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What does He want from me?

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

Have you ever asked yourself “What does God want from me?”  I know I have from time to time.  I know that He does not need anything from from me but sometimes it seems like He asks a lot of me.  So what does God want from me?  What does He want from you?  The simple and short answer is He wants everything, or to be more clear He wants all of you.  

God wants all of you because He has created you to belong to Him.  He created you to choose and then presents Himself as the clear and proper choice.  There is not a single verse that points this out but as you search the Bible and the entire story of redemption you start to get the picture.  But what kind of man would I be without a Scripture to help point this out?  Ephesians 1:5-6 gives quick synopsis of this:

having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

God wants you so bad that He chooses you first, and then makes us acceptable in His Son Jesus.  He has done all of the hard work to make the relationship happen.  But I digress we are not talking about what salvation here.  Nope this time we are talking about the Christian who struggles with wanting to know what God wants from you.  Hummmmm.  I have a problem now though.  I cannot separate the two.  It seems I cannot find a way to distinguish between God saving you and what He asks of you.  This might be harder than I first thought.  Give me a minute to think about this…….

OK I am back.  Did you miss me?  Still with me?  Here it is here is what I have for you.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says you are not your own you belong to God because He purchased you at a price.  You are not your own, but you belong to another and you have someone to answer to.  Now let me give you an illustration or two.  First is from marriage and the second from family.

In marriage you take a wife (or a husband), you pledge to honor, cherish, love, and devote yourself to that person.  You go into the relationship choosing to give yourself and your thoughts over to that person right.  Well the Bible says that we are the Bride of Christ and we should go into that relationship the same way.  When making a decision in marriage you ask what the other person would want and make a mutually consenting, and beneficial choice.  Same way with walking with God.  The only difference is He is smarter than you and knows what is best, but He still talks to you about it.

Second is the family example.  If you have children you want what is best for them and you know what they are capable of.  More than that you know if you ask more than they are capable of you will help them achieve that goal.  Well again God is the best father ever and He knows what you are capable of and if it is more than you can do He will help.  He does not want you to fail, but has given you every spiritual blessing, and every good and perfect gift comes from Him.

So what does God want out of the person He has purchased with the Blood of Jesus?  He wants it all.  He wants you to listen and respond.  He wants you to obey.  He wants you to love those you need it.  He wants you to give the same way He gave.  He has shown what love is and He wants you to love.  Sometimes it is hard, and it hurts.  Sometimes people hurt you, but when they do you pray “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”  He wants you to give your will over to His.  He does not ask for too much though, He asks for it all.

Just a thought,

Mike

Fathers…..

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

Kenneth Ray Reid 7/1961.  That is almost everything I know about my biological father.  That and he served in the Army and has a twin sister named Debbie.  We now all know the same thing.  According to one census there are about 24 million children in the US right now living in a home without a biological father.  Some families may be divorced or have other similar circumstances so lets go ahead and drop that number in half to 12 million children…. Does that make it easier to bear?  Lets go ahead and add in the last two generations but only half from each and say 12 million adults who do not know or have any relationship with their fathers.  I am one of those 12 million.

Don’t get me wrong I am not whining.  I have done that and I have moved on (as much as one can) but I still think about it from time to time.  I think what did I do wrong, what was wrong with me, and so on.  Truth is there was nothing I could do on my part I was not even born yet.  No, it was just him deciding for whatever reason he did not want to be a father.  So I do the only thing I can, I forgive and I move on.  I take all of those feelings and fears and put them to good use.  I strive to be a great father to my children.  My wife and I have a daughter and she has two boys from her first marriage.  The only thing that is different between the three of them to me is that one is a girl.  I love those boys with all of my heart, I would and have done anything for them.

Why do I tell you this?  Why like any other time do I ask for a minute of your time?  Because sometimes life sucks, sometimes we are given a raw deal.  I want to you to know that I feel you I really do but at some point you have to make a choice.  You have to ask yourself “Will I let my past and my circumstances direct me, or will I take control?”  

