Have you ever felt like you were at the end of yourself and there was nothing else left in you to finish whatever it is that you have to do? I think that we must all feel this way at some time in our lives. I know, for me, that it happened more often than one or twice.

It seems like, in the past, when things started to get tough or when I had failed at a goal I had set, I would want to give up. It was hard to pick myself back up and continue to work at the same task.

It was always much easier to move on to something else.

Or, in a relationship with a friend, when things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to would be easy to simply sever the ties and walk away from the other individual.

I might try several times to fix things, either in a task or a relationship, but if it appeared that it wasn’t working or I was the only one working at it, I would decide when enough was enough.

In some ways, that attitude makes sense. Why spend your days beating your head against a wall when no one else really cares one way or the other?

However, this kind of attitude can set up into something that is not good. In some cases, you did the right thing to stop and in others, it was exactly the wrong thing to do. That could be, for instance, when the relationship or the task really was important and you had just gotten into the habit of stopping when you come across bumps in the road.

I don’t know how to explain it but it sometimes seems so, so tiring to keep trying to work things out or finish things off.

I’ve noticed that many people who craft seem to be gung-ho to start a new project and they keep going until they are about 90% done and then they lose their desire to finish it. They pack it up to finish later (or probably never) and then start another new project once again.

For some people, it is books. For others, it may be a television series. Perhaps it is at work. Maybe it is all of the above. It could be just about anything in life that takes work to accomplish or to continue.

Maybe that is why so many people get divorced these days. I’m not saying there aren’t many people with really good reasons because that would be foolish. But there are those who go into marriage lightly and go along for a time, whether that be ten years or ten months and then decide they made a mistake.

Again, some times with good reason but I think, most of the time, it is merely boredom or a lack of desire to work at the task of keeping a relationship together. Because it is hard work. It takes hard work by both parties. You can’t do the work of two in a marriage for very long just because the other party isn’t willing to work with you.

There are times when one or the other needs special care or when they are sad or depressed and their spouse takes over more or even all of the work involved. As long as there is some sort of give and take, it still makes sense.

For the most part, though, it appears that we are in some sort of throw away society. If something or someone doesn’t measure up or takes too much effort or if we get bored, we throw them or it away and start over again.

And yep, I’ve been guilty of these things myself. I’m trying very hard to learn how to stop and pray for God to give me the strength to get up and start again when, on my own, I’m ready to give up.

I ask for his help when I am weary and it seems like the burden of life is hard and getting harder. It’s easy to remember the hard things and the things that I have failed at and to forget all the times he helped me and gave me hope.

You can focus on the negative so easily. Seeing the positive things in your life seems a little more fleeting and more difficult to recall. I was thinking about this in terms of living with pain. I realized that, while I was thinking that my pain had been on-going, in actuality, a lot of my pain is now in the past.

I have new pains and those pains are associated with some of the work I am doing to get better. Some of the old pain remains but it is lessened and livable with medication.

When I first got sick with shingles, one by one, I dropped all of the exercises I was doing. I sat and started to deteriorate. At some point, I had to either start working while living with the pain or give up and die.

I didn’t want to die. I had too much to live for and God had a plan and a path for me to follow. So, even though it was very hard and very painful, I started doing more and more. My muscles are still dreadfully wasted but I am much further ahead than I was six months ago.

With his continued help and inspiration and love, I hope to be much further ahead six months from now.

While it was physically hard, the true problem I had to overcome was that need to stop doing things because they have become difficult. In this case, extremely difficult to do.

That’s how it is with being a Christian. When you first accept Jesus, it is a wonderful time knowing that he loved you and that you are free from the consequences of sin.

Then comes the work of actually living the life of a Christian in a society that mocks you, hates you and would really rather do without you. For some Christians, that makes it too difficult to continue to walk with Jesus.

It’s easier to simply say you are a Christian and then live just like the rest of the world lives. Living your life where your own pleasure means more to you than what you can do and give to others. Essentially, a life that is, in truth, the opposite of what Jesus has called his followers to be.

As he served us and sacrificed for us, he calls us to live a life of service and sacrifice for others. He doesn’t call us to live a life of hedonistic pleasure or even a life where what we think of first is what we want.

If that is where you are in your walk with the Lord, it is time to wake up. If you continue on, you will find your life has been wasted. Just as my muscles wasted from lack of use, so will your ability to serve God.

But like with my exercises, all it takes to reverse this is to start to live for God. One small step at a time or one prayer or one moment of self-sacrifice is a good start. You will find that you can do more and more over time.

Before you know it, with proper dedication, you will be living the life Jesus called you to do. You will serve the purpose that God had in mind for you before he created you. Your life with God will become a clear vision for the future.

You can do this if you ask God to help you. On your own, you can do nothing, but with God’s help everything is possible.

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

What is love? We use the word so easily. I love this book, I love this perfume, I love this snack. We just about love everything there is except when we don’t. Then we may hate it or not care about it at all.

It seems like the word has lost all of its true meaning. It’s changed from being something special to being a way to describe something that, at that particular time, we simply like. We like to do, we like to eat, we like a lot of things but loving something is different.

