, Jesus was never in a rush. You never see him running. He was just walking." Even when Jesus is back in his hometown talking to people and they get mad at him, it says they got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Even when the world was literally about to push him over the edge, Jesus just calmly walked through it. How do we get that calmness to peacefully walk through it like Jesus? Well, thankfully, there are two places in scripture where Jesus just gives this secret away. Jesus, when talking with his disciples, said, "The advocate of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. The world gives chaos, fear, a rushed spirit." But Jesus says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid." So Jesus is saying, once God sends us the Holy Spirit, he will teach us what to do and remind us of the words of God spoken in scripture. But how's that beneficial? Well, one of the things that Jesus said is, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." When I was overwhelmed yesterday, that was all I wanted. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." I explained this before, but a yoke is this thing they used to put between two oxen. They would have this bigger experienced ox that they would attach it to and then attach a newer ox to it so that the big one can guide them and teach them what to do. And Jesus is saying, "Bring it to me." Essentially, lock in with Jesus. He will guide us, teaching us what to do because he's carrying the burden and we're just walking with him, being guided by him through the Holy Spirit. So, we're not supposed to face chaos alone where I go to God at church, charge up, then come back. We walk peacefully like Jesus by walking with Jesus. So that when life feels like it's about to push us over the edge like Jesus, literally a few chapters after he experienced it, he shared how we will be able to deal with it. When you are brought before the synagogues, rulers, and authorities, which is right where he was at, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. When we are facing crisis and chaos, most of the time, we're not going to be able to pause and go spend several hours with Jesus to balance out before coming back to do the thing. Thankfully, after we accept the salvation of Jesus and confess that he is Lord, we receive the Holy Spirit can lock in with Jesus and in that moment say, "God, how do you want me to handle this?" And by doing that, we are casting our burdens on him and are in a position to receive guidance. I'm thankful my wife reminded me of that. But let me know, how could we be praying for each other today, friends? God bless. How do you get God's perspective? For example, when you look behind me, what do you see? A fire, right? But what else do you see? I'm not talking about the fireplace or the screen protecting it. What do you see? We'll come back to that in a moment after studying God's perspective. Because in the Bible, Jesus is teaching to this large group of people who are focused on not having enough. And when he sees that they're stuck looking at life one way, he helps them try to see God's perspective. Jesus says, "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?" So, first, he's challenging them to be grateful for the things that they do have over the things that they don't have. For example, it'd be silly if I said, "I wish I had a fire." You'd say, "You already do, but because I'm looking at the wrong thing, I'm missing what I do have." And Jesus is asking us to simply change perspective. And then he tells the people there to do the same. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sew or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? So, he's challenging them to look at something normal and see how God takes care of them. And then he tells them to look at the flowers. See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. But if that is how God clothe the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you? So he's taking normal ordinary things and challenging us to see God in it. Now we might look at a bird and look at a flower and say, I guess he could make that connection, but I'm just seeing a bird and a flower. But God challenged my perspective this morning. When you look at that fire, how else could you label it? Orange heat moving. Our brains are quick to label things in the way that most people would recognize it. But what if there's a way to get God's perspective when looking at any situation? How would we do that? Well, Jesus says, "Seek first his kingdom and will be given to you as well." What if we could simply get God's perspective by training ourselves to see him first in everything? So, I could see a fire or I could see how God blessed us with a home heat to keep us warm in winter. I know it's not natural for us to do that, but do you know that that's what the Bible is doing? Training us to get God's perspective. It says, "All scripture is righteousness." Remember, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Bible is where we get God's perspective that he loved us so much that when we messed everything up, he sacrificed himself to pay for our mistakes so that we can come back into a relationship with him by believing in him and committing to follow in his ways. So, we get that perspective by reading scripture, bringing it all to God in prayer, but then also applying God's perspective to our daily life. What are ways that you get God's perspective? And let us know, how can we be praying for each other today, friends? God bless. Why does God wake you up in the middle of the night? This morning, I randomly woke up at 3:23 a.m. And I had this feeling that it was God waking me up. So, I grabbed my phone, unplug it, and the next thing I remember is this vibration on my chest. I had fallen asleep again. But it reminded me of the story in the Bible where this boy named Samuel is sleeping and God says Samuel Samuel to wake him up and he says speak Lord for your serpent is listening. And then God shared something special with him. So I said, "Okay, God, I get it. What do you want me to do?" And I felt like I heard in my head, "Get up and pray." And this verse came to mind. Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus solitary place where he prayed. And I wish that would have been enough to get me out. But a few moments later, my wife accidentally nudged me in bed, making me realize I had fallen back asleep again. And I was like, "Come on, Justin. Get out of bed. Go spend time with God." But I was so tired. And what I was feeling reminded me of the time when Jesus took his closest disciples to spend time with him while he prayed and they just fell asleep. And Jesus comes to them and says, "Couldn't you men keep watch with me for 1 hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." I was willing to get up, but I was just so tired. But then I was reminded of the time that God sent an angel to hit Peter to wake him up. Peter's in prison, locked up and handcuffed. And the Bible says, "Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. Quick, get up," he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrist. It made me think, maybe God's trying to set one of us free from something. So, I finally came downstairs and started to pray in my normal spot. I fell asleep again, but then I woke up when I heard a sound behind me. Probably the house creaking. I didn't look, but honestly, I was a little afraid cuz I got this visual about someone standing behind me. So, I kept just saying, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus," and praying. And then God reminded me of a time when a man of God named Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. Tired and exhausted, he laid down under a bush and fell asleep. But then, all at once, an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." And then the angel provided for him and took care of him. So then I thought, "Okay, maybe God wakes people up in the middle of the night because he wants to spend time with them in prayer or he wants to set them free like Peter or he wants to care for them like Elijah." But then God led me to one more passage that I have never read before. For God does speak now one way, now another, though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings. And I thought, terrify sounds weird when it's associated with God. But then I looked up the original Hebrew and it means to seal or confirm. So let's read it again. He may speak in their ears and confirm for them or seal with warnings to turn them from wrongdoing, keep them from their pride, and to preserve them. Now, I don't know the answer, but I do know that the mission of Jesus was to seek and to save the lost. And after reading other times where God woke people up in the middle of the night to set them free, to care for them, to spend time with them, or even to help redirect them, like we just read, I feel confident that if we feel like God is trying to wake us up in the middle of the night, that there is a reason and a really good one. And I'm praying that the next time we feel that, we can respond to it. Let us know how we can be praying for each other today, friends. God bless. How do you get closer to God? The answer I heard for the majority of my life has been pray, read your Bible, go to church. All great and move us in the direction of that, but without one specific element, we will never get the connection that we really need. Now, at some point in our life, we've all heard the word sin, right? But do we know what it really means? Because the Bible says to us, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Which now begs the question, what is sin? So, I pulled up the definition. You ready? An act or feeling that transgresses, which means goes beyond the boundaries of something forbidden or ignores something required by God's law or character, whether in thought, feeling, speech, or action. Now, can we trust definitions that are not in the Bible? Not always. So, let's go to see what Jesus said. You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery." But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So even in our thoughts, we can sin against God. And if we're talking about wanting to get closer to God, we have to keep in mind that the Bible says, "Your iniquities or immoral behavior, thoughts have separated you from your God." So how can we get closer to God when these sins separate us? Well, thankfully the Bible makes it really clear. Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." Now, at some point in my life, I thought that meant I have to go through Jesus and he has to give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down based on how good I am. But that's not true because the Bible says, "For it is by grace you've been saved through faith." And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one could boast. So, it's not a thumbs up or thumbs down based on our works, but a gift from God that we have to receive by faith. Well, if Jesus is saying no one can get to the father except through him, what's the gift? And how do we receive it by faith? Well, the gift is God demonstrated his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, doing and thinking the things that God asked us not to do. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How does Jesus dying help us as sinners? Well, the Bible says the blood of Jesus, God's son, purifies us from all sin. So, God's gift is a way to be purified from all sin. Remember, Jesus said, "I am the way." So, that's the gift. How do we receive it? By faith. Well, thankfully, God gives us that answer, too, in the Bible. If you declare with your mouth, will be saved. Believing Jesus died is one thing, but when we believe that he was raised from the dead, proving that he was God, we are proclaiming and submitting to the fact that God is who he says he is. And even though we didn't see it ourselves, we can still receive that gift, our sins being washed away by believing that in faith. Now, it may sound too easy to receive it by faith. But what it requires from us is to repent, to turn from our ways, receive God's way by faith, and allow ourselves to be changed. Because when we say Jesus is Lord, that means we're trusting him to guide our life. And what better way to be closer to God than to have him there walking with us every step of the way. Let us know how we can be praying for each other today, friends. God bless. Why do you obey God? When I was little, I think I did it out of fear. Because in the times I was exposed to church, all I remembered was you're going to hell because this, this, this, this, this. So come to God so he can save you. Now for me personally that didn't lead me to give my life to God, but I did obey the rules that people were telling me that God said I should follow out of fear of being punished. Then there was another season where I obeyed what people told me I should from God because they said if I did, God would answer all my prayers and give me all these things. But after living a little bit with that mindset, I learned that God didn't give me everything I wanted simply because I obeyed the things that people told me were from God. Have you ever thought about it why you obey God? Honestly, I didn't until a friend of mine said, "Did you know that it's okay to question what you believe?" This is where I realized I was doing it out of fear or I was doing it to get good things from God. But I never really reflected on it for myself. Why did I need to obey God? Then this friend started to teach me how to read the Bible for myself. So I decided as I read the Bible, let me just test out some of these principles I'm being taught and see if it's real. For example, the Bible says, "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." leading me to think instead of doing what I wanted to do or what other people told me I should do, let me try to live out the way the Bible says and just see what happens. Like where the Bible says be joyful in hope, which I read it as find joy in the things that could happen. They don't even have to happen yet, but the possibility of what God could do, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. So when I got sick, I took it to God and said, "Okay, maybe you want me to slow down. Help me learn what you're trying to teach me from this. And if something bad happened, God, what are you trying to teach me? How do you want me to handle this?" And something interesting started to happen. As I started to obey the words of God, I started to realize how much he actually cares for me. So, let's think of it this way. Yesterday, I took my 5-year-old to the doctor where I learned she had strep throat. So, when we get home, I pull out the medicine that is prescribed to heal her. Now, she doesn't want to take it, but in order for her to be healed, she must obey the word of her father to experience that healing. And when she does, she realizes by doing the thing, she not only gets healed, but learns that her father actually cares for her. and wants to help her feel better. So, I've learned to obey God, not because of fear, not because of blessings, but because when I do, I learn how much he actually cares for me and has already prescribed tons of ways to make me feel better if I would just obey his words. For example, sin, the thing that separated us from God. The Bible says when we repent and turn away from that, believe what it says in here, that God came down as Jesus, lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and on the third day was raised from the dead, proving that he was actually God. When we choose to believe that in faith and proclaim that Jesus is Lord, obeying the words in scripture, the Bible says we will be saved. And ever since doing that, I've never felt more cared for by God. That's why the Bible says, "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." He did it and gave us these words to obey because he cares for us. Now, my reason is not going to be everybody's reason, but I would love to know for you, why do you obey God? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. What is the word of God? If you asked me yesterday, I would have immediately told you the Bible. And is that wrong? No. The Bible says, "All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, righteousness." So God breathed these words into existence and had people throughout history write it down so we could read it. So it is the word of God and typically the first that comes to mind for us. But what about the other meanings? For example, check this out. The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah. The word of the Lord that came to Joel. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. Even Jeremiah the prophet said, "The word of the Lord came to me saying, "In all of these, people are getting a direct word from God." Now, it's still a part of the word of God, but presented in a different way. Now, I say all that because this morning, I was reading the Bible, and there was one more presentation of the word that had me questioning what is the word of God. Let me read it for you. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Now, I probably read this 20 times, but the way that it's said here, it just still didn't make sense. So, I was reminded by this analogy I made the other day. When you look here, what do you see? A fireplace or a fire. But there are also different elements to it. If you break it down, it's orange. There's heat. It's moving. So, it led me to try to break this down. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. What does the word actually mean? Well, if you look up the Greek of that word of the word, it is logos. And if you look at where else that Greek word is used in the Bible, it brings us to the second coming of Jesus in the book of Revelation. And it says he Jesus is dressed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is the word of God. Get it? The word of God is also Jesus. Now watch this. In the beginning was Jesus. And Jesus was with God. And Jesus was God. He Jesus was with God in the beginning. And if you go down a little bit, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. I've heard this passage so many times over the years, but I've never made the connection that the word of God is also Jesus. Maybe you already knew that, but I am just making the connection today. I find it so interesting that we could read the same thing for years, yet still learn new things about God daily. Let me know, friends, what has God been teaching you recently? God bless. How do you know if God is calling you to do something special? Take Moses for example. You know, the one they made movies about, the guy that God used to part the Red Sea to save God's people from Egyptian slavery. The dude was 80 when God spoke to him in the burning bush. So, how did Moses know that God was calling him to do something special? Well, God spoke to him in a burning bush, it's hard to ignore that you're being called by God. But that's not exactly true because even though God called Moses to do it pretty clearly, he still didn't believe it. So, to catch us up, God tells Moses, he hears the cry of his people. He's going to save them. He tells Moses, "I want to use you to do it." Moses says, "Who am I to be able to do it?" Remember, he's 80. And back then, that was typically the oldest that people lived. But then God essentially tells him, "Don't worry about it. I will be with you." Then after a little bit of a back and forth, we see Moses really get to this point, not really doubting God's ability, but being afraid of how people will perceive him. Because