I Will Run

Pray for my family please. They fight ALL the time. I'm 13 and it really upsets me.

I will pray for peace in your family.

The Bible says " Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)

Know that with God, in the middle of the storm you can still feel peace.

Ask me anything

had a bad day? good for you

So I must say the last 10 days have been extremely challenging for me. As some of you may know I have struggled with clinical depression for much of my life. Depression has such a stigma attached to it but in actuality it is nothing more than low levels of certain brain chemicals. It can be triggered by stress, weather,sickness, or like in my current case nothing at all. Some of you may think "Pastor Joe, don't you have the joy of the Lord" Heck yeah I do! but that doesn't mean you wont go through things mentally, emotionally, or physically from time to time. I am happy that I am depressed.(paradox...I know)

I often tell people to stop running from the things that threaten to destroy them (sickness,sadness,shame,pain, fear,all the bad stuff) things can't chase you unless you are running from them. We must stop running, turn around and stand up to the things that threaten us. When you stand up to bullies you take away there power! I don't have to run from my depression, my depression has to run from me.

I could spend my days suffering from depression but I've decided that my depression will suffer instead. listen people, we are constantly asking God for strength and then wine and complain when he gives us opportunity to prove the strength that he has given us. How do you know you have more strength unless its tested by something heavy.

Is my life darker than usual? yes, so I gotta shine brighter. Does it feel like hard work just to crack a smile? Yes, so I gotta work harder. I am grateful that the Lord sees so much potential in me that he would trust me with this training. Training? yes training. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Heb 12:10-11 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. You may think this only applies to when we are in the wrong... not so. We get the word discipline from the ancient Greek word paideuo this simply means to correct, educate,and nurture. Do you remember how your favorite coach or teacher would push you to do hard things so that your full potential would be realized. thats what the Lord does in our lives. The end of this passage states that the process is not pleasant, as a matter of fact it is painful. but later, if you learn from it, you will harvest righteousness and peace. According to this passage the Lord does this so that I may share in His holiness!!!

Maybe you never realized this but God uses the most challenging things in our life to make us more like Him. He,Just like your favorite coach or teacher, will constantly push us to higher levels of greatness.

So again, I'm glad I'm depressed. This depression is giving me an opportunity to test out the strength the Lord has blessed me with...Oh, and by the way, I'm doing alright (for being miserable at least). When I felt like this years ago I was constantly thinking about suicide. now, I'm thinking about what new victories lie around the corner. So I will continue to force a smile knowing that an authentic one is on its way :-)

In closing I say this. In God our worst days allow us to make our best days.

The bible says there will be no tears or heartache in heaven...but most of us will have friends and family who don't make it to heaven. How are we supposed to rejoice in that?

Perspective is an interesting thing...I would imagine we would be at peace with the situation because of the perspective we are viewing it from.

Lets be specific In Revelations 21:1-4 the Bible shows how we will be united with the Lord in the new heaven and earth. verse 4 then says:

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

It appears that If they are tears they will be wiped away once and for all never to return.

This is where perspective comes in. If God is all powerful, why wouldn't he have the power to comfort us over our lost loved ones. We would no longer be in the natural world with natural emotions the old order has passed away :)

Ask me anything

The new breed

This is from one of my favorite bands Oh,Sleeper. Since they are an obscure Christian metalcore band I imagine most people won't hear these lyrics out side of this post. These lyrics were like lighter fluid to my (already burning for Jesus) soul. This song is simply about being a fearless Christian. To not be afraid of where it might lead because we will live in Christ no matter what. Christians, lets stand up and be counted. Lets love this generation and not be afraid if it hates us in return.Enjoy

The New Breed

And our bodies yearn to live life endlessly, so now we rise. We rise in mutiny
We make our stand here between the angels and animals
We fear nothing here, where we can beat any feet set to keep us crawling
We are calling you here to give leave to destruction of fear
and stand tall against all who will dare to shake you
Do not let them shake you (shake you)

Stand strong where I could not, please stand strong
Oh please, this plea, dear God, let it not from my lips be conceived

So grip your fist and swing until your knuckles bleed
If you are the new breed scream, I am immortal
We can not sit quietly because there is more to life than we see
So if you are the new breed scream, I am immortal in You