I have certainly found myself using the word carelessly. I’ve been trying to catch myself when I do and change my wording to really reflect what I feel.

I’ve thought about it and except for people and other living things, I don’t know that I “love” much else. When I search what my heart says, I find that I can only really love something that has the potential to love me right back.

I say potential for a reason and that reason is that Jesus has told us that we are to love the souls of everyone. That includes people who actively hate those who follow Jesus. Even so, we are supposed to love them anyway.

What sort of sacrifice is it to simply love those who love you, too? You might ask, why should our love be compared to sacrifice? That is because we are told to love others like God loves us.

God loved us so much he sent his only son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins. If Jesus had come to die for only those who already loved him, this world would have been forever doomed.

Instead, he came to die for those who hated him. Not just those who were alive at the time but for all those who came afterwards as well. That means all of us.

Not a one of us is born with the love of God in our hearts. On the contrary, we are born in sin. Even little toddlers can lie and purposefully disobey.

I have seen this in my three year old granddaughter recently. I will say, don’t do that, it will hurt you. And, of course, she immediately doubles down and continues until, guess what? She hurts herself.

She then cries out with pain and suffering and wants me to come and fix what is wrong. Of course, I do. Because I love her and I want the best for her. It never fails that she tells me she is sorry and that she won’t do it again. Until she does.

We are all a lot like little toddlers to God. He loves us dearly and has given a book called the Bible to tell us what we shouldn’t do, because if we do these things, we will hurt ourselves.

Those who aren’t Christians may sneer and then do these things anyway. Even Christians will find a way to justify doing something that is clearly not good.

When we do, we bring all sorts of pain and suffering either to ourselves or to others. When the pain reaches to the depth of our souls, many cry out to God to fix what is wrong. We say we are sorry and that we will never do such a thing again. Until we do.

But just like me with my granddaughter, God loves us so much, he will reach down from heaven and give us comfort and show his love for us.

That doesn’t mean that we won’t suffer the repercussions for our sins, it means that God will forgive us and help us in the way that he deems right.

The true definition of love is the love that God feels for us. He didn’t just feel love, he actually put love into action. When he sent his son to die for us, we didn’t love him. That’s real love. It is a love that seeks to save others even if it means sacrificing the most precious thing you can.

How many of us could do something like this? I’ll be honest, it isn’t me. I couldn’t have sent my son to save others. He might have done so himself but I would have been begging him not to do so. I would have wanted him to stay safe and sound with me.

What does that prove? It proves that I’m not God. I love my family and I would sacrifice myself but I would never send one of my loved ones knowing they would die.

It is this kind of unthinkable sacrificial action that really defines the essence of real and true love. God loved us and gave everything to save us.

Jesus lived as a human like us but was able to do something we could not do. He lived without sin. It wasn’t that he wasn’t tempted because Satan himself offered him the world if he would sin.

Jesus had to live without sin so that he could be the unblemished sacrifice that would atone for the world’s sin. He denied the human part of him that would have led him astray and instead, he lived the life that God wants us to live.

In return for this sacrifice, what are we expected to do to deserve it? Simply put, there is nothing we can do to earn it. It is a gift without strings. It is a pardon waiting for us to accept. That is all we have to do.

Acknowledge that Jesus was both man and God, he lived sinlessly and gave up his life for us. Because he was God, he also raised himself from the dead to show us that one day, we too, will be resurrected to new life. But then, he also wants us to start living the life the Bible calls us to do. He wants us to become his disciples and follow in his footsteps, doing everything he called us to do.

That includes, as a top priority, loving others. That means all others and not just those who love you back.

1 John 4:7-12

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Why is everyone always in such a hurry? I hear the sounds of cars racing through our neighborhood almost every day. It is as if they are on such a time constraint, that they have to kick into high gear the moment they are up and moving around.

Life seems to be rushing faster. The things that used to takes years now take months. Things that took months, take days. The things that I took a full day to accomplish are now expected within minutes, if not seconds.

When did we get so involved with life that instead of simply living it, we have to experience, record and then upload what we are doing?

It takes time to tell everyone in the world what you are eating for breakfast. I long for the days when I could sit and eat without thinking about what everyone else would say about the meal that I had made.

In addition to rushing about, we are spending what precious little time we have for ourselves watching Youtube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. Somehow, becoming immersed in video has become our downtime and way to relax.

The problem is, it really isn’t relaxing. The part of your brain involved with watching video is not the same part that is involved with reading, crafting or doing almost anything else at all. It isn’t meditative and it isn’t something that will build you up. It turns you into a giant receptive vessel.

You stop questioning the content and, instead, you simply take it in. Is that really what you want to do with your free time?

My husband and I used to spend many hours a week watching shows. It got so that we built our lives around it instead of living and watching an occasional show for enjoyment.

I don’t think we were different than most people.

When I became ill, we stopped watching for a while. I was simply physically unable to do so. When I got a bit better, we tried to watch our favorite shows, which we had recorded.

We were both surprised to find how mean-spirited the comedies were. The dramas were overblown and filled with unlikely scenarios.