what happens is God tells Moses, "Go talk to the other people that are your age. Tell them I'm calling you to do this and they'll believe you." But then Moses says, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, "The Lord did not appear to you." And then to confirm the calling that God is giving him. The Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff?" he replied. The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it. How do you know if God is calling you to do something special in your life? Often times it will likely scare us and we will be tempted to run from it. For me, it was making these videos. God had been telling me to do this for 10 years. I tried it once, got freaked out, and ran from it for 10 years. I was terrified of how I'd be perceived by people. Still am. But let's see how God handled it with Moses. Then the Lord said to him, despite him running away and being afraid, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." It's interesting. I saw on Instagram last week, some guy picked up a snake by the tail, which I'm not saying we do. And you know what happened? While he was trying to move it because the snake's head was free, it bit him. Now remember, Moses is 80. His reflexes probably aren't the fastest. And yet, he decides to take one step. Maybe because he's realizing God is with him. And despite his fear, reached out and took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. This said the Lord is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you. So, how do you know if God is calling you to do something special? It may scare us. It may tempt us to run away. But when we take a small step and obey God, even if it feels backward, God can confirm this is what I'm calling you to do. There's so much more to learn from this interaction between God and Moses. So, I think we're going to keep talking about it in the next video. But let me know, what is that special thing that you feel like God is calling you to do? I'm praying for you today, friends. God bless. When God gives you a vision for what your life could be, how do you get there? The night I was baptized, I was walking up into the tank. I feel God tell me in my spirit, "You're going to meet your wife through this church." Then I got baptized. Awesome, right? Going public with my faith. But then also this vision of me possibly getting a wife through the church. What am I supposed to do to get there? Yesterday in these daily videos, we talked about how God appeared to Moses and gave him a vision of what's to come. That he was going to use Moses to bring God's people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. And Moses had a similar sentiment. How is this going to happen? So when God gives us a vision for our life, how do we get there? Well, when God gave the vision to Moses, he didn't leave God and start chasing after it. He had questions, lots of questions. People make fun of Moses for that. God told you it's going to happen. Why didn't you just go do it? I think God knew Moses would have questions. Instead of just feeling overwhelmed and walking away, Moses brings those questions, fears, and potential challenges to God, letting him speak into it. So for me, I did ask God, "What do you want me to do with this? Do I go to church and start looking for her? When is this going to happen?" And then of course, did I even hear you correctly, God? So when Moses brings these questions to God, something interesting starts to happen. God starts to give Moses little random things to do. Like when God said, "What is that in your hand?" Moses said, "A staff." The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground." So Moses does it. It turns into a snake. Picks it up again. It turns back into a staff. And as a result, Moses saw a mini miracle in this small step of obedience to something that seemed completely random and unrelated. Then God gave him another step. Put your hand inside your cloak. So Moses put his hand inside his cloak. And when he took it out, the skin was lepous. It had become as white as snow. Now Moses could have freaked out, said, "God, I did what you told me to do and now I'm sick." But he was patient and listened to God's next step. Now put it back into your cloak. So Moses put it back into his cloak. And when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. So God is getting him into the practice of taking a step, obeying, and confirming through little God moments that this is really him. So for me, when I brought those questions to God, I felt like he told me, "Listen to every sermon that's ever been preached in that church. Random. How's that going to help me meet my wife?" But I started to do it and I got this sermon series where I learned that the pastor and his wife didn't kiss until their wedding day. And I'm like, "Hm, that's weird. I would never do that." I said to God, "Do you want me to make a commitment now to not kiss till my wedding day?" One of those things where you ask it, but you don't really want an answer, so you're not paying attention. Well, 2 days later, one of my friends randomly texted me an article about a husband and wife who didn't kiss until their wedding day. So, I'm like, "Okay, God, I get it." And I dramatically said to God, "Okay, I'm never going to kiss somebody again or until you bring this wife into my life, kissing her for the first time on my wedding day." And then over the next year, like Moses, I'd go to God and ask questions. He'd give me what seemed like a random step. I'd obey, feel confirmation that it was the right thing to do. Then go back to God with more questions. 6 months later, I'd meet my future wife. And 6 months after that, we would kiss for the first time on our wedding day. So when God gives us a vision for our life, what can we do? Follow Moses's example. Don't just chase after it. Bring all of it to God and say, "What do you want me to do with this? Is this really you? What step do you want me to take?" And no matter how random, as long as it aligns with the word of God, obeying and taking that step. and then trusting God with the next step. The goal isn't to achieve the vision. The goal is to get closer to God. Let me know, friends, what's the next step that God is calling you to take? I'm praying for you today. God bless. Does God care about your perspective? For example, Moses, when God is talking to him through the burning bush, he says, "I'm going to use you to lead my people out of captivity from Egypt." Not only is Moses' life off track because he murdered somebody, but he's also 80, which back then was typically the oldest that people would live to. So, he's probably thinking, "I'm going to die any day." Yet, while knowing all that, God still chooses to use Moses to do great things for God as long as he'll still choose to obey right now. But Moses is honest with this situation. He says to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" God tells him, "I will be with you." And then God tells him he'll give him a sign in the future. After Moses goes and gets all the people, he'll come back and worship in that same spot. But Moses's mind isn't on the future. He's concerned about the right now. Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you." And they ask me, "What is his name?" almost like what's the passcode then? What shall I tell him? God says to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you're to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you. So God is answering Moses's questions. But obviously it's still confusing from Moses's perspective. But then God does something really interesting and he already subtly did it once. He tells Moses the future, saying, "The elders of Israel will listen to you." He also tells him, "I know that the king of Egyptians will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So, I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go. So, God's trying to offer Moses his perspective. But remember, this is Moses. He's 80, and this is the first time he's interacting with God. So, he's got to be thinking something like, "I hear you, but I don't really see how that's going to happen. Last time, I tried to save one person, and I screwed it up." So, Moses verbally responds to God's telling of the future by saying, "What if they do not believe me?" Or listen to me and say, "The Lord did not appear to you." So then God gives him miracles to prove to others, but also to Moses that God is with him. But then God does something even more interesting than telling Moses the future. The Lord said to Moses, "If they do not believe you," pause. If God already stated the future, knows what's going to happen. Why is he saying if they do not believe you? Shouldn't it say when they do not believe you? Why would God be saying if? I think it's because of something David said in the future. The man after God's own heart, the one that took down Goliath. When talking to God, he said, "You've searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You're familiar with my ways before a word is on my tongue. You, Lord, know it completely." God knew what Moses was going to think and what he was going to say. So, wouldn't it make sense that he tailor his language to help Moses understand right now? Does God care about our perspective? He cared about Moses's. When Moses got honest about where he was really at, God met him there, but didn't leave him there. He spoke to Moses from the perspective of what he was going through right now to lead him to the place that God ultimately wanted him to be. So, whatever we're walking through, we could be real with God. He cares about our perspective. And when we bring it to him, he'll use it to guide us. Let us know how we'd be praying for each other today, friends. God bless. How can the enemy still get to you? Once I accepted the salvation of Jesus and put my faith in him, I thought I wouldn't struggle anymore because the Bible said, "For we know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin." Which is awesome. But how come when I'm arguing with someone, I could hold on to that anger and give them the silent treatment for days when I know that the Bible says, "In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you're still angry." I struggled with this tension for a while. But as I continued digging in scripture, I learned the Bible says, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires." When we accept the salvation of Jesus and believe in him, the Bible says we've been set free from sin, should no longer be slaves to sin. And because of Jesus, we don't need to let sin reign in our bodies obeying its evil desires. So even though it might feel like holding on to that anger for days, with Jesus, I have the power to choose not to do that because I'm no longer a slave to sin. So, when we talk about how can the enemy still get to you, just because we have access to God through Jesus doesn't mean that the enemy is going to stop trying to mess with us. Remember, he went after Jesus himself in the wilderness. But because he obeyed God, he resisted him. The Bible says we are to prepare for similar attacks. Peter, when talking to the church members said, "Be alert and of sober mind." Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. When we got saved, we joined God's winning team. The enemy is going to try to shout lies, confuse us, make us trip up, and thankfully, God's the one carrying the team. But since we're on the team, God wants to use us to go bring other people to be a part of it. And the price is free. Just believing that Jesus died for our sins, was raised on the third day, and proclaiming he is Lord, choosing to live his way. But the enemy can try to distract us from that mission. So, it's worth asking ourselves, how can the enemy still get to you? Is it anger, unforgiveness, lust, money? Because whatever it is, the Bible says we are to resist it. To resist the enemy and stand firm in our faith following the ways of God communicated in scripture with guidance from the Holy Spirit, but then also through the church. Peter told the church, resist the enemy, stand firm in your faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. Being on God's team, there's other people we're doing this with. God can use us to help them, but he can also use them to help us. I'm praying today that we will resist the enemy, standing firm in our faith in Jesus name. God bless you, friends. Why does God perform miracles? Recently, I shared on here about the time I went to Brazil and I met a mom and daughter who told me the story about how they were driving home from church at 2:00 in the morning and at one of the crossways on the way home, someone got into the back of their car, forced them into an alleyway, and then shot both of them in the head. A few moments later, the mom wakes up, the guy is gone. God tells the mom to keep driving. They run into two fishermen who also happen to be head trauma surgeons who God used to save the mom and daughter. And it got me thinking, why does God perform miracles? Well, this morning I was reading the story about Moses and God showed me something very interesting. So, you know that part where God is talking to Moses through the burning bush? God tells Moses, "I'm going to send you to go get my people out of Egypt." Moses says, "Who am I?" He's 80, by the way. God tells Moses, "I'll be with you. This is how it's going to happen. Some stuff's going to go down, but eventually the king of Egypt will let you go." And then Moses says, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me?" And say, "The Lord did not appear to you." And then God gives Moses three miracles to show to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Now, at first, they seem like random miracles. Moses staff turns into a snake. He can give himself leprosy by putting his hand into his cloak, then take it away by doing it again. And then third, he can take water from the Nile, pour it out, and it turns into blood. They do seem random, but God has a reason for everything. Why would he do these miracles? This is crazy. You ready? The snake was a symbol of power connected to their gods. And it was said that Pharaoh wore a crown with a snake on it, emphasizing that power, glorifying their gods. So when Moses turns a staff into a snake, God knew that Pharaoh would pay attention to it because of what the snake represented to them. Second, leprosy. by God doing this miracle, turning leprosy on and then taking it away. God is showing he's sovereign, a healer, and in control of all of it. And third, turning the water from the Nile into blood. To the Egyptians, the Nile represents the lifeblood of the city that they thought was given to them by the gods. It sourced their drinking water, supplying them with what they needed to survive daily. And through that miracle of turning it to blood, God demonstrated that he is the one and only God in control of everything. So now we know these miracles weren't random. God gave these intentional miracles to Moses because in his words so that they may believe. Why does God perform miracles? What if? It's so that they may believe. Fast forward to Jesus. It says Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Remember the mom and daughter who survived getting shot in the head? The dad of that family ended up giving his life to Christ because he thought, "If my family could survive this, the God of the Bible, Jesus, has to be real." What if even the miracles of Moses tell God's story and point to Jesus, turning the staff into a snake? Remember the story of the Garden of Eden? The serpent tricked them into sinning. Leprosy representing us being unclean. But who also healed leprosy, the incurable disease? Jesus. And what about taking a cup from the source of life, the Nile, to them, and spilling it out into blood? Who talked about living water, the source of life, whose blood was spilled out for us? Ding, ding, Jesus. What if it's all so that we may believe? God is so good, isn't he? Let me know how we can be praying for each other today. God bless you, friends. How do you do what God's calling you to do when you don't feel prepared to do it? I recently found out that surveys showed that if you lined up four people, it is most likely that three of them are going to have the fear of public speaking. I'm one of those three, and to the majority of you, I imagine you are, too. So, what do you do when God is like, "I'm calling you to speak. You go and talk to the people." Well, thankfully, Moses was also one of those three out of four people. And we have an example we can look to. Moses straight up says, "I've never been eloquent. I am slow speech and tongue." So, let's look at how God tries to navigate Moses through this. When Moses clearly doesn't feel prepared, but God has clearly called him to do something important. Remember, Moses is 80. God appears to him in a burning bush, says he's heard the cry of his people, the Israelites, wants to set them free. Then God says to Moses, "So now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my And so the unprepared, slow speech, not eloquent Moses says, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring out the Israelites out of Egypt?" And God's first response out of everything else is, "I will be with you." For God, that has to mean something if it is the first thing out of his mouth. Now, here's the thing. We've all heard that before, right? When we've been asked to do something we're not ready for, and people are like, "God's with you. It's okay." Now, I know it's true, but does it make me feel prepared? Not at all. And in Moses' scenario, God gives him signs, miracles, confirmation that God is with him. Yet Moses still doesn't feel prepared. And after receiving the signs from God that this is what he's supposed to do. Moses says, "Pardon your servant, Lord. I've never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant. I'm slow speech and tongue. This morning, I saw something I've never seen before." And did you catch what he said in between? I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. So while interacting with God, he's calling out, "You're asking me to do this, and I'm not all of a sudden better at speaking. I'm not more ready just because we talked." So how does God expect Moses to do something, he still doesn't feel prepared to do? The answer is in God's response. The Lord said to him, "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go. I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." God tells him to go and then he will help him speak and teach him what to say. But first, he must just go. Okay. Well, that's just Moses's scenario, right? He's talking to God directly. That can't necessarily be our answer. Well, let's flip over to what Jesus said. When you are brought before the synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say. For the what you should say, which as Christians, when we accept the salvation of Jesus, believing he rose on the third day, proclaiming he's Lord, we receive the Holy Spirit teaching us what to say. Now, I don't know if we'll ever feel prepared. Moses didn't. The disciples that Jesus was talking to didn't, but I don't think that was the point. I think the point was getting us to trust God enough that we will go do the thing because we'll never feel prepared enough. But if he's called us to do it, he'll teach us what to say through the Holy Spirit in the process as we go. I'd love to know what is that for you today. bless. Is it easy to miss the calling that God has on your life? In my early days of being a Christian, I thought my calling hinged on one decision, and if I made the wrong