The Painful ToothAche

How many of you out there have ever experienced a toothache. What is the first thing you do when you begin to feel it? The first thought is "Oh God I have to go to the Dentist" The second thought is "Heck no! I am not going to the Dentist" In order to prolong your painful journey you find ways to minimize the pain. You take drastic steps to cover it up. You try not to eat on that one side of your mouth. You try to stay away from tough chewing foods such as, meats, breads, and licorice. If the pain is to bad you might cover it up with some baby ambisol and numb the pain. Anything to get out of going to the man with the electric drill. 

Whats amazing about the Dentist is they try to make it look like a cozy feel when you enter the "Chair." That they went all out at their expense to make your trip more enjoyable. They break out the reclining leather chair and they try to put on some ombiant music from such musical geniuses of Micheal Bolton and Kenny G. All in the name of making you feel more at ease. They place a towel over the table next to the chair, making you feel for only one second that maybe, just maybe there are no electrical tools under there. But, of course, we know better. There are tools under there! No amount of cheap, crappy music and leather chairs are going to make us not realize the pain that is about to take place. 

My wife has to go into the Oral surgeon tomorrow to have her wisdom teeth pulled out. The back tooth has decayed so bad that they have to cut the inside of her jaw to take the teeth out. For years, she has masked the pain as long as she could so that we did not have to spend the money necessary to fix it. Not to mention the little bit of fear that grips a person from ever having to walk down the narrow hallway to the dentist chair. I am truly sorry that my baby has to endure the pain that is about to take place. If I could take the pain for her, I would.

As I was sitting here trying to talk her into making this move. I had to think about life. What in life do we try to run from and mask the pain so that we do not have to deal with it? I starting thinking about all the messages I have done on this very topic. I was reminded of a young girl who was in our youth group a few years back, that had a little secret that she didn't want anyone else to know about. She spent many years hiding the painful memories of what had happened to her. She tried to hide it with never telling anyone about it, she ran to the arms of a teenager who was just using her wounding to his advantage to have sex with her on a week to week basis. He in no way loved her or respected her. But, she felt that he was the only one that would be able to comfort her in her time of searching for the answers for what had happened to her. This is where we came into her situation. 

She started showing up to youth night because she heard about our church and all the cool things that were happening and she wanted to check it out for herself. She began attending a small group of young ladies who all came from similar backgrounds. She became very close to her small group leader, so close that the issues in her heart were rising to the surface just enough to want to get all the pain out on the table. She has never told anyone about her "Pain" until one day she sat back after a youth night with tears in her eyes, We talked about Gods love that night. The kind of love that cares about you no matter what you have done, no matter what has been done to you, you are worthy in Gods eyes. As she sat there with un-ending tears she asked her leader if she could keep a secret. Like any well trained leader knows, this means the information that is about to transpire is a "BIGGY." The leader did what she knew to do and said that depending on the information that she was willing to share, she will have to report it to the proper people. The young lady excepted  and shared it ALL anyway. (Thank God)

She went on to say how she was raped constantly by her father for the last 3 years and that she feels so dirty that she doesn't care about her sex life anymore. It means nothing to her. She feels like "Used Goods" She went on to say that she has been sleeping with her boyfriend because that is the only way she gets some comfort. She sleeps over at friends houses, so that she doesn't have to go home and face the constant abuse from her home life. Her mom wont understand and or believe her. She needed to finally share her pain and heart with someone and she chose her leader to share it with. She didn't feel that God would except her for where she was at, nor would he forgive her for her sins. She has no idea about the power of God and his grace for her life. Needless to say that the church leadership had to handle this in the most sensitive and timely matter. We made sure we went through the proper channels to protect her, but bring down the man that was causing all this to happen.