More than anything, we discovered that the shows all had agendas. It wasn’t simply there for our enjoyment, it was there to slowly indoctrinate us into their way of thinking.

So, we stopped watching television. We found that there was so much more to do with life, even though I was still confined to the house.

At this point, we spend about half of an hour, twice a day, with the television turned on to crafting stations. That is the time when I need distraction from the lung exercises that I do. Once the exercise is done, the television goes off.

Still, we don’t seem to have much time. We talked recently with some Christians and we all agreed that one of the hardest things for us to do is to find time, on a daily basis, to read the Bible.

Are we all really that busy? Or are we falling into the worldly trap of doing anything at all before we find time to spend with God?

I admit that parents with children are probably really, really busy. Those who parent and have full time jobs are even busier still.

But that still leaves the rest of us. We try to find excuses but, in our hearts, we know that we are making ourselves too busy.

I wonder if that is because we really don’t want to know what God thinks about how we are living day to day? Maybe there are some things we are doing that we just want to do even if we know that they are either questionable or downright sinful.

So, we go daily manufacturing so much to do that we can’t spend ten minutes reading the Bible. Funny, though, we can find a couple of hours a week to watch a good movie. We can find hours and hours to scroll through Instagram or Facebook. We can go to gyms, go shopping, spend time with friends, go out to eat, have a few drinks with friends after work.

Think of what you do on a weekly basis. Can you justify, truly, everything that you do? Could you maybe squeak in a few minutes a day to spend time reading about the wonders of heaven?

Once you start making your time with God the most important part of your day and the thing that does not get put off, you will start living differently.

Even so, it’s still easy to get off track. When that happens, ask God to help you put your life back in proper perspective and to help you spend your time doing things that will build you up.

It’s so much better to do that than to run around like crazy, speeding through life without actually living it to its fullest. That is, living the life that God wants for you. The life he has planned for you is so much better than watching a movie, shopping, or anything else that you seem to think is more important.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

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.

It’s become almost impossible to speak one’s mind without offending someone, somewhere. When did we get so sensitive to every nuanced word? Most of the time, our words are being misconstrued.

We meant what we said and not what the person hearing it decided it meant.

It’s near impossible to use a personal pronoun today. If someone is male or female, one would think you could say he or she. But, no, not today. I think the proper pronoun these days is “they”.

Now, mind you, you are using a plural form even when speaking about a single individual. Somewhere, somehow, grammar was sacrificed on the altar of sensitivity to social issues.

It’s difficult for individuals, like me, who grew up when a person was known to be a singular individual. Unless, of course, the person suffered from multiple personality disorder.

In a way, that is what is happening but on a global scale. People now get to self-identify as to who or even what they consider themselves to be.

For many, the idea of being who they were born to be is simply abhorrent. While they prefer to think that what they were born as was a mistake, it seems to me that it could that they are suffering from self-hatred.

Rather than look to the cause of what is making them so unhappy, they choose to self-identify as something else. For a short term, that may seem to make them happy. They get to leave behind the parts of themselves that they don’t care for.

The problem is that part of them is still right there. It doesn’t go away because you have created a new persona for yourself. It will catch back up with you and you will begin the cycle over again.

That’s how it is with sin. And don’t fool yourself into thinking that this self-hatred is rooted in anything other than sin. We want so much to be better than we are, so we blame the results rather than the cause.

Chasing a new life, free from unhappiness with yourself, will continue on and one until you die. There is no way of changing yourself that will make you better.

There is no way of self-identifying as something else that will wash all of the evilness and unhappiness you live with.

There is only one way to become clean during this lifetime. That is to look to your Creator and Savior who came to this earth to take on your punishment for sin. It is only, through his actions, that we can actually become more than we ever were before.

Keep in mind that we are still sinners and accepting Jesus Christ does not instantly do away with your ability to sin. What it does is make you free from the guilt and punishment. The self-hatred that has plagued you can be given to him to carry.

The Bible tells you that you are a child of God. There can be nothing higher for we humans to attain. Our identity is rooted in that truth.

In becoming a Christ-follower, you do receive a new identity. Or rather, your full identity as a creation of God will be revealed.

You will never need to change your identity again. In God’s eyes, you were made wonderfully just as you are. He had a plan for you from the beginning of the Creation. He created you and was with you while you were being formed.

He made you and he does not make mistakes. You are just who you are supposed to be. Look to God to mold you into a better person as you walk with him each day.

Rather than trying to change your pronoun, try changing your relationship with Jesus Christ. He will show you that you are beautiful and loved by God just as you are. He knows that you sin and he understands how much you have come to hate yourself.

He will give you a new perspective on life. He will help you to understand how much he loves you. If God loves you so much he would die for you, you must be something really wonderful in his sight.

Don’t try to change the outward you. Look to the inside of your heart and make the changes there that will have true and lasting value in life.

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

I’m awfully glad that the criteria for getting into heaven is not that of being a good person. If that was the case, I would have no hope of ever measuring up.

While some people might look at me and think that I am a good person, I know in my heart, that I am anything but good. I know, if left to my own desires, I am evil.

Do you know the phrase, “if looks could kill”? Well, if that were true and looks could kill, I would have killed a lot of people. Not to mention the spiteful and judgmental things I have said.