choice, I'd miss God's calling on my life. For example, 10 years ago, I felt God asking me to move our family 9 hours away to a new state in a city where we had no family. Now, this wasn't completely random. We were listening to sermons there from a church online and really growing in our faith, and we felt like God was asking us to move there. But we just found out my wife was pregnant and the job I was a part of was offering me a promotion. Now, I was pretty sure that it was God calling me to move because anytime I prayed, it was the first thing that came to mind. I received multiple random confirmations from people and if anyone asked me, "What's the last thing God asked you to do?" That was it. But it didn't make sense to me. And I was more afraid of how I was going to take care of my pregnant wife and my family. So, I ended up taking the promotion, choosing to stay where I was at. Did I miss out on God's calling on my life? Is it that easy? But when we look at the story of Moses, you remember when God talks to him through a burning bush, says the Israelites have been suffering and God wants to set them free and send Moses to do it. Moses questions it immediately saying, "Who am I to do that?" And God assures him, "Don't worry, I'll be with you." Even giving them the playbyplay of what will happen. But still, Moses questions it, saying, "Yeah, but what if they don't listen to me?" Then God gives him multiple signs to confirm for him and for others that this is what God is calling them to do. Yet Moses is still resistant and says, "I'm not prepared to do this. Specifically, I've never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant. I'm slow speech and tongue. You want me to go talk to all these people? I can't even speak. Have you noticed how many subtle nos Moses has given God already? For me, that was the equivalent of, "God, I got a pregnant wife. I don't have a job down there. This doesn't make sense." And then after God tries to assure Moses, reminding Moses of God's power, says to Moses, "Now go. I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." No more subtle nose from Moses. He straight up says, "Lord, please send someone else." Now, here's what's interesting. God knows everything, right? So, he knew Moses would make all these decisions, have all these hesitations, yet still chose him anyway. Still chose you anyway. And after multiple nos, it says God was angry. The Lord's anger burned against Moses. But then he said, "What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He's already on his way to meet you. He'll be glad to see you." And God tells him what's going to happen instead. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth. I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you and it will be as if he were your mouth. And you know what? Moses goes. God uses him to set the people free. Does it seem like God made it easy for him to miss it? No. It took us a year and a half, but after lots of nos and questions, we did move to that city 9 hours away. And God has grown us more than ever. If you are watching this video, it is not too late to move on the thing that God is asking you to do. And if you want to know how do I know if that's actually God, I have a video linked below with a star emoji that's titled Subscribe if this was helpful. Tap that to dig deeper. But I'm praying for you today that you'll take a single step in the direction of the thing that God is calling you to do. Let us know what that is in the comments. See you tomorrow, friends. God bless. Does God want us to do this alone? When I went to church as a kid, I didn't really understand why we went to church. I know we had to. But even when we went to church, I didn't understand what the preacher was saying. So to me, it just felt like a chore, something we're just supposed to check off the list weekly. But when I got invited to a Christian summer camp, that's when I had my first experience with God. There was lots of music, a message, and a moment where I felt like God was speaking directly to me in my heart, telling me, "I want to have a relationship with you. Come to me." So that night, I submitted and gave my life to Christ. Now, did I know what it meant to be a Christian? No. I wondered if I now had to wait another year for the next summer camp to experience God again. Cuz this was all new to me. So this morning, I was reading about Moses and I wondered if he had the same thought. Because check this, he's 80 years old. He's going about his daily life shephering some sheep. And then all of a sudden, he has this moment where God appears to him in a burning bush. And in that moment, God initiates a relationship with Moses, saying he wants to use him to go set God's people free, the Israelites. And Moses has all these questions. Who am I to do this? And God essentially says, "Don't worry, I will be with you." Then he gives him vision of what's to come. And while Moses is asking more questions, God asks Moses, "What is that in your hand?" Now, this staff is what Moses would use in his current season of life to guide the sheep, the flock that he's taking care of. And then God shows him how he wants to use that staff to perform miracles. Not only to prove to Moses that it's real, but so that Moses could prove to others that God is making all of this happen. But here's the thing. Why do you think God chose the staff to demonstrate all his miracles? Was it really that important? Well, if we go to the last interaction between Moses and God before Moses leaves the burning bush, do you know what the last thing was that God said to Moses? Take this staff in your hand so you could perform the signs with it. Why did he need the staff? I think the answer to does God want us to do this alone is actually in the staff. Okay, let's think about this. When God told Moses, "Go and I will be with you." What did Moses have in his hand? The staff. When God performed the first miracles to Moses, what did he use? The staff. What if God wanted Moses to keep the staff from his past as a daily reminder of God's presence and God's power? Presence. God said, "I will be with you." Power, the miracles that God performed. Wouldn't it be crazy if we had something like that? a daily reminder of God's presence and God's power. We already do. When I left that summer camp, I thought I was leaving God behind. But the Bible became my daily reminder that God doesn't want us to do this alone. And we don't have to memorize this. But God does want us to pick it up and use it. Because after we become Christians, putting our faith in Jesus, God sends us the Holy Spirit, who Jesus says will teach you all things and remind you of everything I've said to you. God can and will use the Holy Spirit to guide us with God's presence and in God's power. Let us know how we friends. God bless. What do you do when what God tells you to do doesn't work? In the story of Moses, we see God appear to him in a burning bush. Give Moses a command to go and help set God's people free. Gives him signs to prove that God is with him. It seems like it's working because Moses appears to God's people, shows them the signs from God, and now they're also on board. But when Moses goes to the Egyptian Pharaoh and tells him, "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, "Let my people go." Pharaoh says, "Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go." And after they go back and forth for a little bit, instead of the people getting set free, life got even harder for them. Pharaoh increase the workload of God's people because of what Moses said, making everybody angry with them. They said to Moses, "May the Lord look on you and judge you. You've made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us." They're thinking, "We're going to die now because of you." So, what do you do when what God asked you to do isn't working? Well, Moses now obviously upset goes back to God and says, "Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all." Now, remember, when God first asked him to do this in the burning bush, Moses didn't want to do this. But God had given him a lot of assurances, gave him signs and wonders to confirm it, and even told Moses this was going to happen, saying, "I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go. God let Moses know there would be some resistance, which why wouldn't there be resistance when we're doing things for God? There's an enemy out there trying to kill, steal, and destroy. But again, what do we do when what we're trying to do for God doesn't seem to be working? I think Moses models the answer really well because highly emotional, highly doubtful, he goes back to God and brings it to him directly. And in response, God reminds him of what he said to Moses in the burning bush. Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of this country. And then specifically gives him direction to do right now. He said, "Therefore say to the Israelites, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God." Moses obeys again, tells the Israelites what God said, and it says they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. But then God gives him the next step. Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to let the Israelites go out of this country. But still not seeing it working, he goes back to God again and shares his honest thoughts. If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me since I speak with faltering lips? Now, am I saying that we need to be like Moses and doubt what God is calling us to do? No. But when we do, we can model his response and bring it back to God and be honest. Eventually, Moses got to see that God did everything he said he would. But it took that continual rhythm of stepping in obedience, processing with God. Stepping in obedience, processing with God. So, what do we do when what God's telling us to do doesn't seem to be working? We can process it with God. Take the next step he gives us and process it with God again. I'd love to know, friends, what step is God calling you to take? God bless. How do you fulfill a promise God gave you? The night I got baptized, I felt like God told me in my spirit, "You're going to meet your wife here. You're going to build your family here. You're going to be a part of this church." Now, did I know it was 100% God telling me that? No. But I believed it to be true. And this morning I realized there's a very similar situation in the Bible. Before Moses came around, God made a promise to one of his ancestors in a dream. And in this dream, the Lord said to Abram, "Know for certain that for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in the country, not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions." Fast forward to Moses. The Israelites have now been living in Egypt for 390 years. Moses here is an Israelite, one of the descendants that God talked about in that dream, but has been raised by the people oppressing them. And while visiting his people, the Israelites one day, the Bible says he saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, the people oppressing them. And Moses would have known, God said around 400 years, he would punish the people oppressing them and save them. So maybe Moses thinks God wants me to take action. It's time. So he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. Moses tried to take God's promise into his own hands. When I felt like God told me he was going to give me a wife, I started looking around, but something didn't feel right. And when Moses realized his mistake, it says he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. 40 years later, Moses is now 80, probably thinking he misunderstood God's promise. But then one day, God appears to him in a burning bush, saying he's heard the cry of his people. He's going to set them free and he wants to use Moses to do it. And Moses gives all these excuses because remember he's tried this before, but it was on his own terms. Now God is asking him to obey him, follow in his ways to see the promise fulfilled. So thankfully before I started chasing after relationships, God told me he wanted me to commit to not kissing anybody until my wedding day. Completely my decision and no promise of when it would happen, simply an opportunity to obey him right now. And I did. And Moses did with some resistance, of course. But that same year, Moses and his brother Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron was 83 when they spoke to Pharaoh. The Bible says at the end of the 430 years, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt. Moses was rushing it at 390 years, but we see God fulfill it at 430 years when they obeyed God and did it God's way. Sometimes we can miss the thing that God is calling us to do because we're trying to rush it. What's funny is committing God, I will not kiss anyone until my wedding day. I met my wife through the church, kissed for the first time on our wedding day within one year of doing it God's way. Now, is that going to be how it works for everybody? No. God just wants us to come to him, process with him, obey the step he's giving us right now, and trust him with the timing. How do you fulfill the promise God gave you? Is remembering it's not our promise to fulfill, it's God's. And he simply asks us to be obedient to his words in here, the nudges he gives us through the Holy Spirit, which we receive when we become Christians, and that's it. I'd love to know, what do you feel called to be obedient in today? Let's keep praying bless. What did God use to soften your heart? I was reading about Moses this morning when he and his brother Aaron went to Pharaoh and God had them perform signs to lead Pharaoh to let God's people go. For example, Aaron's staff turned into a snake. Well, to Pharaoh, the snake would have had significance and would have caused him to pay attention because a snake is deeply associated with their Egyptian gods. Historians also said that Pharaoh would have been wearing this crown that had a snake on it because it was so significant. Now, did this soften Pharaoh's heart to get him to pay attention? Well, it did get him to pay attention enough because the Bible says Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron's staff, his snake, swallowed up their staffs, their snakes. Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them just as the Lord had said. So God shows up in a sign presenting himself to Pharaoh. Pharaoh notices, he's intrigued, but then reasons it away because he found other people that could do the same thing. So, that got me thinking. Are there times where God presented himself to me, but I missed it because I just reasoned it away? I think of times when I was little and I'd be in extreme pain and I'd cry out to God, promise I'd do things if you'd just make it better. Then the pain would subside. I'd reason that wasn't God. And then never keep those promises. So, it got me thinking, is that what Pharaoh was doing? For example, another plague, God used Aaron and Moses to send frogs everywhere. And it was so annoying that even though Pharaoh's magicians were able to do the same thing, Pharaoh had enough, summoned Aaron and Moses and said, "Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord, saying, I will do this thing if you take this away from me." And so God gets rid of the frogs. But then it says, "When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron just as the Lord had said." I used to think I could never relate to Pharaoh. Why wouldn't he just listen to God? But then this morning, I felt convicted. I definitely used to do that. And we know after lots more signs, Pharaoh eventually conceds, lets the people go, but then changes his mind again and ends up killing him and his army. But thankfully, that hasn't happened to us. There was a moment where God softened our hearts and we repented, which simply means to change direction. For me, God used my failed relationships to soften my heart. Every time things got rocky with someone, I'd make all these promises to God, fixed it, and it never worked out. Well, eventually while I was single, I got to this place where instead of saying, "If you do this, then I'll do that." I simply said, "God, what do you want me to do?" No strings attached. I'll just do it. And then randomly through a sermon I listened to and then confirmed from another friend the same week, God gave me the idea to not kiss until my wedding day. No idea if or when that would ever happen, but I had tried it my own way so many times and it failed that I just submitted to the idea of trying it God's way. Now, I've shared this story before on the channel. God to use that commitment, submitting to him to not only lead me to my perfect wife, but it gave me a hunger for wanting to trust him with all areas of my life. I don't know if we ever can fully, but he softened my heart to try to trust him more every day. And I'd love to hear how he did that for you. What did God use to soften your heart? Let's keep praying for each other, friends. God bless. How do you become the person that God's calling you to be? I've been reading the story of Moses and there are three specific things he does to go from being a poor communicator to the person God uses to part the Red Sea setting the Israelites free from hundreds of years of slavery. How did he do it? First, he met with God. God appeared to him one day and gave him a specific calling. And Moses just accepted, right? No. He said, "Who am I the Israelites out of Egypt?" God said, "I will be with you." And they go into this back and forth conversation where God offers asurances to Moses, even signs to prove that it's real. But Moses still resists, sharing legitimate excuses like how he's not a good speaker, being slow of speech and tongue. And then he straight up says, "Please send someone else." Now, what's interesting here is although it says the Lord's anger burned against Moses, he didn't write him off. He understood what Moses thought his deficiencies were and gave him what he needed to get started right now. He told Moses he could take his brother, his brother will be the one to communicate, but Moses would still need to obey and be present. Now, is Moses embracing all who God's calling him to be? Not yet. We faced a lot of resistance. But he did the first thing. He met with God. Now, the second thing just as important, after meeting with God, the next heading in the Bible says, "Moses returns to Egypt. He obeyed without delay." The story goes on that Moses and his brother Aaron appear to God's people, the Israelites, letting them know God's going to set you free. Then they go to Pharaoh, the king over Egypt, and all the signs that God wanted Moses to do, wanted Moses to say, his brother Aaron did it. But Moses was still present, and he obeyed without delay. Now, did Pharaoh let them go? No. And that's where number three is most important. Yes, we need to meet with God. Yes, we need to obey without delay. But the third thing Moses did to become the person God was calling him to be was to repeat. Pharaoh didn't let him go the first time. Moses met with God again. God gave him the next thing to do. And when that didn't work, he met with God again. Repeat. And what's interesting is at first, Aaron is the one communicating and performing the signs on behalf of God. Watch this. Turning the staff into the snake. God tells Moses, "Say to Aaron, take your staff and throw it down." Turning the Nile to blood? Tell Aaron sending a plague of frogs? Tell Aaron sending annoying gnats. Tell Aaron. Now each time they're doing the three things, meeting with God, obeying what he asked, and repeating it where God gives him the next thing to do. Now, something interesting starts to happen here because the gnats were the last time God told Moses to tell Aaron. We now see Moses start to be the main communicator. God tells Moses, "Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh." After sending flies, the conversation was between Pharaoh and Moses. Striking down Egyptian animals. Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, plague of boils, take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in presence of Pharaoh." So, as Moses goes back to God, then obeys God, repeats, and goes back to God and obeys God, we see him stepping into the person who God called him to be. And it continued like this all the way through to raising his staff in front of the Red Sea where God parts the waters, sets the Israelites free, seeing the vision of what God originally told him come to life. So today, as we meet with God in our quiet time, reading the Bible, having a conversation with him through the Holy Spirit, I'm praying that we will obey without delay and not just do it once, but continue to come back to God over and over again, stepping more into the person that God has called us to be. Let's keep praying bless. How have you seen God today? On days like today, when I know it's going to be chaotic, I have a lot to do, not enough time to get it done, and I'm already looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight, even though I just woke up, it can be really hard for me to see God. But over the years, I found that there are three places where I can look for God every day and still find him in the chaos. The first one that comes to all of our minds is looking for God in our own life, which can be easy to see when God answers one of your prayers, like maybe not having enough money, but then getting an unexpected check in the mail. It's easy to say, "Oh, that was God." But what if today you don't have one of those in-your-face miracles? Well, for me, I try to face a miracle. I got this one from Jesus. He said, "Look at the birds of the air. They do not sew or reap or store away in barns. And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Jesus here is teaching his disciples to face the miracle they're missing. Where God is already providing? Facing a miracle of a fireplace where God's providing heat, a home to keep our family safe, or a flashlight to read my Bible when it's dark. Can we shine a light on the miracle that God has already given us? The second place we can look for God today is in other people's lives. Now, this one requires a little self-discipline because if we see somebody else get a surprise check in the mail and we are one day away from going broke, it's going to be really hard to see it as God moving in their life because we may perceive it as God missing in our life. But that's not the case. It's a chance to see it as hope. That if God can move in their life like that, he can move in ours, too. But that's not the only perspective we can take on here. If we see God moving in somebody else's life, the goal isn't to hope that one day that'll happen to us. The goal is to praise God right now because he did it in that person's life. that is God's child too. And maturity is praising God for that today. Because even if that doesn't affect us, we can still praise God as provider. And the next level is offering that perspective to that person because maybe they're missing the miracle and we're the ones that perceive it because we're the ones that feel like we need it. And God has given us that perspective to offer to them how much of a blessing it really is to have that spouse. It really is to have that provision. It really is to be healed. God wants to use you today to bless someone else. And the last place that we can look for God to ensure we see him every day despite the chaos is in here. The word of God. This isn't just a book. For the word of God is alive and active. This book is alive and active. The written account of how God moved in other people's lives throughout history, but also telling the story of how God wants to move in our life today. So on days like today where it might just feel overwhelming and we barely have time to watch a video like this, I want to ask you one important question. How have you seen God today? Let's keep encouraging each other, friends. God bless. Is it possible to multiply God's miracles? I know the answer feels like it should be no because that's not our job. That's God's. But reading the Bible, I don't know if that's exactly true. You see, there's this moment in scripture where God is using Moses to try to set the Israelites free from Egypt. God gives Moses and his brother Aaron signs to perform before the Egyptians to say, "Hey, God is in this. He wants you to let the people go." And they're not doing it. But then after performing eight different signs from God, the Bible says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, go to Pharaoh, for I've hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them." And then it's easy to think, well, that just supports the idea that it's not our job. It's God's job. God is performing these miracles amongst the Egyptians. And that's true. But the answer to is it possible to multiply God's miracles is in the next verse. So right after God says, "So that I may perform these signs of mine among them." It says, "That you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them and that you may know that I am the Lord." God's job is to perform the miracles. Our job is to tell the people about them. The only way we're able to read about these miracles today is because they obeyed what the Lord said and told about the signs and miracles God performed. This Bible is miracles multiplied. Imagine if people never told anybody else about it. Would we even have a Bible? The reason I started these videos is because I felt like the Lord was telling me, "What I'm doing in your life is not just for you. It's so that you can share the miracle with others." Think about it. When we look at somebody like Moses who made huge mistakes, was a poor communicator, and had horrible self-esteem issues. But God used him, perform miracles through him to help set others free. And that's the opportunity that God is giving to us. performing miracles in our lives and giving us the chance to share it with others so that they know they can also be set free. So I want to ask you what's a miracle that you can multiply by simply sharing it with others. I'd love to hear it. Let's keep praying for each other. Friends, God bless. How do you remember God's story? And I'm not talking about the Bible here. I'm talking about the story that God's been telling in our lives. For example, in my story, I remember being a weird kid, not really invited to birthday parties. I felt like I was just doing life alone. But is that the story that God remembers? For example, if we look at the story of Moses, what do we remember about him? He shared he was a poor communicator, slow speech and tongue. But also when God asked him to do something special, he resisted and shared all the reasons why it wouldn't work. To the point where he said to God, "Please send someone else." But if we go over to the New Testament after Jesus came, there's this guy named Steven who's retelling the story and he says something very interesting. The Bible says Steven shared Moses was educated in all wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. Is that how we remember Moses? powerful in speech and action. In the last few days, we've been talking about how after Moses resisted in this back and forth with God, saying, "Please send someone else." God ends up sending Moses's brother Aaron with him so that Moses would feel comfortable and still go, but Aaron is the one communicating and performing the signs on behalf of God, which is originally what he wanted Moses to do. So, how is Moses powerful in speech and action? Well, as you continue through the story, it does say God said to Moses, "Tell Aaron." So Aaron is doing these things. But as Moses gets comfortable and sees God move a little bit, there is this shift in scripture where God tells Moses to go and confront Pharaoh. And then God told Aaron and Moses that he wanted Moses for one of the signs to pick up the soot and throw it, starting one of the signs on behalf of God. And then from that point on, there is no more tell Aaron. God has Moses talk to Pharaoh. God has Moses perform the signs to the point that we get to the last sign where the Bible says the Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, the ones that God is setting free through Moses. And Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people. Doesn't that sound a little bit more like powerful in speech and action? Now, I'm glad that the Bible left where Moses shared all of his deficiencies cuz that's what I can relate to. That's what I remember about my story. But there's this book that's very interesting that talks about this concept of what we remember. It's called the gap and the gain by Dan Sullivan. The stuff that I remember that I lacked that I was missing the book says that is defined as the gap. But if I look at the perspective of the good things that happened because of it, how it was used, that is the gain. Gap. What's missing? Gain the good. So when we're looking at our story, it can be easy to remember the things that were horrible. But as I was studying today, I realized that even saying our story is the gap because it's not our story. It's God's story. God is telling the best story ever told. That is the gain perspective. And so today, instead of remembering the gap, I'd love to hear from you. One good thing you remember from God's story, the story he's telling in your life, let's be grateful today, friends. God bless. Why would God let people say no to him? When you look