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No More Monsters

October 10, 2009

That’s right, you heard, well read correctly…NO MORE MONSTERS!

When I was a young child, I would, at times, have dreams that I was being attacked and being shaken by various monsters in various forms.

Sure I knew it was just a dream and I knew dreams could not hurt me, but at 6, 7, 8 years of age, I was still scared.

As soon as I would wake up, I would immediately turn on my bedroom light and sit on the edge of the bed hoping my dad would eventually see my light on, and he always did.

Dad would always ask me what was wrong and I would tell him about the monsters and he would gently, lovingly remind me that they were not real and could not hurt me, but he would also invite me to grab my sleeping bag and sleep the rest of the night on his floor, which I always did.

The remainder of the night was always pleasant because I knew that my daddy was there to watch over me and protect me.

A couple of weeks ago I had this exact same dream and despite being much older and wiser now, the dream still rattled me; but this time my dad appeared to me and told me to be strong and courageous for the monsters were not real and could not hurt me.

It was a beautiful piece to a long overdue moment.  My dad looked great.  He was young and strong and could walk without any problems and his mind was sharper than ever before….

As much as I know how much my earthly dad was there for me and encouraged me and supported me; I know that my Heavenly Dad is there for me all the more and God is saying to His people daily that the monsters are not real and they can not hurt you.

365 times in His word God says “Do Not Fear.”

Fear is simply False Evidence Appearing Real and it is from satan, not from God and we all know satan is an idiot, so don’t give in to it.  Be strong and courageous in the Lord God Almighty for we have the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ!

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Happy Thoughts

September 25, 2009

Jesus loves you.

Jesus died for you.

Jesus rose for you.

Jesus is coming back for you.

Nothing like the simple truth of the gospel.  If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, then something is wrong!

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It’s Simple, Trust God!

September 25, 2009

When we trust God, we let Him lead us.
When we trust God, we believe He wants the best for us.
When we trust God, we will not be tempted to go astray.
When we trust God, fear and doubt have no place in us.
When we trust God, our troubles and worries fade away.
When we trust God, joy, happiness, and contentment belong to us.
When we trust God, we praise and worship Him freely.
When we trust God, we feel His wondrous grace, mercy, and love toward us, and so much more.

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A Daily Prayer (Reminder)

September 25, 2009

God,

Thank you for being a God who is in control and who has no limits.

Thank you for being a God who calls people out of darkness and into light.

Thank you for the calling you have placed on my life and enable me to do it with passion, enthusiasm, excitement and excellence for your glory, honor and praise.

May I not just be a fan of Jesus but a follower.

Give me the courage to show the love of Jesus to all I will meet today and everyday.

Let everything I do and am be for your glory and yours alone.

Help my family to not just be raised in the church but to be raised in Christ.

Help me to follow you, knowing that where you lead is where I seek to be.

Help my family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues and everyone I encounter to not just know about you but to know you.

I know that I am loved and valued by you and for this I love you.

In the name of my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ I pray,

AMEN!

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Warning!!!!

September 25, 2009

Beware of people who are always finding fault with the leadership of the church and the church itself, for they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Their heart is rebellious & their fruit is pride and dishonor. They seek to destroy people, t…he church & even the faith while lifting up themselves and their “cause”. They are bitter against leaders and long for control. Watch out for them for they claim to love God.

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In Memoriam

September 18, 2009

September 19 marks the one year anniversary of my Dad’s homegoing.  While I do miss my dad; I rejoice greatly that he has spent the past year in Heaven with his Lord & Savior.  My Dad’s love for the Lord was very evident in the way he chose to live his life.  If you knew my Dad, you know he coined a lot of phrases in his 78 years, but my two favorite are “God is the best friend I’ve ever had” and “Don’t ever be afraid to pray.”

This is a tribute video which my wife and I put together to honor my dad.  I am so very thankful for the life my dad led and the Godly example he was to those around him.