Sometimes pain is so evident that all we want to do is run from it and not confront it. Even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane knowing that he was going to bare a painful death, ask God to take it away. Jesus, stood up and took the suffering for us, so that we would not have to suffer.  Just like this young lady, doing everything in her power to cover it up so that it doesn't affect her anymore. Just like my wives unbearable tooth that she needs to get taken out. The longer we wait, the more pain accumulates. Until we are so gripped by it that it robs us of our future's. 

God says, "cast all burdens onto me...."

That young lady made the right decision. She looked for help. Now she is  young women with a promising future. A women who has forgiven her father, who loves Jesus, who makes it a priority to help other young women who have gone through the same past. She is a survivor for Christ. 

Don't wait for the pain in your life to get to bad and to powerful that you have to take the dramatic way out. Confess your burdens unto the Lord and to someone you can trust and allow them to walk through this journey with you.

23 Cars + 14 Dogs = "Smelly Poop" not "Contentment"

I hate reading about people who think they have all their stuff together and then preach to you on  a Sunday that they have found the magic keys to faith and happiness. But, if you were to do a secret MTV cribs episode on them, would their house be in order? Would they feel embarrassed that you walked in on them un-announced while they are yelling at their kids, or if you secretly placed a camera on their dashboard while they are driving, would they yell at people on the way to church on a Sunday morning. 

The other day I was walking out of the bathroom and my 6 year old son Zane, said "Dad, turn on the fan, YOUR POOP STINKS" I laughed for a moment, and did everyone a favor and closed the door and turned on the fan. Later that night I sat down to do my devotions and I came to a passage of scripture on "Contentment" Unfortunately, sometimes we all have poop that stinks. Mine came to pass when I read, Philippians 4:10 Paul is writing a thank you letter to the Philippines for the gifts that they blessed him with. He go's on to say in verse 11-12 that he is quite content with living on barely anything. That he is happy with how much or how little he has. 

WHAT? wait a minute Paul! You have no idea what I (We) live in every day. I have 3 boys that need to eat food like  Frodo Bagans and his band of Hobbits that eat 1st and 2nd breakfasts and elevensees. My kids eat like horses. I need to provide! Could Paul really understand what we need on a day to day basis.

 I am not walking to work, I need a car! I am not living in a tent, I need a house!

 

As I was meditating on this passage, I thought of all the things in life, that I bought or adopted because I felt un-content in life. I started with my weakness with Dogs. Those who know me, know that I have a soft spot for dogs. I liked to cruise the local animal shelters and rescue the ones that were a few days from losing their lives. We kept some, but found them all a good home. I have been made fun of over the years and no I can make fun of myself. 

1. "Spike" our 1st dog. Mini Doxie. Found him a home when we had our first boy

2. Pepper some mix breed Found him a good Home

3. Mini Pinsher Found him a good home

4. The White Dog   (Chewed my moms coffee table, it had to go) Found a good home though!

5. Yellow Lab "Tank"   The BEST DOG EVER! but found him a good home

6. Black Lab "Sadie"     The DUMBEST DOG EVER! 

7. Black Lab Found good home

8. Boxer Found good home

9. Beagle Found good home

10. dashound Found good home

11. Mix lab Found good home

12. Great Pyrennes "Sadie"         She died

13. Great Pyrennes   Found good Home

14. Cavalier King Charles "Alica Bell"      Found good Home

Cars:

1. 1980 Deisel Mercedes Crap! Nothin like pulling into Highschool in that Piece!

2. 1996 Mazda 626 Thanks mom for your car

3. 1986 Firebird Sexy! thats how I met my wife.

4. 1984 Honda Civic good car

5. 1986 BMW 528 PIMP! huge fix it bill though

6. 1995 Dodge Neon I tried making this car look cool, nothing worked

7. 1998 VW Golf transmission problem

8. 1999 Dodge 1500 needed to move the dogs around lol

9. 1967 Chevy pick up man, I loved fixing this car. 3 on the tree.....