I want to see fathers lead their families, I want to see young men who are like me (fatherless) come to the Father and see the life He has for them.  I want them to take what the world handed them and use it to reach others with the hope of Christ.  I want to see boys become men of God.  I know how hard it is and the pain from some things never actually go away.  Sometimes it hits me from nowhere (like now) but when it does I am reminded that I am not that man, no I am not him.  I am ME a new man in God and I will lead my family.  I will be there to take my kids out when I do not want to.  I will watch Disney when I want to watch UFC, and I will not let others decide who they become I will be a man.

Women, you are not unwanted, and you are not disposable.  You have a Father that loves you, and cares for you.  You do not have to seek attention or “love” from men who only care about themselves.  You were created for a purpose and have a mission for your life.  I know the love of a woman who knows who she is in Christ and I am so very blessed by it.  When you give yourself to God He will make you whole and new.  I cannot speak much as to what it means to be a woman who has no father but I can say you are worth more than you know, and any man who does not value you is not a man at all.

 

Just a thought,

Mike

For as for me and my house we will serve the LORD. – Joshua 24:15

 

Biscuits and Gravy

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

Peacefulness and thankfulness go together like biscuits and gravy.  Sure you can have them separately but when you put them together you have a dynamite combination.  

In Colossians 3:15 Paul says “Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful.” (NET Bible)  If you let the peace that comes from Christ control or rule in your heart you will have peace.  You will have a true peace that passes understanding in the midst of everything.  In turn you can be thankful.

Now before you start in on the “if you only knew what I was going through you would understand” speech let me tell you something, I am not at peace right now. I have not been at peace for awhile either.  My wife and I are trying to find a place to live and are not having much luck finding anything we can afford (and would want to live in).  We are trying to figure out how to pay off most of our debt, and a few other issues.  Because of these things I have not been at peace.  I mean as long as nothing else happens I can keep it together but as soon as the dog barks or the little one cries I start to feel like I am going to lose it.  That is not peace, but holding on.  I do not want to just hold on, I want peace.  

So how do I get this peace?  How do I get to a place of thankfulness and ultimately rest?  Simple answer is I let the peace of Christ control my heart.  Mind you that is the easy answer.  The hard part like all things is walking it out.  So here are some simple things I think will help you and me let His peace reign over our hearts.

First, stop looking at the check book so much.  You’re broke and need to pay bills, but if you check the account in the morning it will more than likely be the same way in the evening.  So here is what we can do.  Check your account in the morning and then pray.  Ask God to help you get what you need to get through the day.  Notice I did not say ask God for the money (not that it is wrong to do so, I am praying for 50k), but instead ask Him to provide.  I have had groceries show up on my porch, toy for Christmas, and a ride when I was walking.  You need a new job, house, etc.  Same solution.  Take a look in the morning and again in the evening.  Other than that just ask Him to provide.  He knows your needs and will meet them.

Second, is be thankful for what you do have.  Maybe you are flat broke but you still have something to be thankful for.  Time with your kids, time with your dog, time with your pillow….  Whatever it is, enjoy the things you do have.

Third, feel free to cry.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with crying out to God.  Read the book of Psalms; a good portion of that was David crying out to God for help.  Look at Elijah he cried out to God, Jesus in the Garden cried out to Father to let the cup pass.  Nothing wrong at all with crying out to God and saying please help me I cannot do this and I am so tired.

Again remember I am writing this to me as well as you.  I need to remember and do these things.  My hope is I can take my own advice and let the peace of Christ control my heart.

 

Just a thought,

Mike  

Well then…

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

I do not know your background, history, family, upbringing, relationship status, income, race, etc.  It would be impossible for me to know this about you.  These are not things I can know.  What I do know is all of these things determine how you view Jesus.  The sum total of your life leaves you with a few things and a view of Jesus is one of these things you come up with.  So I am not going to waste time telling you the way you view God is wrong because it may very well be right.  What I am going to do however is tell you what God thinks about you.

I am not going to talk about religion, or being “spiritual”, or whatever funny term some use when they want to talk about knowing Jesus.  No we’re going to talk about a love affair.  A love affair so scandalous that none other in history can compare to it.  A love affair so beyond what you have ever heard that is shakes the core of many people myself included.