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The Weight Loss Journey Begins With The First Step

September 15, 2009

Are you ready?  You’ve tried before, but it just hasn’t happened.  Let’s admit it, losing weight is tough work!  But I promise you, it’s worth it.

When I lived in Florida between June 2002 and May 2003 I lost about 100 pounds and I felt amazing.  The weight loss did not come from any diet, nor did I exercise myself to death.

It was then that I first began my own plan for lifestyle change and over the next few years worked to shape the plan into something that could benefit anyone.

The wisdom and knowledge comes first from Almighty God, then from my own experiences and also from talking and consulting personally with some of the top weight loss doctors and surgeons in the world.

Don’t waste another dime on a diet or fad.  If you want to lose weight and keep it off, then I have just what you need.  The results are completely up to you.

As I write these blogs I am also striving to live out my own weight loss, life changing goals.  I know it will take time and I know it will be hard work, very hard work.  It won’t be easy but it WILL be worth it.

This is no magic cure and laziness has no place in this plan. Absolutely anyone can do this regardless of age, weight, height or anything else.

Let’s begin…

The first thing you need is to be willing to make a lifestyle change.  Don’t try to lose weight because someone told you to.  Desire to lose weight for yourself and NOT for anyone else.

It has to be a desire within your heart to better your health.

A lot of you won’t like this, but you are going to have to give up just about all of your fast food.  Too many people make excuses and say that they are too busy but let’s just drop the pretense.  Fast food is all about convenience and nothing else.

When we lived in the Canton area it was so easy to choose to be lazy and just go for fast food for dinner.  Now we live in an area, where if we want anything besides Subway it’s about a 15 mile drive.  That helps a lot!

McDonalds is the absolute worst fast food you can put in your body.  Seriously!  Do not eat McDeath and do NOT feed it to your children.

If you seriously feel the need to eat fast food, I recommend Subway and Wendy’s.  But you have to be willing to watch what you get and also how much.

Last year in the nursing home, I learned that it is not always what we eat, but how much we eat.

Avoid red meat as much as you can.  Focus your meat on chicken, turkey, fish, and in limited quantities pork.

Avoid white bread.  When you shop for bread to have at home buy Brownberry Bread.  Sure it’s a little more expensive but it’s so good and so good for you.

Two items that I have found especially useful in forming healthier eating habits and in losing weight are lots of protein and lots of fiber.

Learn to read labels and buy foods high in fiber.  Greater than 2 grams per serving.

I know it’s a lot of information to take in but that’s the benefit of it being posted on my blog for free.  You can come back anytime you like and review the recommendations.

Also if you have questions, ask, ask ask.

People who try to lose weight by starving themselves are ultimately doing more harm than good to their bodies.  First of all doing this risks muscle and cell damage, NOT GOOD!

But also what happens when you starve yourself is your body will be less willing to burn fat and more willing to store carbs and sugars which promote weight gain faster than anything else.

When a person who tries starving themselves eats, the bodies internal central processor recognizes food, remembers that it was deprived and will hold on to more of what the person does eat.  Not only will this cause digestive issues, but almost double the weight gain in the long run.

There are ZERO documented cases where a person used this method and lost weight for the long term that they did not regain.

I highly recommend that you purchase (and take daily) a QUALITY multi-vitamin.  If you have health insurance, particularly a pharmacy benefit, ask your doctor to write you for a prescription vitamin.  If not, avoid generics and buy a quality vitamin like Centrum or some of the various other name brand vitamins available over the counter.

Be accountable to someone, first God, but also to a close friend or family member.  This is a journey which many of us are on and together we are stronger to meet the challenges before us than we are alone.

Please feel free to share your success and your struggles with me.

Time to give up the sweets.  I know, Christmas is coming but again drop the pretense.  Schedule a small sweet snack at some point in the day and stick to it.  This gives you something to look forward to without over doing it.