It’s easy to look at others and sigh and think, “how can they be so wrong”? Being judgmental of others seems to come naturally to humans. What is funny is that the thing that we are judging others about is generally something that we are guilty of ourselves.

For some people, it is how a person looks. For others, it is what type of a job that person has. It could be their house, their car, or their political beliefs. It could even be something as ridiculous as their hair-do or whether or not they are following the same nutritional regime that we are, whether it be keto, paleo, vegan, etc. etc. etc.

We want others to fall right into line with our way of thinking and doing. I bet what we really want is for them to fall right in line behind us. After all, we’ve got it all together and if we are for something, it is obviously the best. And who better to lead the parade than us?

Well, at least that is how we think most of the time. But when it comes right down to it, we all know that we are lacking. It is the reason why we are on a never-ending quest to get better and better.

We seem to feel that, someday, we will find just the right mix of trends to follow or good works to do that will make us great. It will be the mix that lets us stop thinking of ourselves as dismal failures.

I don’t know about you, but anything I have tried to build out of my own quest for perfection has failed miserably.

Whenever that happens, I realize once again, that I am not as good as others seem to be. I wonder how it is that they can have such wonderful lives and have it so well together and I don’t.

Because of that, I become even more critical of others. I want to bring them down to my level so I can feel like I am just as good as they are. Or maybe it is that I want them to be as much of a failure as I am.

For whatever reason, this kind of thinking is doomed to be an ever repeating cycle. Judging others is a sure way to unhappiness. It is spiteful and petty and is only a cover-up for how you feel about yourself.

Some people extend this type of thinking to religion. Even born-again Christians (or maybe, especially this group) can, at many times, be hypercritical of others. It’s one of the reasons why non-Christians call them hypocrites.

We can say, this person is living with these sins, so they can’t be a Christian. With whatever their lifestyle, they simply can’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We seem to look beyond the sins that we do day-to-day and yet, we know that Jesus loves us and continues to forgive us. We forget that Jesus met us right in the middle of our sins, no matter what those sins were.

Living in open rebellion in sin is something that all Christians do. It is when we start calling sin something other than what it is, that the problems begin in truth. It is when we twist the Bible teaching to mean something other than the obvious meaning that we can be in real trouble with God.

It doesn’t mean that that individual is no longer a Christian, it just means that they have walked away from the truth of the Bible.

The true measure of Christianity is whether or not they believe what the Bible says to be true. A person needs to enter into a true relationship with Jesus as their savior and repent of their sins.

They can’t whitewash their sins and say that xyz isn’t a sin because I don’t want to stop. I don’t repent of that because it isn’t a sin. God will want me to continue in this way because it feels good and he wants me to have my way.

Still, whether or not an individual is a Christian is between that person and God. I don’t know their hearts and minds. They certainly don’t know mine.

I want to stop my judging of others. I want to see them as Jesus does and not the way I think they should be.

Notwithstanding that, if someone starts teaching heretical ways, I won’t hang around to see how sincere they are in what they believe. It doesn’t matter their sincerity. What matters is that the Bible is true. It says what is true because it is the word of God to the world. God is good and true and so is his word.

As I said at the beginning, I am so glad that being good is not the criteria to get into heaven. What is the criteria is acknowledging that I am not good, that I am evil at heart and that I am a sinner. By doing so and accepting the sacrifice that Jesus made to take away my punishment for my sins, I will go to heaven.

At the end of this life or when Jesus comes again, whichever is first, I will be dancing in the streets of heaven along with so many other people it will be a wondrous sight to behold.

Matthew 7:1-5

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

There seems to be a feeling of despair and hopelessness that is growing and growing. It isn’t limited to a certain age group, a social class, a race or even a country. Everywhere I look, so many people are feeling worse and worse.

It feels like there is nothing that one can do to make things right again. Not only is the world spinning out of control, but day-to-day living and decisions seem almost impossible to deal with.

Someone recently told me they were tired of “adulting”. As that individual was well into their thirties, it seemed a pretty strange thing to say.

That was, until I gave it more thought. What they were saying was that they wished that they still were a child and that they had a parent to deal with all of the struggles of life. A parent who would protect them and keep them safe at times when safety seems to be so far away.

For much of the human race, the prospect of living this life seems to be a arduous task. Not only that, at the end of it all, you die. That makes it tough for the non-Christians in this world to even want to try to make it through.

They may think it would be easier to just give up. That may be one of the reasons that euthanasia has been growing in popularity. That’s a fancy word for allowing people to kill themselves without trying to stop them.

Sadly, it is also something that they do to their own children. In some countries, this is legal and doesn’t take a tremendously high bar to meet in order to get it accomplished.

It must be that they are hopeless either for themselves or for their family. It’s that same sort of wrong-headed feeling that leads some parents to kill their spouses and children when they, themselves, decide to commit suicide.

It is a deep and dark cloud. I’ve experienced it myself. It can only be God who stopped me short of actually killing myself. Sometime in the future, I will talk about this period of my life in greater detail. But, for the moment, I want to say I understand.