10. 2001 Ford Windstar Hard to look cool in a mini van, YOUTH VAN

11. 2004 Jeep Liberty traded it in because I realized I had 3 boys 

12. 1986 Datsun Paid $100 for it. Gave it to a youth kid. Sorry Mike

13. 1996 Mazda 626 Sold it to a youth kid, Sorry Cody

14. 2001 Ford Expedition Smart buy, but I sold it anyway. I am stupid

15. 1996 Sea Ray Boat I know its not a car, but it sank in the river anyway

16. 1995 Jeep Wrangler LOVED THIS VEHICLE

17. 2000 Volvo S6 Sold it to my mother in law. hahaha. Sorry!

18. 1999 Audi A6 Sweet car but traded it for 

19. 2001 LIFTED Chevy Man I miss this truck

20. 1999 Volvo wagon Amanda hit a bump, bye bye Axel. Ouch to the Wallet

21. 1999 Land Rover DUMB

22. 2007 Tahoe Love it, but not attached

23. 1995 Honda Civic Hatchback not much to look at, but saved in the gas department

Phil 4:12 "I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation." Vs. 19 " And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus."

What was Pauls Secret? "Contenment! 

When I am bored in my life, I always seem to look at what comforts me, Dogs and Cars. Why am I allowing myself to get bored. I think it is because I am not doing what God has called me to do. To go out and reach the lost! I am a Pastor with faults, and looking back on the dogs and vehicles, I am embarrassed to say it to "you" the public. But, I say this in hopes of two things. 

1. That you realized that pastors struggle as well, and 

2. maybe you feel bored in your walk  sometimes. 

Is it safe to say, that contentment can only be found when one is about his fathers buisness? 

It is time to be content in the Lord, but not content with sitting back and doing nothing about it. Paul travelled and he was blessed because he was of his fathers business. Paul went out to reach the lost. He was a person that lived in the blessings of the Lord, because he never had time to sit back and allow himself to become bored. How can we be bored when we do what we have been created to do. 

Lord forgive me for my stinky past and grant me the grace to not fall back into it. Help me to live in my calling and fulfill your purposes. 

The "Out of Business" Church

If you are living in a Trailer somewhere in the middle of Nebraska and still have the rabbit ears on your 8 inch tube t.v you bought at a garage sale, then you may not have noticed that we are living in a Financial crisis. You cant help hear about it on T.V, Internet, radio and most of all your IPhone.  In the midst of our Global Crisis, where does that leave the church. The progressive church leaders who are living in the "Here and now" culture would say that churches that don't get with the times and start relating to the culture of today will be shutting their church doors permanently. On the flip side, the Traditional 1950's culture church would say that if we do not get back to our heritage and repent for our future culture then we are doomed for disaster.  Being on multiple church staffs over the years you see these two sides duke it out behind the scenes for control. They haven't full on declared  war on each other, but you can definitely feel the tensions as they speak to their groups that understand their points of view. Romans 12 says, live in this world but do not conform to it. So in a sense, both of the culture sides raise some good points. Where have we gone wrong. We have Democrats and Republicans fighting this very day for control to fight for a better economy. We as a church are no different. I think people are a little fed up with it. At least I am. 

Where do I fall in this situation. I think that churches will close their doors the moment we let ourselves get distracted by our goal. What is our Goal? I have just finished reading "Confessions of a Reformission Rev" by Mark Driscoll. In this book it talks about Marks journey on trying to reach the greater Seattle area for Christ. He talks about his shortcomings and his victories, but he focuses on becoming a MISSIONAL CHURCH. You can walk into thousands of churches and somewhere on their walls you can read there mission statements, but their are few churches that if you asked someone who calls that church , their church, what their missions statement is, they would look at you with a blank stare and try to give some sense of an answer. "God has called us to win the lost" "To go out and make disciples" 

Why do we make it so hard? Why cant it be a little simpler? Is that even possible? 

