So I have decided to get back to writing on this blog again. I don't even know who reads this and I am not sure that my family even does. but I am going to use it for motivation to keep pressing into the things that I love to do: Family, living for Jesus, running and now going back to college. Yes my wife and I have decided to take the plunge back into the education world and go back to school to attain our teaching degrees. She is going for a degree in Math and I am going to go for the challenging subject of English with working towards finishing up with a masters in school administration. What a challenge this is with a full time job, 4 active kids and a busy life in the community. We have made it through our first class and have completed it successfully and moving on to our next class. I like the format of the school and how they lay out the classes. We take one class every 60 days and then move to the next class. I only have to focus on the one class instead of 2 or 3 classes and trying to juggle those at the same time. I believe that this is very attainable and the way that time flies by now a days, it should not take anytime at all to get that diploma.

I have really been thinking about the POWER OF THE CROSS lately and where it is in my life. I have come to realize that I really do not walk in the POWER OF THE CROSS like I should. Why do I say that, because I still make mistakes and there are battles that I have not won the victory over yet. These battles come daily and it is easy to walk in self pity than to walk in the POWER OF THE CROSS. Paul said that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who perish but unto us which are saved it is the power of God (I Cor. 1:18). That Power is something that we should walk in not just pull out of the air when we need it. There is great victory when we walk in the POWER OF THE CROSS daily. The Cross brings us deliverance from addictions and brings us to Salvation, but it also brings us health, prosperity, right relationships, and much much more. The POWER OF THE CROSS should be evident in our lives daily as we live and walk with GOD. Please take a moment and find the foot of the cross today and let God reveal Himself to you in a more real way than ever before so that you can walk in victory.

Today I will switch gears a little and I want to talk about what God is dealing with me in my life. First you have to know that I am a person that constantly worries about situations or events and it is so that I can make myself sick in doing this. I lose sleep and my mind just races when there is a situation that I know could be confrontation (but for some reason I don't lose my apatite...lol). But here lately God has been showing me the scripture that says cast all your cares on me and He is teaching me that He is bigger than any circumstance that might come my way. God cares about the things that we go through but more important than that He wants to go through these things with us. He will not leave us by ourselves. God really has shown up in this area in my life and He has already started hearing my prayers and intervening in my life and the situations that have come up. God is do faithful and He is a great God. I have learned to walk in His presence more and more and to depend on His strength and not just my own. I am a person that when there is a problem or a circumstance that I want to be the first to fix it, but I am quickly learning that I am nothing without Him. He is my everything and He wants to be my everything. I just have to be willing to allow Him to be everything and allow him to be in control. The great characteristic about God is that He is Lord over all. He is Lord even if we do not want Him to be Lord of our lives. If you have not given God the Lordship that He deserves then I encourage you to do so today. He wants that relationship with you and He wants to bless your life in every way.

Hello again, Well my Sunday School class was great. There were 20 couples and we talked about Commitment. It was really a great time and I feel that the couples received it well. I will also say that while studying this topic I learned a few things myself. Commitment is not just for when everything is peaches and whipped cream. Commitment is through everything (the good, the bad, and the ugly). The commitment is not just a commitment between the Husband and the wife but it is a covenant that is made between you and God. We talked about all these things and I felt really good that I could be used by God to impart into people's lives. I give God all the glory for this. Our next class we will still be covering the commitment and what it actually looks like in a relationship. Let me start off by saying that with this past lesson and this next lesson it is not easy to speak because it requires death to the flesh. What does commitment look like in the marriage? Well let me start off by saying that it looks like flesh being burnt at the alter daily and each one willing to lay down their life for the other one. Commitment looks like one making a sacrifice for the other, taking responsibility for the marriage, for the children, for the home and for the mistakes that might be made by one. In everything that we do as a married couple we need to realize that our spouse comes before us. To live selfless towards them. I might have to put off something that I want or want to do so that my spouse can do what they need to do. If you are not ready to make a commitment then you are not ready to be married for long term, which is really how the world lives. The world treats marriage like taking a car for a test drive. If I do not like it I will just get another one. MAKE ME SICK. Now the world has such a crooked picture of a marriage that it is accepting the marriage between the same gender. Our marriage should mirror the marriage of Christ and the Church. The constant dying of self and giving of yourself for one another. Selfish living is wrong living. look at Christ, He never lived for himself but rather for the people that he served and broke bread with. Are we ready for that type of COMMITMENT?

The married life

Let's talk about married life and what a commitment that it is. This month at our church for the next three Sundays my wife and I will be teaching a Sunday School class to young married couples that have been married five years or less. The main theme for this class this year is commitment. That is a very big word and I really think that we have lost what it means to be committed to someone in HOLY MATRIMONY. Could it be that we believe that we see a commitment as a contract that can be broken because we don't feel like being in a relationship anymore or because our feelings got hurt. God made a covenant with Abraham in the Bible that he would be the Father of many nations and that the blessings would fall on him. God did not go back on His word but He fulfilled it and keep His promises no matter what Abraham did wrong or the mistakes that he made. God knew the heart of Abraham and He was willing to put His promises on the line for that man. We need to look at a commitment as a covenant (not a contract) that we make because God has lead us to that place and because we want to glorify God in all that we do. A contract can be easily broken without much of a consequence but when you break a covenant that you have made between you and God to be in a marriage with this person then you have major consequences to suffer for that. The married life has never been easy when it is done right. It takes a sacrifice on the part of both parties and most people are too selfish to make those sacrifices in their lives for the people that they marry. God does not make mistakes by putting people together and we hear it said all the time that God put this person in my life but when life gets tough we feel that God changed His mind on who we should be with or should not be with. The only way for a marriage to glorify God is for HIM to be the center of the marriage and all your trust and love are to Him and Him alone.

Hello All, I would like to write something in regards to the shooting at the elementary school last week in Connecticut. This was a horrifying act from an individual that made some very wrong decisions. Obviously there was something wrong in his life and we could set and speculate all day what that was but the truth is that he lacked having the presence of God in his life. None of these people deserved to die the way that they did, parents lost children, husbands lost wives, wives lost husbands and children lost parents. Was this God's plan for these people? Was this suppose to happen? Let me say this about that, when you live outside of God's presence anything can happen. Bad things happen outside the presence of God. God's will is perfect, good and acceptable when we live in it. God's will is for none to perish and fall short of His glory but there are so many that are falling short. We need to fall on our knees like never before and pray for this nation. I am praying that this attack will open the eyes of the leaders of this great land and prompt them to turn their hearts back to the First Love of their lives, Jesus. We all have the same opportunities in this life and we will make of our selves what we want to, whether good or evil. Pray that good prevails and walk in God's grace that He has given you.

it's all new

Well this weekend and most of Monday and Tuesday we have been moving into our new house. It is a beuatiful brand new house and everythign smells new. There is new carpet, paint on the walls, cabinets, and tile>

Monday night was the first night sleeping in the house and it was nice. The kids played video games as Tara and I went to bed exhausted from moving and unpacking. But we all slept well and got up this morning to bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast.

This week our nephew is staying with us and I told him that we appreciated him coming to help us move, he did not find that too funny. It has been hard keeping my kids motivated to help with the move since they would rather play with Caden(our Nephew. But they have done good.

The unpacking will never end. I think that we will have to get rid of some things.