This is the call of the new breed
I want to feel what change your glory brings
Please teach me life lived fearlessly, and I swear I'll make a stand here,
between the angels and animals and fear nothing
Here we can be more than mortal and fight for a kingdom that answers to no one
But I just can’t breathe without you in the air, and I won’t, so rip out these lungs
and from my heart you can cut it from my chest
Oh God, oh, if that's what you want, for me to feel life endlessly,
I'll breathe your blood for the rest of my life

So grip your fist and swing until your knuckles bleed
If you are the new breed scream, I am immortal
We can't sit quietly because there's more to life than we see
So if you are the new breed scream, I am immortal in You

We'll be death's dealers, if that's where you lead
Anchored by glory, we rise in mutiny
We are the new breed. We are the new breed
We've come alive and we are moving

how much do you love your wife?

More than words can express

Ask me anything

Today a  message from one of my heroes Dr. Rutland stirred up my soul.  He was recalling one of  his crusades in Africa, He was packed in a tiny car with 5 other men on a dirt road. It was dark and raining heavy.  were they were traveling in a dangerous place at a dangerous time. People were known to go missing because of the political up upheaval going on in that nation at the time.  some of the locals he was traveling with began to fear for there lives because of the recent violence and Dr. Rutland Prayed " I know Lord you will protect me and keep me safe because you love me" He then said the Lord replied to Him " I might not; I loved John the Baptist and He was beheaded, I love Jesus my only begotten son  and He was crucified, who are you to them"  The Lord continued " If you really trusted me you wouldn't only trust me with your life but with your death also".

Wow, thats powerful stuff. why do we always assume we know what the Lord is up to. sometimes its our time to die, get sick, lose, and fail but God has a plan that was set into motion before we were even born. Why would we assume we knew better than God. It reminds me of  when paul say in 2nd Corinthians 12:10 "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong"

Paul knew that ultimately the Lord knows what he is doing and that knowledge of  that is true strength. I have always said things can't chase you if you stop running from them. So I challenge you to stop running from life's problems. God is on the throne and nothing takes Him by surprise.

Dying with style

Since the new year started I have participated in four funerals.  We tend to shy away from thoughts of death but If we all have something in common, it is death.

Another thing we have in common is the legacy we leave as we pass on into eternity. One could say that each day that we are closer to death but I don't fear death... I want to live so victoriously that  death fears me.  As I observe people at all these funerals you can tell the people who have lived well. These are the people who seem to always be there in spirit, who live on people hearts, minds, phrases,  and actions. These people are  constantly resurrected in smile-filled memories and "remember when moments".

I believe that If I continue to live for Jesus (and I will) death will fear me...what I mean is that I will never die, my presence will remain by the influence I had on people.  I choose to die with style  how about you?

Light Switch

Some times you say things so many times you forget how  profound they are. "Never be afraid of the dark...simply turn on the light." is what I said. It overjoyed me as I began to realize the change in this persons perception as I rattled off something I have been saying for years. The truth is that we only appreciate the light when we are in the dark. I understand darkness, you can't see whats really going on, You don't know where you're going , and it is much easier to hurt yourself. The good news is the light switch. Jesus called Himself the light of the world and then later called us to be the light of the world. Why do so many people who claim to know the light live in darkness?

I can't help but to find myself in dark times as everyone else its inevitable but I always know that I can turn on the light which is literally the a touch of God in my soul. I have always found it amazing that Jesus is "in" me...not on me or around me but in me.  We always look outside of ourselves for the light switch. when the whole time The Lord speaks to our deepest most internal place, the soul.

The soul is the most ignored part of our bodies. We notice right away if we are hungry, in pain, comfortable but how often do we pay attention to the soft whispers of our soul.  Yet that is where our divine Savor places the light that is Himself.  We often look to outside of our selves for God yet he hung on a cross so that he could remain in us as we are in Him.

Is it dark? stop stumbling in darkness, Jesus put the light(himself) in you if you have accepted His Lordship.

Hello world!

I Have felt that the Lord  would like me to enlarge my digital imprint on the world. As a preacher I its my destiny to reach as many people as possible so i am committing to doing this a couple times a week to share what God lays on my heart. I am excited!