It feels like everything will be better or there will be an end to suffering and sadness. I can only speak for myself and say, I was wrong to ever think that way. When I realized that I wasn’t going to die, I was so thankful. I was only a teenager but I knew that I wanted to live after all.

It was still several years before I became a Christian. During those years, I did all sorts of things that I regret to this day. While I wanted to live, I felt as if I should do what I wanted because there was nothing special to live for. It was a matter of doing what I thought would make me happy from moment to moment.

The problem is, nothing really made me happy beyond a fleeting feeling of satisfaction at doing my own thing and breaking rules that my mother had tried to enforce on me. I was so lonely and no one and nothing seemed to break through.

I was still feeling hopeless about the future. Every time I thought I saw a way to a better future, something would come up and smack me right back down.

For instance, because I was poor, there was only one way for me to go to college and that was through a scholarship.

I was well on my way to getting that dream accomplished when, due to where we moved, I had to change schools mid-semester in high school. Because the Los Angeles school district didn’t teach the advanced classes I was taking, they gave me drop fails. I plummeted from a straight A average to B- average in the blink of an eye.

There went my hopes for a scholarship. No one had ever bothered to talk to me about grants or student loans. I guess that B- average didn’t merit that type of discussion.

To tell the truth, looking back, I can see that this type of disappointment was minor compared to what other people struggle through. Notwithstanding that, it still gave me the same feeling that life was going to beat me down each time I started to raise up and that I would never be able to lift myself up again permanently.

It was when I was at my lowest point in life, when I knew that I was as much of a monster as any that I had had in my life, that I was ready to look for the true answer.

You see, I could not love myself but I discovered that Jesus loved me just as I was. He looked at me, all those years ago, and said you are worth love; you are worth my sacrifice. I want to spend eternity with you. I want to help you and to lift the burden from your shoulders.

I remembering crying and crying because I was loved. I knew that I didn’t deserve it but I knew that it was real. It amazed me that the same God who created the universe and was all good and all holy, could find it in his heart to care about me in all my wretchedness.

When I woke up the next morning, life had changed. At the time, it felt like the world was brighter and that the sun was shining more. I walked out into the daylight and was happy.

Today, I realize that the world didn’t change. What changed was me. I was no longer looking at the world as a dark and forbidding place that was going to drag me down. I had something to believe in. I had a future. I was never going to be alone again.

I had hope.

Ever since then, even through many trials, struggles and very sad times, I have never lost that feeling of hope.

Jesus came into a world that was hopelessly broken. Because of him, the people of the world were given hope of a new future. We know there will come a time when this world will pass away and God will create a new and pristine one. That is where those who have accepted Jesus as their savior will live with God forever and ever.

That is the promise and hope that I cling to. I know that God has me in his hands and will protect me. Someday I will die because all of us will. That is when the hope I have lived with since I was eighteen will be fulfilled.

In the meantime, God wants his believers to do the tasks he has called us to do. One of the most important of these tasks is to tell others about him and how they can have the peace of hope in their lives, too.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Some days it feels like the circumstances of life are overwhelming. The problems and issues that I face seem beyond me. What’s interesting is that this is how I have felt for what seems like forever.

Maybe when I was a young child, I was unaware of the troubles of life and my view of problems had more to do with my siblings and whether or not I would get what I wanted for my birthday.

Once I was old enough to think about things from a more worldly perspective, I became troubled. Some nights it was difficult to find sleep. My brain would start trying to work through problems or simply relive, over and over again, the simple fact that the problems existed.

I don’t think I am alone in this. I think that most people are troubled by the world around them. They worry about everything from what vacation to take, what fancy car to buy to those who are seriously worried about how to put food on the table, provide shelter for their family or any of the other necessities of life.

Worry and anxiety are real. They can bring a person low and keep them there. For some, there is a chemical imbalance and seeing a doctor for medicine is needed.

For others, it is important to talk through their problems. Having a counselor that you can trust is a great way to air these issues out loud.

It’s interesting that many people will take medicine and that many more, including those individuals, are not willing to talk to counselors. I guess taking medicine means you have an illness and the pills will make you well.

Seeing a counselor means you have a mental health issue and not many people are willing to admit that. They would rather just hold onto their problems than to admit they need a different kind of help.

Although these types solutions work for some, what is needed by everyone is the ability and the willingness to talk to the Great Counselor. God is there and is waiting to hear everything you have to say. He won’t judge you, during this life, by what is going on in your head. He loves you and wants to spend time with you.

The only truly unforgivable thing that can happen, according to God, is if you fail to accept Jesus as your savior during your lifetime. This failure will, indeed, cause you to be judged for your sins with the time comes for God to judge the world.

In the meantime, you can solve this problem by becoming a follower of Christ. That will open the avenue of conversation between you and God. You can talk to him and he will answer.

That’s not to say that you will like his answer but his answer will be what is good and true. It will be just what you need when you need it instead of what you want.

God doesn’t want us to live fretfully. He wants us to live a life that is filled with joy. He wants us to give thanks in our circumstances no matter how dire those times may seem.

It’s awfully hard to say thank you when the thing you are thanking God for is hurtful, painful or worse. Still, he has a plan and what you are going through is part of that plan.