Romans 5:8 says “Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us.”  (God’s Word Translation).  This is the love I am talking about.  A love that gave all, that spared nothing, held nothing in reserve.  You may or may not understand that so again “Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us.”  God sent His Son to die in your place.  OH MY WORD!  I cannot express how amazing that is.  Maybe it is just because of how much pain I had in my life, maybe it is because of the pain I caused others.  To know that the God of the universe loves me and gave everything so I can live is astounding, and scandalous.  You need to understand I was not raised Christian, I caused pain, cheated and wrong people, I hurt myself regularly to let out the pain I felt, I took pills and smoked pot to lessen the pain.  I used to hurt every day.  I was in agony.  Then I find that God the one true God loves me, and He loves me so much He died so I can live.  This is love, this is real love.

I say these things because I cannot know what your view of Jesus is.  What I do know is God’s view of you.  God sees you in pain, He sees you cause pain, He sees that you need help.  You are in a hole that you cannot escape from.  So to prove He loves you He comes to you.  I dare you to prove me wrong.  I dare you to honestly and wholeheartedly call out to God and ask Him to make Himself real to you.  If you do, He will show up and shake the foundations of your world.  He wants you to, He has given everything so you can.

So here is the question some are asking, if God loves why is the world so screwed up?  Easy answer because we screw it up.  You can’t blame God because you are a jerk, sorry it does not work that way.  Lets all stop asking about the innocent victim of this crime or that crime for just a second and focus on you.  You cause people pain, you cheat and lie to people, you try really hard but you are not perfect.  I still do these things so lets not pretend OK.  Let’s follow that question all the way through for a minute.

You say if God is love then He should stop the hurting and punish the wicked.  OK we will obviously start with the murders, and rapist, and drug cartels.  But wait where is the line?  Where do we stop and say OK only these offenses need to be punished.  The pain you caused your spouse with the affair you had makes them hurt real bad so you are out.  You lie to get ahead at work causing someone who should have gotten the promotion to get passed over, now they cannot make the money needed to get their child the treatment needed.  You’re out.  So on and so on.  Injustice is injustice and takes many forms.  Trust me you do not want God to give you what you deserve.  You want mercy.  The good news is it is yours for the asking.

Check this out if you do not think this is scandalous enough yet.  This one may blow you away.  God sees everything, but not just everything that is going on right now, He sees everything that happened and everything that will happen.  He is outside of time and a clock or calendar mean nothing.  So here is the thing; God created the world and was speaking it all into existence and said It is Good.  He could still see you, He could see your need for love and a Savior.  At no point was it a shock to Him that you were in pain.  He sees your yesterday today and tomorrow and He saw it before He created anything.  Revelation 13:8 says the Lamb (Jesus) was slain before the foundation of the world.  That means God foresaw your need and was ready for it.  He saw your pain and made a way before you could even call to Him.   He has done everything.  The work, the timing, the planning it was all Him.  He loves you that much.

I don’t know if I can really say anything else about.  I’ll finish with this.  God loves you, and He wants you to love Him.  He will not make you, He will not force Himself on you.  But He has done everything possible to make the relationship work.  All you have to do is accept the invite.

Just a thought,

Mike 

Lets not make it personal ok…

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

Sorry this one gets personal because we are going to talk about you, I mean me, no wait you and me.  Don’t worry not you and me in a weird why haven’t you called I really thought we connected kind of way.  More of in a how you can mean you as in ya’ll or you as in you with the face who is reading this.

1 John 1:9 (NKJV) says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This verse is pretty personal when you understand that the our being used is a Personal / Possessive Pronoun which means it is talking about you, I mean me, no wait you and me.  It might as well be saying “If I Mike confess my sin, He is faithful and just to forgive me (Mike) my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.”  I could go on and add your name but with the hundreds of readers I have (that was a lie) I am sure I would miss someone.

We need to confess our specific sins.  There is something very powerful in confessing our specific sins.  Something about confessing that you need forgiveness for that addiction, or how you were cruel to that person, or whatever it might be.  I cannot stress enough how much freedom there is in confessing that you are sorry for that specific sin.  Now to not get me wrong and think that I am saying you are not forgiven for all of your sins if you do not confess them one by one.  When you confess that you are a sinner and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior believing that died for you then you are forgiven and a become in that moment a child of God.  That does not mean though that you have forgiven yourself.  There are some sins that need specific confession, and they change over time as you mature in your walk with Jesus.  But the fact that He is faithful and just (righteous) to forgive you does not change.

