A Letter to the Hurt

You've been hurt!

Hurt by the ones you trusted, the ones you confided in. With not only your heart but also in some cases your soul.

You woke up one morning to find out they had not been living the upright spiritual Godly life you thought they were and you instantly start to question everything that they had ever taught you and everything you believe in.

Because of this, you struggle to forgive them and others, you battle with trust, you struggle in your spiritual life, and you struggle because you instantly question whether they are real or not. You have no idea who you should trust with your heart and who you shouldn't.

Why? Because everything you had built your life foundation on, got kicked out from beneath you.

Today I want you to know, I hear your heart!

I hear your pain!

I hear your frustration!

I hear your cries!

It's painful to realize you have been lied to your whole life. That someone you had trusted was a fraud and that you had built your life foundations on what they have said and you are forced to evaluate what is truth including everything you believe in.

It's hard, I give you that grace. I am here to tell you today of an alternative. An alternative to thinking you are simply a victim of outside circumstance and can't be mended.

That Mender is Jesus Christ. He is not a human. He does not fail. He will never go against what He has said. He will never change His mind and He is always simply a prayer away.

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almight. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress My God in Him I will trust."
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge His truth shall be your shield and buckler You shall not be afraid of the terror by night Nor the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilience that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked....
"Because He has set his love upon Me, therfore
I will deliever Him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon me,
And I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honour him.
With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation."

Psalm 16:1-7,14-16NKJV

Changing Our/Your Church, from a Church to a Church

They cry but no one sees them.

They scream but its not heard.

They run and no one stops them.

They hide because no one hears them.

They wallow in there pain and slowly slip through the cracks, well we stand idly by, watching it all happen. Instead of helping them out we criticize them.

We have depression issues and instead of showing them Jesus, we either tell them to get over it or put them on pills. I do realize sometimes it is a medical need.

Instead of helping the victims we praise and lift up the victimizer to the point he or she can do no wrong. Pulling our victims down even further to the point they have no hope and no escape.

Thus, leading the way for those behind then to repeat this process again, and again, and again, and we wonder what is wrong with our churches.

We've watched this go on for years, decades and even centuries, yet we still sit here and wonder. What is wrong with our/your church?

The hurting people around us continue to faint and fall and yet we sit idly by and do nothing about it.

To be free from bondage is anybody's dream why then those of us who are free in Christ sit here and do nothing about it...

Where are you men and women of God?

When will we who know the truth stand up for what we believe? And follow God's two greatest commandments.

First to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and Second, to love our neighbor as ourselves or as Christ loved His Church. If I may jog your memory, Christ died for you, so how far are you willing to go for that hurting person in your Church or community?

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22: 36-39NKJV

What if we acted on the benefits of others instead of focusing solely on ourselves?

What would happen if we actually considered loving our neighbor better then ourselves?

We've already proven we can band together to save the needy in a foreign country.

I ask you, can you band together with believers in Christ to rescue your physical Church neighbor (the one who is suffering and hurting) from hell and damnation and show them Jesus Christ?

As Believers in Jesus it is our responsibility to make sure that every hurting and lost soul hears of the Truth of Jesus Christ, the Truth that will set them free from their bondage.

We will never change the world by going to Church in a physical building and having Sunday service.

We will only change the world, once we discover the benefits of courageously standing out and serving our neighbor as the Church of Jesus Christ and that's not in a physical sense.


Are you willing to allow your Church to become not just a physical building but rather a group of worldwide believers who represent Jesus Christ? That's a pretty high calling, because to be a Christian means you walk as Christ did.

Or are we supposed to be nothing more that a group of people represented by a steeple, two by fours, insulation, doors, a few benches, and a name printed on the front of your building.

Some how I don't believe this was Christ's intent when He said "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19NKJV

I believe that if we finally got this figured out it would do number FOR the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

How far are you willing to go, for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Are you willing to stand alone physically, in order to rescue the hurting souls around you?

I ask you, what are you willing to do?

Bad Things-Good People

Why do bad things happen to good people?

I watched as a young boy about the age of twelve stood by the casket that held his father's earthly body. My heart cried as I thought of everything that little boy will miss not being able to go through his teen years or the rest of his life with his father, and I cry in my heart. A twelve year old boy shouldn't have to live without his Dad, yet his dad was gone and there was nothing I or any one of the doctors could do about it.

Later in the week a guy from my former youth group was stabbed for standing up for his faith, when confronted on his stand on homosexuality. A story comes across my Facebook timeline of a little boy suffering from cancer. The orange helicopter flies overhead and you know it can't be good.

And the list could go on of all the bad things that go on in our world today, the wars, the abortion, the sexual abuse, etc!

When you look at all of this it's easy to ask the question, why do bad things happen to good people? I am here today saying; I want to turn that question around why do good things happen to bad people? One could go on what makes a person good or bad? That is a whole topic in and of itself.

But to answer my first question you have to go back to the beginning of the Bible, where everything began. Where did death, destruction, and bad things start? What brought that into the world?