It may be that the hard time is what is needed to bring you to God and to Jesus as your savior. As a Christian, it may be that the circumstance that is so difficult is what is needed to put you back on the path that God has asked you to walk.

We have a hearing problem sometimes. We ask for help but seem to be deaf when the answer is something we don’t like. We need to open our ears and our hearts to see our lives from God’s perspective.

When we do, we will find that there is something bigger and better waiting for us. It may be in this life or it may be once we are in heaven, but whichever it is, it will help put the problems of life in their place. It will change our focus and allow us to stop worrying so much and to have God’s joy once again.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

There seems to be a huge focus on apocalyptic movies, television shows and books today. There is a fear that is growing that the world is going to come to a horrific end. The reasons vary from nuclear war, alien invasion, asteroids, pandemics, volcanos, earthquakes and whatever is the disaster of the week, that week.

Most people speak of this time with a sense of foreboding. They don’t know why these things are happening more and more often. They look for reasons that are man-made and thus, are under the control of man to correct.

They say, stop doing whatever it is that we are doing that, in truth, they simply disagree with. They are using fear tactics to draw others into agreement with them on whatever issue it is.

Others are simply afraid. Is the end going to be because of nuclear war? Stop using nuclear power! Maybe the end will come because of climate change (a fancy word for weather), so stop using oil-based power and instead use nuclear power. These arguments can go in circular fashion until it makes your mind want to spin out of your head and across the room.

To be honest, fear of a pandemic is merited. We have caused superbugs to grow with our use of antibiotics. I remember when the antibiotic soap craze started. My concern, at that time, was that we would start killing off bacteria indiscriminately and cause more issues in the end. That is certainly one of the things that has contributed to this issue.

People are avoiding vaccinations because of the potential issues that can arise because of the shots. While there may be merit to their argument for a small segment of people, we seem to have forgotten that these diseases were almost uncontrollable killers in the past. When they arise again, they will kill more and more people because of the speed with which the virus can spread today.

I remember when I first read a book by Hal Lindsey. It was called, “The Late Great Planet Earth”. I wasn’t Christian when I read it and I didn’t turn to Christianity because of it. However, it was the first time I had read about what the Bible has to say about the end of our times and the destruction that would be poured out on the earth during a period called The Great Tribulation.

What was interesting to me then and now, is that the chapters in the Bible that deal with this issue made sense. In previous generations, the descriptions would have been unfathomable and would and did cause people to consider them to be allegorical. They would consider them simply a story that meant something else.

For me, reading the prophesy about end times sounded realistic and chilling. Today, it sounds almost like something you would read on the day-to-day internet news.

People have a reason to be concerned about disaster. The Bible tells us that there will be seven years of increasing disasters with the final three and a half years accelerating at an incredible rate. It tells us that this is God’s way of trying to get the attention of those who are stiff-necked and hard of heart.

It will simply take that much to get some individuals to stop and realize that the God of creation is, in fact, who he says he is. Some of them will understand that there is still time to accept the salvation of Jesus. Sadly, many will not turn to the God of the Bible. They will turn to a man who represents himself as a god.

It isn’t that God is allowing this to happen because he hates people. He loves them. He is going to do whatever he has to do to get their attention.

The things that we fear will all come to pass (well, except for the alien invasion, though the forces of Satan that are poured out over the land may feel like an invasion.)

There will be terrible catastrophes. Earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis, things falling from the sky. These disasters will kill people, animals and vegetation. They will poison the air and water. They will cause men (and women) to die from fear even before the actual events kill them. There will also be pandemics (more than one.)

In the Bible, Jesus talks about this period of time. He tells us that we will know that the end is coming when all of these types of events start happening with increasing frequency and intensity. He compares them to the labor pains of a woman.

Women who have had children will understand what this means. It will start slow as something that can be tolerated and then build to a point of incredible suffering. However, unlike birth pains which result in the birth of a baby, these events will result in the death of our planet.

The good news for Christians is that God has promised a new heaven and a new earth for those who have accepted the gift of salvation that Jesus died to provide to them.

The bad news is for those who don’t accept Jesus. This world is going to end one day and then eternity will begin. For those who are not born-again Christians, eternity will be a place of untold suffering and eternal separation from God.

It doesn’t have to be like that. It takes only the smallest of faith to look to Jesus and accept him as God in flesh. You only have to accept that he lived sinlessly and died in our place to provide us with a covering for our sins. And finally, accept that he arose from the dead by his own power.

That last one is a sticking point for some including some who profess to be Christians. How can anyone rise from the dead? If you believe that Jesus is the Creator of the Universe, how can you question that he can restore life to himself? He created everything because he is the Word of God that spoke and it all came into being instantaneously. It is that same power that caused him to breathe again and for life to pour back into his buried body.

This time, though, his body had changed. It had become eternal and is the promise of what his believers will someday have as well.

So, for me, the stories in the news of the end of the world aren’t ridiculous (again, except for those aliens.) They are something that tells me that Jesus is coming again soon for his believers. It tells me that time is short and I need to tell others about him before it is too late.