In his book, Reformission, therefore, begins with a simple return to Jesus, who, by grace saves us and sends us into reformission.  Jesus has called us to 1. the gospel (Loving our Lord) 2. the culture (loving our neighbor) 3. the church (loving our Christian brothers and sisters) One of the causes of lack of reformission in the American church is that various Christian traditions are prone to faithfulness on only one or two of these counts. Consequently, when we fail to love the Lord, our culture, and our church simultaneously, reformission ceases, leaving one of three holes: The para church, liberalism, and fundamentalism.

Gospel + Culture - Church = Parachurch

Some people are so frustrated with the church that they bring the gospel into culture without it. 

Culture + Church - Gospel = Liberalism 

Some churches are so concerned with being culturally relevant that, though they are deeply involved in the culture, they neglect the gospel. 

Church + Gospel -Culture = Fundamentalism

Some churches are more into their church and its traditions, buildings, and politics than they are the gospel. Though they know the gospel theologically, they rarely take it out of their church.

Gospel + Culture + Church = Reformission

Reformission combines the best aspects of each of these types of Christianity : Living in the tension of being culturally liberal yet theologically conservative Christians and churches who are absolutely driven by the gospel of grace to love their Lord, their neighbors, and their fellow Christians.

In this economic crisis, I see the church growing in size, not shrinking. But we have to take a painful look at how we have been doing church, running church and playing church. Are we going to just be the fundamentalist church that rejects people who are struggling with sin, or are we going to be the Liberal christian that although we can relate to peoples sin, we might be belittling the scriptures in the process, or are we going to be the church that is able to run the race long term. Have a church that has multi cultured and has all the ages brackets with all backgrounds in it. We need to get back to the mission that God has called us to do. To love one another as Christ Loves us. 

I do not know about you but I want to remain in the business of winning souls for Jesus and not go out of business as the next big flavor comes our way. 

Harmful Planning For A Prosporous Furture

Jer. 29:11 

"For I know the Plans I have for you says, the Lord. Plans not to harm you, but to prosper you, and give you a hope and a future."

I hope by the title of this blog that you are not seriously planning on harming  your future and that's why you are reading this. One thing you must know about me, is that I learn from my mistakes. Sometimes, I feel like I have all the answers and other times with God's help and my hot wife to bring me back down to earth, I find out that I am a weak individual with a lot of struggles. 

Prayer is a hard thing to get. We all have mis-conceived notions on how to pray and why to pray. After bible school and 10 years of ministry as a Pastor, one would think that I know how to pray. One would argue that I have a degree in prayer. Some would say by looking into my life that I have a wonderful prayer life because I am blessed beyond compare. I have a great wife and 3 wonderful young boys that bring life to any room that they go into. 

The truth is, that I have a sucky prayer life. I feel like I am a redheaded step child getting a beat down in a Kmart shopping center with my prayers. I can pray until the cows come home for other people. I can believe the best for people through my prayers and rejoice when the Lord answers their prayers. I will be the first person to pray over the phone with you when you are struggling, I can even pray with my kids at bed time that the Lord will protect their every thought. But, when it comes down to praying anything personal for me, I go blank. I have such a misconception of prayer for me personally it has taken 29 years to actually see that I cant believe that God would have the best in store for ME personally. Maybe some of you reading this can relate. 

I bought my wife a valentines gift. She wanted a book by Stormie Omartian called " The Power of Praying Together" She told me she would love to read it with me so that in return it would bring us closer in a intimate setting with the Lord through our prayers. I thought nothing of it and I bought the book and we started reading it together. I am not one for self-help books. I try to stay away from the books, where I need to get cozy in a set of nice flannel Sponge Bob pajamas and put the kettle on for some nice herbal tea and run myself a nice bubble bath and curl up to read a nice book for a better you. But, because I love my wife and the Lord I sat down and read the first few chapters. We came to the Chapter of "What is Prayer" I sighed and told her to skip the chapter because I already know what prayer is. She said to come down off my pastor horse and see what she has to say. I am a very A.D.D person, so I sat back as she started reading and I am looking around, and twiddling my thumbs, and my knee is bouncing a mile a minute until she hit one part of the chapter that talks about "What makes prayer hard Sometimes" I stopped the shaking and actually sat up and with attentive ears I paid attention. 