at Moses's story, God appeared to him in a burning bush. Does he heard the cry of his people, the Israelites? And God says he wants to set them free from Egypt through Moses. Now, does Moses say yes immediately? No. He questions, "Who am I to do this? I'm not a good speaker. Why would they listen to me?" And gets to the point where he just flat out says, "Please send someone else." Sounds like a lot of polite no thank yous. Surely God knew how Moses was going to react. If he's going to pick somebody to do it, why wouldn't he pick somebody that would immediately say yes or make them say yes? Well, this morning while reading the Bible, I think I found an answer when we see a similar pattern happening between Pharaoh and God. Because Moses and his brother Aaron go to Pharaoh, say God said, "Let my people go." Shows them a sign from God. And Pharaoh says no. Way more times than Moses. Knowing God wanted the people free, why would God let Pharaoh say no so many times? Well, I believe we can find the answer right here. The Lord had said to Moses, "Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you, so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt." What if God's goal wasn't only to get them out of Egypt? What if God let them say no so that the miracles could be multiplied? Think back to Moses's no. He started as a poor communicator, giving all the excuses about why he's unqualified to do this. But by the end of it, we do actually see Moses taking over communication after he got comfortable watching Aaron do it for a bit, showing us that God can still use us when we doubt. Remember God telling Moses to stretch out his hand and his staff and part the Red Sea? Would that have happened if God didn't let Pharaoh say no, get so upset, and start chasing them? I don't think so. But because of that, the miracle was multiplied and people for thousands of years still know of God's power because of that story. But here's the thing. All of these stories where people are saying no to God, they're in here to lead us to say yes to him. So, I pray that the next time we hear a no to something that we feel God is saying yes to that we wouldn't feel defeated, but that we would believe that this is a place where God will multiply his miracles because of it. Let me know how you're saying yes to God today. God bless you, friends. How do you prepare for a move of God? For example, when bills are starting to pile up and you don't know how you're going to be able to afford it all, what are we supposed to do while we wait for God to fix that problem? or when you're single and you're just waiting for God to send you your person. What are you supposed to do in the meantime? My default is usually just to wait until God does something about it. Survive in the meantime. I mean, we've been reading about Moses recently and there's this part of the Bible where he turns to God's people and says, "The Lord will fight for you. You need only be still." And that's the posture I've taken the majority of my life. I'm going to pray and wait for God to do the miracle. But do you know what the Bible says in the verse literally right after it? Context is the Egyptians are chasing them. They're cornered and they're in front of the Red Sea. And the Bible says, "Then the Lord said to Moses,"Wh are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on." And then he tells Moses what to do to prepare for the move of God. "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." Before God did the miracle, he told Moses to do some things to prepare for it to happen. And it's not the first time. If we go back in time to the other times where God moved, right before the final sign to release the Israelites out of slavery, do you know what God has the Israelites do? He has them prepare a meal and then gives them specific directions saying, "This is how you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand." Now, why would God ask them to do that? God wanted them to prepare so that when he moved, they would be ready. And what's interesting is after God performed that last sign in the middle of the night, the king of Egypt summoned Aaron and Moses and then told them to go. Get all the people and go immediately. And the Bible references that was over 600,000 people that had to be ready. And these people had been waiting and praying for this moment for hundreds of years. And although God moved in a moment, he wanted to make sure they prepared. Now, what can that look like for our bills that are piling up while we're praying for God to save us? It could be reading what the Bible says about money, one of the most talked about topics in here, and trying to do it God's way. Because when we get the money, will we steward it the way God wants us to, which would multiply it? Waiting on our person, the future spouse. Have we been preparing our hearts, putting God's desires before my desires, so that if and when he brings that person into our life, Jesus is truly the center of that relationship. Even in my scenario right now, making these videos, I don't know what God's going to let me share until the morning I wake up. I get up, come down here and pray, play my worship music, take out my Bible, get this area set up, shave, microphone on, and after preparing, while in my quiet time with God, he reveals it to me, and then we record. If God has been calling us to something and we've been praying about it, the question that we can ask ourselves is, have we also been preparing for it in faith? I'd love to know for you, how do you prepare for a move of God? God bless you, friends. God can do a lot through a little. Jesus said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. With five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed 5,000 people." God can do a lot through a little. With one stone, David took out Goliath. God can do a lot with a little. Through one decision to read the Bible, our lives can be changed. God can do a lot through a little. Even this video is an example of how is it possible to have a visible sign that God is with you? In the Bible, when God appears to Moses in a burning bush where he tells Moses, "I want you to go and bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." Moses questions God, "Who am I to do that?" And then God tells him, "I will be with you." Fast forward to after they get out of Egypt, something crazy happens. First, it's important to remember that the Israelites have been in Egypt in slavery for hundreds of years. So, when leaving Egypt, they wouldn't have known where they were going because they've been in lockdown. Everything's unfamiliar. Now, let's say I'm an Israelite. Moses is the one leading us. If I'm surrounded by thousands of people, what are the chances that I'm going to be able to see and hear Moses? I don't know if you've been in a crowd of hundred people with one person speaking without a microphone, but normally I can't hear or see that person because of all the people in front of me. You add thousands. No way. So, I'd be wondering where are we even going? And this is where God does the crazy thing. The Bible says by day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so that they could travel by day or night. So, if I'm surrounded by thousands of people, I don't know where I'm going. I can't see the guy that's supposed to be guiding us. And then all of a sudden, a cloud forms in the sky, creating a giant pillar, and you start hearing from people, he said, "That's God guiding us." Wouldn't that be wild? And maybe they question it during daytime. Oh, that's crazy fog. But then night comes and this thing turns into a pillar of fire. The Bible says neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. So, it was a constant visible reminder that God was with them. Now, is it possible for us to have a visible reminder that God is with us? May not be a pillar of fire, but even on those days that feel chaotic, we don't know what we're doing. And like the Israelites, we're in a place that's unfamiliar. I do believe God has given us visible signs to remind us daily that he is with us. Let me show you my first visible sign. I had just gotten baptized and I felt like God told me, "You're going to meet your wife through this church." Now, I had never seen her before at that point, but then shortly after, I've had this feeling that God was leading me to not kiss until my wedding day, which I'd never lived that way before. But he confirmed it multiple times that that's what I was supposed to do. And when I made that commitment, 6 months later, she would walk into the church that I was a part of, give her life to Christ, and we'd kiss for the first time on our wedding day. She and our family are a constant visible reminder for me of how God is present in my life. Sometimes it's easy for us to lose sight of that, but that's where the second visible sign comes in this. So, every time a God moment happens, I screenshot it or take a picture of it and put it in my God folder that automatically shows up on this screen all around our house. For some people, that's documenting it in a journal. but something to hold on to those miracles of God as a reminder of how he's with us. And the third sign that has more evidence than I could ever think of, the visible word of God. Stories like this throughout history of how God moved in other people's lives. We can see the pillar of fire in here. Literally, that's where the verses are. And God has provided so much more proof in these words that can remind us every day that he is with us. But I know that's not the only visible signs that God is with us. I'm sure you have some of your own. And I'd love to hear them. Other people would love to hear them. So, please share it. And let's keep praying for each other, friends, that we would be reminded of all the ways that God is with us.