That brings me to my last point.  God is right when He forgives you.  Have you ever thought about that?  When I think about the fact that God is right when He forgives me it blows me away.  He is not right because I want Him to, rather He is right because He says He is.  He says it here and in Romans 10:13 “for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved, and Acts 2:21, and so forth and so forth.  God declares that He will forgive you and He is right when He does it.  That is just mind blowing.  The God of all the universe, the maker of things seen and unseen, the one who sees my tomorrow and my past says I will forgive you and I am just as right in forgiving you as I was in creating the earth and sending my Son to die.

You cannot argue with that, you cannot say sure but what about, or not me.  You can only accept it or ignore it.  Just remember though if you ignore it you are still wrong and He is still waiting to forgive you.

Just a thought,

Mike 

Submit I say. …. Bow down before me

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

I want to talk about 1 Peter 3:1-4 for a minute.  Now I am sure there are going to be a few Christian men who decided to read the whole article this time and a few Christian women who have decided they may no longer like me.  But in normal Farley fashion (that’s my last name) I am going to put a little different spin on it.  My thoughts on 1 Peter 3:1-4 actually stem Jeremiah 29:7 which I have been spending a good deal of time thinking about.

Jeremiah 29:7 (NLT)
And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.

1 Peter 3:1-4 (NLT)
1 In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over
2 by observing your pure and reverent lives.
3 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes.
4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

When the nation of Israel was in Babylonian captivity God spoke to them through Jeremiah and told them to work for and pray for the peace and welfare of the city.  In 1 Peter 3, Peter tells the women to work for the peace and welfare of their husbands.  I love that.  Too many people try and use the words of 1 Peter to mean something without understand the point of the verses.  It is not about some abstract submission for the sake of submission.  It is about serving and giving.  It is about loving and wanting the best for the other person.  What Peter says to women here the Bible speaks to all people.  Serve one another, win them to Christ by love and compassion.  Give the best to them.  Don’t worry so much about how you look or what you wear.  Take care of yourself but they are not going to come to Christ because you look like a model, or drive a Bentley.  Pray for them and work for their welfare.

The goal of it all is that Christ is honored and glorified.  That men (and women) come to faith and repentance in Him.  All that we do should be to bring Jesus to them.  We are a body and as a body we should mobile.  Don’t just invite people to Church on Sunday bring it to them on Monday.  Bring the good news with you when you go to work, bring it home when you get there.  Show your husbands why Jesus is better, show your wives why Jesus is greater, show your children why His love is more.  Seek the peace and welfare of those around you.  Pray for your family, for your neighbors, for your nation.  Don’t nag your spouse, your government to death.  Instead nurture and foster love and faith in Christ.

I’m not going to say any more on that, but I do want to drop a sentence of two about 1 Peter 3:7.  Men do you feel like God is not listening to you?  Do you feel like no matter what you do you cannot seem to get ahead spiritually?  Make sure you read verse 7, and then make sure you live it.  Keep it in the forefront of your mind and make sure you remember it.

Just a thought,
Mike

You don’t work there anymore!

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

I was thinking about Romans 6:14 the other day and trying to figure out how to explain that to myself.  Often I read a verse or section of Scripture and really like it but cannot seem to explain it to myself in a way that makes sense.  This is one of those verses for example.  I understand that sin is no longer my master, and I understand I am no longer under the law but why does sin keep bothering me, and why will it not let me alone?  

Have you ever had a job that you were really good at?  I mean one where your employer and co-works were really impressed with you and your performance?  The kind of job that was hard to leave because you knew it so well and they knew you just as well.  I am talking about the kind of job that even after you leave they contact you every once in awhile to ask for help and see if you want to come back.  That is what this is like.  You used to work for sin, it was your boss and you worked hard for your wages.  You would come in early and leave late.  You gave up family time to do what it wanted.  It knew just how to get you motivated and although the job was hard you really enjoyed it at times.  