After all this time in life studying scripture, and meditating on scripture and praying throughout my day I doubt the fact that God can answer MY PRAYERS. I believe God has the best for others but when it comes down to me personally, I feel like he is Santa Claus that just flew over my house and went next door to the good kids and gave them gifts. That God has other people to listen to then me. I dug a little deeper into my heart and I believe the Spirit of God pulled out the fact that I fear God will not answer my prayers. How can I prosper like the scripture says, if I cant even believe that God wants me to prosper. 

This blog is for all the people who doubt the power of prayer. I am talking to EVERYONE here. We have all been in a place in our lives where we have doubted Gods very power to get things done through the power of prayer. Billy Graham, Wayne Grudem, Dallas Willard, Mark Driscoll, we have all doubted at one point.  But, the one thing we need to do in this process is drop to our knees and repent for doubting Gods divine Power. 

After I read that chapter with my wife I went into my room and started to repent for the last 29 years of doubt for my own life. This is what prayer is, and what prayer is not.

1. Prayer is Communicating with God:  God wants to reach out and touch us, but first we need to reach up and touch him. We live in a day and age where crappy stuff happens and we need to give all things to the Lord. He asks us in scripture to, "Cast ALL things unto Him" Relationships, business, work, finances, health, emotions, children. We need God for the Hope that he brings in all things

2. Prayer is Praising and Worshiping God for who he is: This takes the focus off of ourselves and places it on Him. He not only helps us through our tough stuff, but he has rescued us from a future of Hell. We are ALL sinners destined for a penalty and he rescued us. Man, that is something to be thankful for. I want to Worship my God. 

3. Prayer is telling God that we Adore Him and Love Him: 

4. Prayer is telling God we need Him: I think it is safe to say that we all want to be desired and needed. That is what makes us tick. God is not an insecure God that needs kudos all the time to make his self esteem go up. We need him to save us, forgive us, heal us, deliver us, fill us, restore us, redeem us, free us , guide us, protect us, lift us above our limitations, and move us into the plans and purposes He has for us. 

5. Prayer is making our requests known to God: It is sharing with him all that is on our hearts. Have you ever heard a teenager on the phone. They talk and talk and talk and talk with a lot of "I know" and " For sure" " like" and all the others things you can think off. We need to talk. We were created to speak. God wants to listen. There is nothing better then a great listener. Sometimes we have things on our minds that we need to just get off of our chests. Making our requests is a way to do that. God instructs us to ask for our "Daily Bread" 

What makes prayer hard??

1. I am not sure how to pray! This is one of the top comments I get on prayer. People think of "Meet the Faukers"  movie. Where Ben Stiller has never prayed  and he was asked to say Grace for the dinner. "Oh Holy of Hosts, day by day by day by day" It is a great and funny depiction of how people feel their first time. There is no school on prayer. No one can teach you how to pray word by word. When we ask the Lord into our lives he has placed his Holy Spirit inside of us, The Holy Spirit enables us to open and mouths and say whats on our hearts. Its like having a convo at Starbucks with your best friend. You just start talking and the Holy Spirit takes care of the rest. 

2. I find prayer difficult because I do not do it well! If you have some insecurities with prayer, the best thing to do is keep praying. You cant master something you never do. Its says in the word to "pray without seasing" Never stop. 

3. I find praying difficult because down deep I doubt whether prayer really works! Just like you, I am in the same boat. Doubt does not come from God. We need to trust that God has our best interests at heart, not to mention, his timing is ultimately better then ours. 

