In a world filled with forsaken people you are the change that can give them hope. You are the child of a living God.

16 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. John 3:16

I am a child of the Living God filled with the precious Holy Spirit, which is like a house that sits on an ocean facing hill with its windows opened. ready to receive the gentle flowing breezes. Before our Savior ascended to take his rightful place in heaven he promised to send this precious gift to all who receive him.

One of my favorite things to do is to google earth. I love how you can look at our planet from far away and then slowly get closer, closer and closer until you viewing buildings from the street view.
It's like taking a vacation without spending exorbitant amounts of money.  

I started thinking for a moment what if God our Father is sitting in Heaven viewing our planet from far away. He may see the explosions around the planet as war's and battles break out. He may see whole families being torn apart  by arguments and wars. I'm sure God isn't pleased to see all the bloodshed, all the arguing, all the hatred coming from our little planet 

 God's heart is breaking as he searches for just a remnant who still  believe. 

As he scans the planet, he sees little pop-up messages with one word- 'forsaken'.It seems that people all throughout the planet, filled with feelings of abandonment, hurt, and shame, unable to find God, ready to simply give up. Some of those 'forsaken' people take their own lives, while others may join hate-filled terror groups masquerading as a group who worship God, but in reality are further from the King of kings as one can imagine. 

 One by one he sees hopelessness being spread like a wildfire, burning out of control. As God scans the earth's surface, he occasionally sees those little 'forsaken'signs switching off with the word 'hope'..

As he scans closer to the surface, God sees little pockets of believers scattered throughout the parched hopeless and thirsty  land engaged in fervent prayer for a revival. God remembers the prophets he used thousands of years ago-imperfect men and woman- who were willing to be God's mouthpiece to share his love for them. God remembered that it wasn't the highly pedigreed people who became His mouthpiece, but he remembered the imperfect ones who were obedient and willing to refresh their souls  and bow down at the foot of the cross 

As he watches these small band of believers praying he sees whole communities, once forsaken, now fervently believing.

No matter where you are in this life, what journey you are currently on, or what suffering you are enduring, please remember that you are a child of the living King with the ability to possess the living and breathing holy spirit. 

You are the hope that God wants to use to bring hope to hurting souls.

What the world needs more is for men and woman to search after God's own heart

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. I Corinthians 13

One of my favorite commercials is the one for Capital one where the celebrity spokesperson tries to convince you of the superiority of their card. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkj3pcL95Ko I'm going to take a slightly different twist on this slogan and ask you 'what's in the foundation of your life you're standing on?' 

This question comes at a time when the world is crying for leadership that truly believe that God sent his son into our world to transform souls, not just be a cultural Christian pulled in every direction the wind decides to blow them.

 The sad reality of today's political climate is the lack of leaders willing to search after God's own heart.

They are searching for it in all the wrong places.

Through their conquests over woman

Through their conquests up the corporate ladder

Through their multiple job titles

Through their upward and lateral moves

Our leaders are forgetting that at the very heart of what makes America great is having their priorities straight, value their family, and their relationship with God. In the path of these current leaders, on both sides of the aisle, are people damaged by the wake of their strivings.

People told not to say anything about what they did to them

People to ashamed to move on because of what happened to them

People who lost the ability to strive and be successful, and

People who fell off the corporate latter because the one who rose higher

stepped on their hand until they lost their grip

As they fell, these leaders let out a laughter as they kept climbing

Instead of searching after God's own heart, We absorb the little sound bytes of life and believe the lies that cloud our thinking. 

My value is measured by my self-worth

my financial statements

My value is greater than those who make less than me

My value is measured by my job titles and corresponding wage and bonuses received

My value is measured by my new and exotic cars

My value is measured by my conquests (you fill in the blank)

 So often, it seems, we allow the world to mold us into what they think we should be, Men are often told that 'they ought to sow their wild oats when they are younger and only then they can get down to business and make a million dollars, marry a trophy wife, have trophy kids and live in a McCastle of a trophy house with a trophy size great room to entertain other people striving for trophies, not realizing that what God truly wants from us is to search after His own heart and be what you were intended to be in the eyes of our living God. 

Our country is in need of a revival- a revival of the heart, mind, and soul of men and woman. What the younger Donald Trump's, Billy Bush and Bill Clinton needed were for godly men to take them under their wings and help them to believe the things in the bible and reach their full capacity of what God has for them.

But the amazing thing about God's redemptive power is that it is never too late for anyone to get their priorities straight---never too late for Donald Trump, never too late for Billy Bush and never too late for Bill Clinton, or Hillary Clinton or every other political leader for that matter.

All we have to do to start such a revival for hearts of men and woman is to pray for them.

Pray for them

model what it means to be a godly man or woman

Share your life's story with them about God's redemption in your life

so they can see when hard times come,  God helped you recover

What's in your foundation?  Is it solid ground that only God can create, or is it the sinking sand of cultural change?  Our world needs men and woman to listen to God's voice and resist the messages this world sends to  us.   

God truly does have a better plan for our lives than the one the world convinces us we must have.

I

What's on your Joy list?

27 Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn’t you tell me,so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of timbrels and harps? Genesis 31:27

What's on your Joy list?  The first time I heard this term was on our FM Christian radio station on my drive time to work. I've heard  of bucket list as some things we want to accomplish before we die, but not 'joy list'.

I  never liked the word 'bucket list'- the term that someone will use for  things they want to accomplish before they die.  It's downright depressing, and who knows whether we will even have the physical strength or the cognition to do those things on our 'bucket list"?

When God made this world, he made it for all of us to enjoy. From our every waking moment he presents the beauty of the world everywhere we look. 

 But, the burdens of this life wear on us. We carry the weight on our shoulders forgetting that God designed us to allow Him through the gift of our Savior Jesus to carry the burden. Yet, as hard working as we are we insist on carrying our own burden even as that little stone we dragged around  when we were younger now becomes a huge albatross of one as we get older. 

Those boulders prevent us from seeing the joy in life.

We were meant to give God our burdens and learn to live life joyously, no matter what happens in our life.

The moment Jesus was raised from the dead, the distance from God was removed. We no longer need  to travel to the 'wailing wall' to feel his closeness. The gift of his Son was freely given to us who freely accept the gift of his son Jesus Christ. 

.That 'gift' holds the secret to our joy, our reason for living, and helps us to remove the blinders of our burdens and see God's creation from a new perspective.

Unlike a 'bucket list', a Joy list is something all of us can do.  A Joy list helps us remind ourselves that life is more than being a slave to work.  Many employers say that the vast majority of vacation time goes unused every year by employee's who feel the burden of life. 

' A joy list is something all of us ought to have, not just those facing the end of their earthly existence.

 A joy list consists of the places you want to see or experience in this life or things you want to do.  

 It's a list that helps us keep straight the things that truly matter in this life....things like going up north and hiking the trails on the north shore, camping, visiting places you've never been to, or simply walking around one of the area's many Metropolitan lakes.  Some of you  might have things like taking a helicopter ride or riding in a hot air balloon. or traveling somewhere so you can play in the ocean. Or it can be something simple like being part of a good church, singing in the choir, going out with friends to a movie, dinner.  You get the picture.

 Start your list and keep adding to it with each passing year, and before you know it, you will be living life joyously.