The Greek word in this verse for master is kurieuó and it means to be lord of, or rule.  The definition goes further and says “properly, to exercise rights over”.  That means sin was your boss and knew it.  When you left it was mad, it was not happy to lose such a great employee.  So like that old job it keeps calling, like that old relationship you should not have had it keeps calling.  Just come back, just come over, lets just connect on Linkedin, lets just connect on Facebook.  Lets just get coffee.  I miss you.  It will pull at your strings, it will push those buttons that have always worked so well because it wants you back.  It wants what it used to have returned to it.  

But and this is the beautiful thing sin does not have rights to you anymore.  You are now under grace.  You are now dead to sin and hidden with Christ in God.  He has purchased you and is now Master over your life.  He now has kurieuó over your life.  You have a new Master and He does not want you playing around with other job opportunities.  He does not want you entertaining other employment options.  He wants you wholly as His own.

How do we fight it though?  You worked for sin for so long it knows how to get at you.  It knows how to entice you back into service.  The answer is simple you must change.  You must embrace the new man you are and learn to walk in Him.  When you walk in the newness you have received sin cannot tempt you with things you have put off.  We must understand the new man we have put on and walk only in it.  Galatians 5:6 says if we walk by the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the flesh, what that means is simply if you are doing one you cannot do the other.  Think of it this way you cannot sit and jump at the same time.  If you do one you do not do the other.  Being under grace is the same way; if you are under grace you are not under the law.  You can only serve one master I suggest you chose the one who wants to give you an abundant life.
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Missed it by that much…..

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

Max Smart from Get Smart was famous for this line but all too often we as Christians have to say it as well. I can sit back and think about numerous times where I missed what Jesus was saying. Times that I was so close but almost only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades. In John chapter 4:10 we see Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman and he says to her “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.” Now it is often easy for us when we read the Bible to look at the people who missed it with a certain smugness as if to say “if that were me I would have done better” but the truth is we miss it all too often.

How many times have we prayed for an open door and then walked right by it? Or how many times have we asked God to provide and then when He does we think we figured it out? I have decided that I am going to make a more conscientious effort turn the doorknobs and if they open a door I will walk through them as the child of God I am. I will be more intentional with my daily praise. Small or big I will praise Him who gives. I believe if I do this I might not have to regret missing it.

I don’t like looking back and thinking what if, maybe, I’m not sure, should I, or you fill in the blank. I am not talking about being careless and there is a fine line but all too often I personally err on the side of caution and not grace. All too often to I pray when I should act. I am not built for that, and neither are you. We are called out of the world to be active. Our faith is in an active God and we should be more like our Father. After all, if He can speak the world into existence he can surely…….

The amazing shrinking man

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In an effort to get through the book of John and make the post a little easier on the eyes I am going to try (I only promise to try) and keep the post to a page or less.

I am praying for the same spirit John the Baptiser had.  I want to be only concerned with people knowing Jesus.  I want to be able to say as John says in John 3:30
“I must become less and He must become more”

I don’t want to have any hesitation with it either.  I want to know when to prepare the way and when to get out of the way.  I have an issue with this because I love to talk (just ask my wife).  I love to talk to people and I don’t really care where I am.  I enjoy helping someone understand something and also receiving from them.  Conversation is one of my favorite pastimes.  What I want to know without a doubt though is when to stop.  I want to be able to see that God has taken over this conversation or situation and I am just going to get in the way. 

John knew what his mission was, he knew that the Messiah was coming, and when He (Jesus) did it was time for John to sit down.  I want to be able to do that.  I want to know that I have completed my mission.  I want to know where to prepare and when the preparation is complete.  This can happen in large or small ways.

An example from daily life you ask.  I would be happy. 

I was recently having coffee with a young man and we were conversing for almost an hour when two women came over and asked if they could pray for us.  This was definitely a sign from God that He was taking over the situation.  I was so pleased that after prayer had ended I knew my part was done.  That I did my job and prepared the way for the Lord, and now it was time for Him to increase and for me to decrease.  It was such a beautiful moment I would have only ruined it if I continued. 