4. I am not good enough for him to answer my prayers! 

Now this is the most REAL statement on prayer. I love these people the most and 9 times out of 10 they CAN PRAY.....They understand the true meaning of why we need Jesus in the first place. WE AREN'T GOOD ENOUGH.........We all sin, we have all fall short of the Glory of God, that is why Jesus dies such a painful and gruesome death. For the very purpose of us to draw to him in prayer in adoration of his amazing love for you and for me. We do not deserve his love, but man he has given it to us. God will answer your prayers in his way and timing. 

It is harmful to plan for our future with doubt in our hearts. God wants us to pray. He longs for a relationship. He wants to give you and me a prosperous future because we are in his family. Lets leave all our preconceived versions of prayer at the door and just come humbly before him and lift ALL things to him. 

God has big plans, lets find out what they are.

Myself, Waynes World, and Plane rides!

The Question I receive all the time from people is, 

"Why does bad things happen to Good People?"

We always ask the question in the "Why" format. As if we have nothing to play in this situation. We leave it up to the higher power to determine our destiny and also a person to blame when things go wrong. One of my favorite movies of all time is Waynes World, two hair metal hippies are driving around in their 1978 Pinto with flames down the side, singing Bohemian Rhapsody head banging and looking for things to do (felt like my life in Jr. High). The seen that stood out to me was when Wayne's "World" was spiraling out of control. He just got in a fight with his best friend Garth, just lost his TV gig through the Video arcade chain and found himself alone without his woman. He cried out to God in a final desperation "Why God, Why?" as it flowed through the dreams of Casandra ending up with the sleezy producer in Hawaii, laying on the beach together as Wayne watched from behind a tree. Although this is one of the funniest movie clips, it shows us that everyone in the world, no matter what we have done in the process asks the question Why? 

About 5 years ago, I was traveling on a plane to speak at a youth retreat and as I was munching down on stale cardboard peanuts and drinking a fizzed out coke, I was asked by the lady next to me where I was going?  I sometimes struggle with sharing about the fact that I am a Pastor, partially because the responses I get wherever I go. They range with complete hatred, to a wonderful smile and may,  "God bless you" to follow. I told the lady anyway that I was a Pastor on my way to speak at a youth retreat. She said, "Oh, so you are one of those people huh?" I followed with a sigh and said, "What do you mean by that?" She went on to describe in great detail that she was raised in a church background and when her and her husband starting having kids her daughter became sick and later found out that she had a rare strain of Cancer. As tears began to wall up in her eyes she continued to say that she had her Pastor come up to the hospital bed and pray that the Lord will heal her. Then the Pastor went on to say that God "Told" him that she would be healed by the end of the week. As the week came to a close she saw her daughters eyes begin to close as she said her final goodbyes. After her daughter passed away she became very angry at the church and at God. She told me she asked God "Why?" a hundred thousand times and after she heard nothing, she finally gave up hope in the Lord and said that God was not real. She said to me, can you tell me why? Can you give me the answers to the questions that we have had for several years? As all the memories of growing up in a super spiritual church where people began to try to heal others through their own ways instead of God, I started twitching, because yet again I found myself talking with someone who is hurt by another collegue in my profession.   I sat there trying to think up all the scriptures that I could use to help change her mind , all I felt the Lord tell me to do is ask her more about her daughter. So I began to ask what was it about her daughter that she loved? A plane ride that was to last 3 hours felt like five minutes, she talked and talked and talked and talked. I was not bored once. I listened to her share the joy she had with her daughter and how much she missed her laughter and smile. I told her at the end, that I would love to answer her questions, but I felt that now wasn't the time. I asked her for her email address and then wrote her a few days later.  I wanted to make sure that I prayed through my answers, I didn't want to sound harsh, nor did I want to take away the smile she had as she shared about her daughters life story. I began to study more about this topic, because things JUST HAPPEN and I wanted to not belittle her daughters death in any way. These are the words I shared; 

