The priceless gift

   Out of all of the existing precious metals such as platinum, gold, and silver, and of all the expensive things we could acquire like mansions, yachts, and private jets there is one thing that is much more valuable than all of that. This one thing is so limited that we never even know from one day to the next if the supply will suddenly run out. Its price is truly invaluable and this priceless commodity is irreplaceable, yet if you are reading this then you have access to it. Yes, that’s right! You have, right now, in your possession the most crucial, indispensable, priceless thing that there is and that vital resource is Time. Time is something that every living person has and yet it is the one thing that we cannot get back once we use it. Everything else is replaceable, but when your time is up, then you cannot get any more. You cannot buy it, sell it, borrow it or steal it and once yours is gone, you’ll either forever regret or forever be grateful for how you used your time. Even time itself is limited, in that, one day time will exist no more and eternity will begin. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1-9 “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;  A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;  A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?”  As we understand from this passage that we are allotted a space of time with which we do every single thing that there is to be done. We only get so much time, some more than others, and within it we live and die. If you stop and think about how much time that you have already spent, knowing that you only have a limited quantity, then are you really satisfied with what you have done up to this point?  If not then, what would you do differently? The most pressing choice ever is whether or not you are ready for your time to die. If your time were to suddenly end today and you were thrown into eternity, then would you be forever joyful or forever sorrowful for your spent time? No matter how bad your past is, you can be eternally happy! Right now is the time to ready yourself for the end of your time. Not later, now. Right this very second. Are ready to die? If not, then stop reading and make that eternity changing decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. It is very simple, you just have to believe that Jesus, the Son of God, died for all your sins and then He arose from the dead to eternally be that living sacrifice for you. You must confess to Him and repent of your sins and He will come into your heart and change your eternal destination from Hell to Heaven. And no longer will you have to worry about the end of your time.

  So you say “well I have already done that, I am a blood bought child of God.” Then praise the Lord you are on your way to Heaven, but if you are still reading this then you are not there yet! So the question is to every Christian: What are you doing with your most valuable resource? What have you done for God, the one who changed your time here on earth from Hell doomed to Heaven destined? I think some the best advice for us as Christians can be found in this passage by J. Oswald Sanders, he says “It is often helpful to keep records of how each hour in a given week is spent, and then look at the record in the light of scriptural priorities. The results may be shocking. Often the record shows that we have much more time available for Christian service than we imagine. Suppose that we allot ourselves a generous eight hours a day for sleep (few need more than that), three hours for meals and conversation, ten hours for work and travel on five days. Still we have thirty five hours each week to fill. What happens to them? How are they invested? A person’s entire contribution to the kingdom of God may turn on how those hours are used. Certainly those hours determine whether life is commonplace or extraordinary.” It is a very sobering thought, so I am asking you, saint of God, how are using the time you do have for Him? Jesus gave us His all when laid down His life on Calvary and we must commit our all to Him. He wants nothing less than our best! It is “all or nothing” when serving the Lord because we are not going to accidently fall into Heaven. God requires that we be faithful and that we give Him our all, which means our time, our effort, our devotion, our thoughts, our plans, our dreams, our desires, our ambitions, our heart, soul, mind and strength. When we stop and think about our time as a precious commodity, then really there is no better investment than to give it to God. Nowhere else can one get eternal returns, and reward that is out of this world! So I charge each and every one of us, let’s give our time to God today!

Media Free Parenting: A better life!

"Media is not the devil, but they are good friends!" That quote sums up how I feel about all the different types of electronic media in use today (yes even computers, and I do realize the irony). I am speaking from a vast field of experience, I have spend countless hours in front of a screen and I know first hand how it effects the life of all who are addicted to it. Yes, I said addicted. If you spend any considerable amount of time on a computer, watching tv, chained to a gaming system, or any other form of media and think that it is not an addiction then I have a challenge for you. If you think you are not addicted then here is what I challenge you to do, totally abstain from  all media for at least two weeks and see if you can make it, give it up completely and don't even touch it. I'll wait............................................................. couldn't do it could you? Had to see your show, or beat the next level, or whatever, am I right? Then that, my friend is an addiction and that is exactly what we are all doing to ourselves without even realizing it. That is what I was doing to myself and my family and without God's help I would have never been able to quit. I spent many wasted years in front of a screen "being entertained" and worst of all I let my children do the same. But thank the Lord that my household has been changed over the last year, we no longer own a tv, a gaming system, or even dvds (except a few home movies packed away in storage) and the improvement is unbelievable! If you are a parent reading this blog, please please please listen to what I am about to say. Media deprives your children of their childhood. I have personally witnessed a major change in my children's attitude, demeanor, health, character, and spiritual life since we have went "media free". They have been so much more active now that I am always amazed at how much they can fit into a day! They have taken an interest in things I never thought they would have cared about, like playing music. My boys are becoming really good piano players. And the funny thing is, we have had a piano in our house since before they were born and they never touched it, now they argue over whose turn it is to play it. My children are advancing in every other category as well, they are getting better grades in school, which is no surprise since they read books for leisure now. They are more social and their interactions with each other and other children has improved dramatically, now they actually talk through their problems rather than fight through them. Their health has greatly improved, as well as my own. Before we went media free, in the rare occasion that we did go outside to toss a football around, we were all exhausted after 5 minutes and had to come right back in and sit down for hours to recover. Now they can run outside non-stop for hours and I also am progressing in weight loss, just a little more slowly than them :) A very noticeable improvement in their character has taken place since we went media free. They are more caring, honest, hard-working, kind, patient, individuals than they ever were before. But the greatest improvement of all is that their spiritual life has changed completely, as well as my own. We now spend time in prayer and have a time of daily Bible reading and quoting, they are memorizing whole chapters of the Bible! Our time of daily devotions has given me an opportunity to connect with my children on a spiritual level and has allowed me to instruct them in the ways of the Lord just like the Bible tells me to do in Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." These things that I have listed are just some of the many, many changes that my family has went through over the last year or so. As a matter of fact, I am so media free that it has taken me weeks to write this blog because I spend very little time indoors on the computer. So I do not have the actual time to tell you of all the small miracles that we have experienced but, I encourage every to take inventory of your own lives today and see where they are headed. Are you part of a media-bound family that is devoting your life to something that has a such a negative impact and no eternal value? If so, then there is only one thing that you can do to improve you life in all the amazing ways I listed above, and that is to pray. I strongly urge you to pray right now for God to help with this life-wasting addiction, because that is the only way to ever get out. We can not do it on our own, but God is merciful and compassionate and He will help us if we only ask, I know because He did just that for me. Just remember what the apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:13 " I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Nothing is too hard for God!