"So the Lord God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." To the Women He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you." Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it'; "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return." Genesis 3;14-19NKJV

Because of Adam and Eve's sin, sin entered the world, they were chased out of the perfect Garden God had created for man-kind to live in and sin, pain, hurt, and the list could go on entered the world. Until Jesus comes back and makes all things new by creating a New Heaven and a New Earth we will continue to have sin, hurt, pain, and all things "bad".

One could still ask, "OK, so you told me where pain all started but what did that do to change any of this?" I know, you have to let me finish.

Job in the Bible believe it or not had the same questions. Job even questioned God asking, Why?

In my mind I imagine God sitting down with Job as a Father does his child (although in this case God spoke out of a whirlwind) wrapping his arms around Job, He goes on to say...

"... “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know or who stretched the line upon it? ... Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. … “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That an abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, And say to you, ‘Here we are!’? Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?" Job 38:1-5,17,18,34-36NKJV

God continues to go on questioning Job... and in the end of it all He goes Job listen to me "Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it."Job 40:2

By this point God has Job's attention and Job is starting to understand... if that is your struggle I pray that you would not only reread the verses that are above but go to the book of Job and discover the rest of the questions that God asked Job.

Job finally answers back to God as a little child knowing that he had done wrong, by questioning God. He says, "Behold I am vile; What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; Yes twice, but I will proceed no further." Job 40:4-5NKJV

Who are we to question the Authority of God, and all powerful Creator, Who is, and was, and is to come? We are simply just humans God has seen fit to place on planet earth.

So Job acknowledged his frailty before an Awesome God and repented heart. God blessed Job for this and He will bless you when you place your full trust and faith in Him. Job 42:17, "So Job died, old and full of days."

May we learn never to question God for what He may bring into our lives but rather understanding that He allows these things to happen to us so that we in turn will place more of our faith, trust, hope, and strength in Him. One of my favourite passages of scripture that became very near to me during a low point in my life was this "Trust in the Lord, with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

God allows these things in our lives so that He can show the fulfillment of His Glory, and His caring heart, His Excellence. Can you imagine with me for a moment that if God never allowed a trial in our lives, how would we know that He is a Provider, a Sustainer, a Comforter, and the list could go on?

God also says in His Holy Word, "In this world, you will have trials but have no worries, for I have overcome the World."

Romans 8:37-39 "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Are you persuaded in your own heart on what God is capable of all doing in your life?

Of Pretty Weeds and a Wounded Heart

My heart maybe has a bigger burden then what I thought it did when I first sat down to write out a little blurb... I guess I really surprise myself sometimes. 

I look across the local Churches and I see hurting people. I go to work and I see hurting people. I sit down and talk with my mom and she shares with me about hurting people that she seen when she was out and about today. 

And my heart cries. Its easy to sit back and ask "why God?" but its also can be easy to sit back and say "Thank-you God for the peace I have in you". We have all been hurt before. It's exactly why forgiveness is apart of our everyday life. 

It's often been said "You hurt the ones who are the closest to you." I look out into my mom's garden and I see weeds, weeds that seemingly pop their heads out of the ground faster then what we can pull them out, but if we left them there they would eventually choke out the plants we are trying to grow and we would have nothing. 

Please do not misinterpret me and say that you need to get rid of anybody in your life that hurts you. OK, I will say there may be a need to take some space, but do not let that become permanent allow reconciliation and forgiveness to take affect. 

Sometimes God allows those weeds to grow in our lives to teach us how to turn them into flowers. And I know all illustrations break down at some point, because that's were this one does. Cause you can't take a plant and change it into another. But instead of simply allowing that hurt/weed to bug you and lock you up emotionally. Allow God to give you that agape love for that individual. Release them, give them to God. "Lord, I can't do this without you. Help me to love them as You would."

The illustration has been used "To Kill A Devil", not literally but show agape love to that individual, its amazing what it will do. Instead of having a hardened person that you fight against you will have a beautiful flower and quite possibly a friend. 

Yes, your heart may be wounded, but it is not forever damaged because God has provided the gift of Salvation that is only available through Him and by It we are saved.

Hallelujah.

What Would Happen

They cry but no one sees them,

They scream but it's not heard,
They run and no one stops them.
Leading the way for those behind them to repeat this process again and again and again.
The hurting people around us continue to faint and yet we don't see them fall.

We do nothing!!!

Where are you godly men and women?

When will we who know the truth, stand up for what we believe?

As Believers in Jesus it is our responsibility to make sure that every lost soul hears of the truth of Jesus Christ and then applies the Truth that will set them free from their bondage. To be free from bondage is anybody's dream, why then those of us who are free in Christ sit here and do nothing about it...

What if we acted on the benefits of others instead of focusing solely on ourselves?

What would happen if we actually took to heart God's Greatest Commandment "To love the Lord will all your heart, all your soul. and all your might, to love your neighbour as yourself."

Think about it...

What would happen?