Why do bad things happen to good people? That is one of the difficult questions in all of theology. God is eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, etc. Why should we human beings  (not eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, or omnipotent) expect to be able to fully understand God's ways? The book of Job deals with this issue. Although all pastors and Christians have over played this gut wrenching story, we can learn a lot about it. God had allowed Satan to do whatever he wanted to Job except kill him. What was Jobs reaction? "Though he slay ME yet will I hope in Him" (Job 13:15) "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised" (Job 1:21) Job didn't understand WHY God had allowed the things He did, but he knew that God was good and therefore continued to trust in Him. Ultimately, that should be our reaction as well. God is good, just, loving, and merciful. Often things happen to us that we simply cannot understand. However, instead of doubting God's goodness, our reaction should be to trust Him. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path Straight" (Prov. 3:5-6) I have no idea why a Pastor would say that he heard from God that God would heal your daughter, especially when you put your trust in this man. I have said many things in the name of the Lord and had them not come to flourish. These are mistakes from human lips. We are human, we all make mistakes and even though this Pastor made a huge one, you cannot trust in him along. You need to trust in GOD. Now, I know this is easier said than done. But, God has the ultimate plan. Now, in this next part, in no way do I mean to belittle your daughters death, but I must share about ALL of us, whether we go to church or not, whether we pray or whether we don't.

Perhaps a better question to ask is, "Why do good things happen to bad people?" God is Holy (Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8). Human beings are sinful (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Do you want to know how God views humanity? "As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:10-18.) Every human being on this planet deserves to be thrown into hell at this very moment. Every second we spend alive is only by the grace of God. Even the most terrible misery we could experience on this planet is merciful compared to what we deserve, eternal hell.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Roman 5:8). Despite the evil, wicked, sinful nature of the people of this world, God still loved us. He loved us enough to die to take the penalty for our sins. (Romans 6:23). All we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ (John 3:16; Romans 10:9) in order to be forgiven and receive a home in heaven (Rom. 8:1) What we deserve-hell. What we are given-eternal life in heaven if we just believe and follow after his purposes. It has been said, this world is the only hell believers will ever experience, and this world is the only heaven unbelievers will ever experience. The next time we ask the question, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good People?" maybe instead we should be asking, "Why does God allow good things to happen to bad people?"

We have ALL fallen short. I even sit here writing this letter, not deserving what I have been given by God, and his son Jesus that died for me. How many times have I rejected God? How many times have I been rude to someone? How many times have I had deceit in my heart? I even sat there on the plane with you, with sin in my heart. I am not one that deserves that life I have. I do not deserve my marriage, I do not deserve my job, I do not deserve to even share the word of God with others. It is through Jesus death and by his grace that I am here. Your daughter was a great joy to you in the midst of her life with us. You did not deserve her laughter, her joy and her smile, but the Lord granted you a life with her that was incredible. Jesus wanted you to see through your daughters life a life worth living for. Do not throw it all away because she has now left you. Not to mention she is in a place with no pain. A place where no bills have to be paid, where mortgages are past due, where people cut her off while she is driving. She has shown you the joy in life. I truly believe when we met on the plane that this is the word you needed to hear to get back on track. God is not through with you, nor has he forsaken you. He desires a long lasting relationship of not Why? but how? How can I live to serve you? How can I worship you? How can I sacrifice my life for you? When you allow your heart to go in that direction, you will be miles along. 

May God grant you the peace you need to survive and the life you need to flourish. God is your savior and Redeemer. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.

Sincerely, 

The dude you met on the plane.

That letter is a hard letter to write. You never know how the person will respond. I sat back and wept for her loss as I could only think about losing what was dear to me, my wife. What emotions would I feel if the Lord felt it fit that she be with him instead of with me. I am sure I would have felt as angry with the church and with God as she was. I guess I will never know until I am in her shoes, but I hope that I will be able to feel all the emotions of death, in order to rejoice in what God has done for me. He has taken a no good red headed, angry, attitude, liar, deceiver, and tattooed man and has granted me life through his death. 

Thank you God for loving me and others when we least deserve it...........You are our SAVIOR!