The Finish Line - what really matters.

There are many times in life when we set goal for ourselves, some we complete and some we don't. It is a great feeling to accomplish an objective that you set for yourself, finishing what you set out to do. Today I have reached a goal that, at times I thought that I would never see the finish line, but though much determination I can now say I am a college graduate, 17 years after graduating high school. I realize that at this time of year this is a commonplace accomplishment and that there are hundreds of thousands of college grads out there right now saying the same thing. But my case was far from typical, in that I had a completely different set of obstacles to overcome, for instance how many grads can say that they went to college full time throughout their undergrad career while running a small business to support their wife and four children all while living 30 miles from campus. It kinda makes the usual roommate and laundry complaints I heard from my fellow students seem trivial, but even all of the situational  difficulties that I had to endure seem like nothing compared to something great that I experienced last spring. Last year I had a life changing experience that caused me to seriously consider dropping out of college, you see when I started working for this degree 4 years ago I was not spiritually where I should be and my motives for going to college in the first place were completely wrong. I started with the very common, but worldly goal of getting a degree to make more money. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about making money and having a good job to support your family. And I still do want a better job to be a better provider for my wife and kids. The difference is that I no longer have the life goal of having a high-paying career that selfishly consumes all of my time and causes me to neglect my family and keeps me away from doing something for God. My whole outlook on life has changed over the last year, and now I realize that serving the Lord is more important than anything else and all that matters on this earth is what you accomplish for Him. We are not going to spend eternity wishing we made more money, had a career, or spent more time at work. All that matters in the grand scheme of things is what are we doing for God, right now. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2 now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation. All that is going to matter in eternity is not what career you had on earth, not what car you drove or how much money you had. There are only 2 things will that matter, where will you spend eternity in Heaven or hell and if you make it to Heaven, how many people did you take with you. These two objectives are my life goals, they are the career that I do not need a degree for, so although I am very grateful that the Lord has helped me to reach this finish line of receiving a bachelor's degree, my true desire is to make it to Heaven someday and I hope that everyone can cross that finish line with me. So if you are reading this and you do not know Jesus as your personal savior then I urge you to please reconsider the direction of your own life and change what finish line you will end up on one day when you die. Please give your heart to the Lord and you will be amazed at the difference He will make in your life, take it from someone who knows first hand, there is no greater goal than being a Christian.

Triple play of happiness

Every individual is made up of three parts, the body, the mind, and the spirit. This is what makes us human and also why we have so many problems in the world today. Most people do not realize this simple fact and in turn, they neglect an important part of themselves. I know this is true because I was guilty of this myself. We go about our daily lives filled with unavoidable traps that are comforting to the body, and spend countless hours occupying our minds with every form of immoral entertainment imaginable, but we do nothing for our spirit. This is why most of the world is miserable and are turning to substances that alter their physical capacity and mental awareness to dull the spirit's cry for attention. I can speak from experience that true happiness is attainable! Anyone on this planet has within them the ability to be truly happy, you just have to follow a simple pattern. Start with improving the spiritual aspect of your being and the other two will immediately fall in line. Most people have it backward, I know I did, they try to please the body with so many things and when that doesn't work they try to occupy or destroy their mind to eliminate the ill effects of living for physical pleasure alone and this pattern only ends in sadness and depression. The physical and mental appetites for pleasure are never filled and they only lead to death and destruction. Without the help of your spiritual side you don't stand a chance. Most everyone knows these facts deep down, but they chose to ignore them or don't fully understand it. Just so we are clear about what I mean when I say physical and mental, unavoidable traps in our daily lives I mean things like lust, alcohol, tobacco, greed, pornography, drugs, mindless entertainment, hate, risky or demeaning behavior, envy, etc. Things that no one really wants to do but they always wind up doing them and then they are filled with regret. I don't think anyone when they are a kid wants to grow up to be a drug addict, a porn star, or an ax murderer, but if you spend your life ignoring your spiritual being, then those things can happen because it is an endless cycle of trying to find more and more new things that please the body and stimulate the mind. All of this can be prevented or stopped and it is not very difficult to do. It is very simple, so pay attention.... the only way to improve your spiritual being, and your whole life, is to pray everyday to God. He will listen to you and help you in unexplainable way. That is it, that is all it takes. Just do this one thing and your whole being, body, mind, and spirit, will be at peace and truly, completely happy and you will be a whole person.