That is what John is talking about here in verses 22-36.  He is telling his disciples that I have done my job and now I can watch and enjoy as the Groom takes His bride.  He then goes further to confirm Jesus’s statement earlier in the chapter by saying that those who believe in the Son have eternal life and those who do not are already condemned.  He understood his job that well. 

John’s job was the same as yours and mine.  We are to prepare the way of the Lord.  It is not our job to make anyone accept Him, or receive Him, but to prepare the way.  1 Cor 12:3 says in a loose paraphrase that you only call Jesus Lord because of the Holy Spirit.  This means we do our part and then God takes the person and convicts as they need, or enlightens as they need.  Do you job and get out of the way.

One last closing thought.  Sometimes you prepare to a point, and then someone else is suppose to come along and take over.  Paul says in 1 Cor 3:6 “I plant the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”  Remember that as we minister to people because that is a very important part of the process. 

Just a thought,
Mike

Born Again….Wait What?

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

Preface:

I have been going back and forth on John 3:1-21 for a little over a week now and I think I finally understand why.  The problem I have with sharing from this particular section of John is it makes me emotional so sharing my gleanings from it keep coming from an emotional place.  So rather than fight that I am just going to go with it.

Jesus declares in verse 3 “no one can see the the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” But what does it mean to be born again?  This is the question Nicodemus asks Jesus and I think many of us have asked that same question.  I would imagine any non-Christians reading this or any other writings would ask the same question.  I mean after all it sounds very new agey and hokey pokey.  It sounds like something people say when they reach the end of their logic and cannot think of anything else to say “Well you just have to be born again.”  My question is what do we do with a statement like that?  Where do we go with something like that?  How do I put that into my daily life?

The simple and easy way to understand this is that God wants to be in a close and personal relationship with you.  He does not just want to be your Father He wants to be your Daddy.  That is mind blowing!  Maybe you read that last statement and went “OK and”…. But let me tell you why that is so powerful.  What Jesus is saying by be born again is God the all powerful, Creator, Maker of all, Master of the Universe wants to be your Dad.  He wants you to be His child.  This is so beyond amazing that I want to just stop typing because I cannot think of how to expound on that.

Jesus has changed the entire paradigm with the born again statement.  He has shifted everything.  So many of us have this idea about God that He does not care and has left us to our own devices.  But that is so beyond wrong that it make me almost cry.  God loves you, God the Father wants you to call Him Daddy.  He wants you to run to Him and let Him hold you.  He wants you to be with Him.  That is the Gospel message.  You want the Gospel here it is: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to be the sacrifice so that you can believe in His name and be born again as a child of the Most High and call Him Daddy.

There it is.  It really is that simple.  What does it mean to be born again, how do I apply that to my life?  I understand that God wants me.  I understand that God chose me.  I did not chose Him, but He reached down when I could do nothing and chose to love me and give everything for me.

When I came to Christ I did not do it in a church building, or with someone standing there giving me a prayer to pray (I am not saying anything bad about any of that), or after or during some tragedy.  I accepted Him when I was doing the dishes.  It was not an emotional event.  It was not a pressured event. It was simple and to the point.  I had a million questions about God and I was told I have to have faith.  I had enough faith to believe that God was real.  That was it no more no less.  I told Jesus in a very plain and clear way that I had destroyed my life by 22, taken drugs, tried to kill myself, and hated everything about me and most people.  If He wanted me and could use my life He could have it.  That was it.  He said yes and now I am no longer my own.  I am a son of God.  I was born again.  How do I apply what Jesus says in John 3:1-21 to my life I remember that my Daddy loves me.  I remember I am His.  That no matter what comes it is well with my soul.

Oh to feel the love of God, to feel His presence.  I cannot express it but I so badly want everyone to know it.  You don’t need to understand it all, you don’t need to “feel” it.  You need to accept it.  That is the reason we are reading though John together.  I want you to take a chance and say “Jesus I give you a try.”  I want everyone believer and nonbeliever to try Jesus.  If you know Him give Him another area of your life, if you don’t know Him then tell Him you would like to.  I did not feel it when I gave Him my life, but I was willing to try Him.

Just a thought,

Mike