Matthew 24:29-35

“Immediately after the distress of those days

‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

It is difficult to talk with people about anything of importance. Discussions seem to be about trivial or superficial subjects. Even at that, is getting increasingly more difficult those as well.

Today, talking to one another about the weather or how much the cost of groceries have gone up can bring about an argument of epic proportions. Talking about your favorite TV show, movie, or song seem like easy topics of conversation but only if you talk about them lightly without expressing much of an opinion.

When you think about speaking of things that are of importance, that it is very easy to retreat and not say anything at all. You don’t want to offend anyone, after all.

However, today, it is almost impossible to open your mouth and say anything without offending someone somewhere. If, for instance, you talk about the weather that day, it might turn into a heated discourse on climate change theory. Better just not to go there at all.

Movies, TV shows, songs and books also can suffer a similar fate. I don’t like many modern movies or TV shows, so talking to me about them is a bit like talking to a wall. Your words will probably bounce off me and won’t mean a thing at all. To some people, your opinion would be the opposite of theirs and there are those would will take offense at what you like or don’t like about such things.

If you look around, odds are good, that you will see that where people group together, the individuals who used to speak to one another are now grouping together and then individually spending time checking out their phones and social media accounts. In the end, why bother to join a group if all you are doing is spending time by yourself?

It’s almost gotten to the point where most people would rather hole up in their homes and let the rest of the world simply fade away. That way there is no danger of offending anyone. You never know when someone who takes offense at your words, turns out to be more than slightly crazy and may threaten you or your family.

Think about how often you hear about individuals receiving death threats for things that they have done or said. For that matter, some people get death threats based on what the media has said that they have done or said when they never really said or did any such thing.

In the area of discourse, there topics of discussion which are generally avoided at all costs. Politics and religion. Well, people have deep-rooted ties to the political party or affiliation they vote for.

It used to be that people could have a fairly civil talk about politics… who am I kidding? Look back at some of the slurs that politicians cast at each other even back in the early 1800s. The thing is that more people are likely to take insane actions today. It is more than just heated discussions, it can be taking your life in your hands (or mouth.)

If talking about politics is hard to do, religion is even more difficult to talk about. That is, if you are discussing Christianity. It seems that any other religion or spiritual discussion is allowed and even sometimes promoted.

Christianity seems to have been singled out to be, at the same time, the most loved and most hated of all religions. Those who follow Christ, love that they are Christians. They will speak to other Christians (most of the time.)

Hated? Yes, the rest of the world has pretty much a hate relationship with Jesus Christ and God and, by extension, with Christians. How dare Christianity try to say that a person is a sinner? Who told them that they could decide the moral code for the world.

Many people prefer to create their own type of spiritualism. They will say they are spiritual, they don’t say they are religious. If someone says someone else is religious, that is their way of saying, essentially, that individual is nothing more than a pious hypocrite.

Actually, as a Christian, I would never say I am religious. I am a sinner who has been saved by Jesus Christ. I still struggle everyday to do what Jesus has asked us to do. I still break God’s rules (he is the one that provided the moral code for the world and not man.) The idea of saying that I am a good Christian woman is laughable. Who defines what is good? I am a sinner, the same as everyone else on this planet.

I find it hard to talk about Christ though I am learning to do so even when it makes my stomach twist in knots and I find light beads of perspiration breaking out on my forehead. Still, I try to step into a discussion when God opens a door for me to go through. I’ve learned not to ever force a discussion or even an issue. Arguing about Christianity is certainly not something Jesus told us to do.

Most Christians don’t even know how to talk to others about Jesus. That’s actually easy. All you ever have to do is tell others about something that has happened to you. No one can ever argue with you about something that you did or said. They may not like what it is but they can’t say that you didn’t say or do something when you did.

So, you talk about yourself and, if you really want to get someone’s attention, tell them about your failings and how Jesus was able to forgive you and help you.

The thing that I find most difficult and, I think, is what is the biggest stumbling block for Christ-followers, is sharing the gospel and not knowing enough about the history of my religion. It makes it almost impossible to know how to answer questions that others may have about Christianity.

This isn’t so easily dealt with. This is not about your past, it is about the Bible and what God has said and done.

To be honest, there is only one way that I am aware of for individuals to answer questions. That is to study the Bible on an on-going basis.

In the past, churches would have serious adult Bible study classes in addition to the Sunday sermons. The churches I went to, when I was younger, had these classes on Wednesday evenings. Somehow and somewhere along the line, those Bible study classes morphed into small group meetings.

Some churches call them life groups, some small groups, some even call them home groups (because they are generally held in some individual’s home.) I’ve found that these groups, again generally, talk about the sermon that was preached the Sunday before. They no longer study the books of the Bible.

I believe this change to be a huge loss. If Christians were to study the Bible intently and within a church setting (where they could ask questions of the pastors), they would be more able to answer questions about their faith. Not only for others but also questions and doubts that they themselves experience.

I tried to bring this issue to individuals in charge of such things at my church. It didn’t go anywhere. It seems it is easier to meet in those small groups and even have weekly meetings studying Christian books but not meeting to study the actual books of the Bible.

I’m not giving up, though. I will continue to ask for this at my church. It might be time for me to approach the senior pastor and ask what he thinks. Apparently, I even have problems talking about the Bible right in my own church!

Whether or not your church has serious Bible studies, let me recommend that you do your own rather than none. Get a good translation Bible with a study included in it and start there.

It is time to learn what we need to know in order to defend our faith and to be able to speak with some knowledge to others. I’ve found that in speaking to others, my own faith has grown. I’m sure that will happen to you too, if you take that big step and do as Jesus asked us to do and spread the good news of his incredible sacrifice and gift of salvation.

Matthew 28:18-20

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

If someone arrived on the world scene today, claiming to control the elements, heal people of their illnesses and to even raise some people from the dead, what would you think of that person? I know that I would have many doubts and would be completely skeptical.

I’d think that they were either a magician or guided by Satan. In addition to that, I would question whether or not the “miracles” they claimed were photo shopped or somehow edited or even done with a graphics package.

That’s the type of world we live in today. People are always portraying themselves to be one way when, in fact, they are quite different. You may find yourself full of admiration for someone and then find out that your feelings have been placed improperly because they are not telling the truth and had used devious ways to show things as they were truly not.

I wonder if that is one of the reasons Jesus arrived on the scene when he did. No one could accuse him of doing a fake graphics portrayal of a miracle that was being filmed.

On the other hand, many Jews of his day did question whether he was a charlatan or even a demon. No one could fathom that God himself would come to the earth in such a humble fashion.

Even those who followed him had their own opinions of what the Messiah would do. They thought that he would overthrow the Roman rulers, then them out of Israel and then take over the kingdom as their king. At times, they were actually frightened of the power that they saw Jesus wield. Notwithstanding those times, they continued to think in terms of earthly things because, at that time, they were solely earth-based beings.

It wasn’t as if Jesus could not have done what they expected; however, that would only have saved the Jewish people of that time from the tyranny of the Romans. It would not have given them to heal the breech with God and be given a way to heaven.

It wasn’t until after Jesus died, rose from the dead and ascended to heaven that the Holy Spirit came to live in the hearts of men and women who accepted and believed in Jesus as God. At that time, those individuals became dual-citizens. They were not only earth dwellers they were also, spiritually, citizens of heaven. At that time, their eyes opened and they could see the world from a heavenly standpoint.

Things that seemed impossible before became, in fact, something that Christ followers actively prayed for. Salvation for others? Safety from tumultuous weather and other natural catastrophes? Healing for those would were sick in body, mind or spirit? Even raising someone from the dead was suddenly something they could ask for and receive.

Have you ever had something happen in your life that changed your entire perspective of the world and of yourself forever? That happened for me the night that I accepted Jesus as my Savior.

I remember, the next morning, I got up and felt a lightness in my heart that I had not had since I was a small child. I think it was that the unbearable weight of my sins were gone and I simply felt like dancing in joy. What a weirdo!

I probably did dance myself into work and even moved to an inside beat in my head throughout that day. The job I had at that time, as a waitress, was grueling and something that usually left me tired and unhappy by the end of the day.

From that day forward, I was still tired (who wouldn’t be after spending hours on your feet?) However, I wasn’t carrying the same weight of unhappiness. Sure, I still could get upset and carry those issues home with me. However, the “I just can’t live this way” feeling was pretty much gone for good.

I say pretty much because, over the years, during the times I was out of step with God’s plan for me, I would get that same sort of feeling. However, I didn’t feel crushed completely. When the things of the world came down on my shoulders, I lifted the burden to God and asked him to help carry the weight for me. He has always answered this prayer.

While it didn’t mean anything in the world changed, it meant that something inside of me changed and allowed the problems to be seen for what they really were. For Christ-followers, the problems of this world are a blip in time. We know that we are bound for heaven and that the things that we experience here are to help us grow.

Even when I find myself filled with doubt. I mean, why would God bother with something so insignificant? When I reach out to him, I find that he has been waiting with his arms stretched out to pick me up and set me straight again.

For that reason, I still find myself dancing a bit as I walk every day. It drives my physical therapist a little crazy as I go lightly bouncing along. I think that dancing for God is like dancing in the sunshine. How can you not want to dance as the Son shines down from heaven onto the earth?

In the end, I know that Jesus came just at the right time, the first time he came to this earth as a human. I also know that he will come back to earth again to keep us from destroying one another completely.

I would like to live to see that day but, then again, I will be plenty happy to arrive in heaven and live there forever whenever God decides to call me home. While, in my human form, I would like to see Jesus coming in Glory, I stop and realize that I will see that event no matter what.

To be honest, I can hardly wait for that day. However, there are still people out there who are waiting to hear the story of salvation. How God sent his son Jesus to this earth to live a sinless life. Jesus willingly gave up his life to repair the broken connection between God and mankind. All a person has to do is accept Jesus as their savior who took away the punishment they deserve for their sins, then ask God to help them live the way he wants them to do.

If you want to be in heaven along with me, please consider accepting Jesus as your savior. Then start living a life where the troubles of this world feel lighter and where your focus will be on God.

Matthew 8:23-27

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”