Remember, just because someone puts food in front of you or because you have it in your house does not mean you have to eat non-stop.

Learn to say “no thank you” and learn to walk away from food.  If you go out to eat avoid buffets.  Ask for a “diet” or senior portion.

Smaller portions are better.

Sadly McDeath, I mean McDonalds spent years conditioning our society to super size everything and we need to work to change that thinking so that we all eat normal, healthy portions.

Don’t eat within 3 hours before bed and even that is pushing it.  Don’t sit around and snack all day or all evening either.

If you feel you must have a snack, put a small portion in a small bowl and when it’s gone, that’s it.

Eating less is not only good for your health, it’s good for your finances.

I’ve been there, I am there, I know.  But we CAN do this.

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So You Think You Can Lose Weight

September 14, 2009

I encounter a vast majority of people in life who desire to lose weight.  When you ask most of them why, they respond, “because I’m too fat.”

I’ll be honest and completely real with you, that is the wrong reason to want to lose weight.

One good reason to lose weight is to be healthy and fit or to avoid future health problems, or to decrease present health problems.

Losing enough weight in a healthy fashion can reduce or completely take away diabetes.  It will help your heart and lungs and your entire circulation.  It will bring high blood pressure down and even lower heart rates.

Losing weight has many benefits including reversing sleep apnea and even just feeling good.

Perhaps the best reason to lose weigh, to honor God.

I’m a very direct person and let’s face it, diets do NOT work.  I mean, come on, the word “die” is already in there.  All diets fail and all diets produce little to no permanent weight loss and they also do not promote proper health.

Starving yourself is an awful idea as well and while you may lose weight initially, there are no real long term benefits to starving oneself and you can actually cause yourself to gain weight this way.

For the first time ever, someone, being me, is going to share with you keys to permanent weight loss and guess what?  You don’t have to join a group, you don’t have to pay any money, all you have to do is follow the simple steps I give you and you WILL lose weight.

One of the first keys to weight loss is patience.  That’s right!  You have to be willing to understand and accept that you did not put the weight on overnight and you will not lose it overnight.

You MUST be patient for the process to really work.

It will get frustrating, you will feel hungry, but it will also pass and you will lose the weight.

You have to start with a goal that is obtainable.  For example.  My long term personal weight loss goal is 86 pounds.  But if I go around saying that I need to lose 86 pounds it will never happen.

Too many people waste too much time trying to convince themselves they have to lose “X” amount of weight.  The key to taking it off and keeping it off is to do so one pound at a time for each journey begins with just the first step.

From there, the next step and the next.

So in the short term, my goal is to lose 3 pounds, which is a very attainable goal.

As I’ve said, you will feel hungry, but if you can make it through the first 10 days to two weeks of a lifestyle change, your stomach will begin to shrink and you will feel less hungry.

The key to it all is understanding and knowing that losing weight MUST be a lifestyle change.

We need to stop poor eating habits, we need to stop poor eating choices.

You can pay lots of money for Jenny Craig or for a gym membership you may use once or twice.  You can watch The Biggest Loser on NBC while stuff your face with ho hos and twinkies or you can make a positive, proactive choice to get healthy and stay healthy.

Stop calling yourself fat, stop the negativity.  Anyone can be negative and put themselves down, but it takes a person with real moral fiber to be positive and be willing to make a positive change.

Are you ready for a lifestyle change that will completely change your life and your health for the better?  If so, let’s begin.

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Life Is Blessed!

September 10, 2009

Where does the time go?  First let me say congratulations to my great niece Ashlee on the birth of her first child, a son, Cayden Patrick was born yesterday.  This makes me feel slightly older though because Cayden causes me to become a great, great uncle for the first time, but my sister has to love becoming a great grandma!

Congratulations are also in order to my nephew Trevor, the south-paw starting quarterback who has led his team to an early 2-0 start in the 2009 football season.  Trevor possesses the tools and skills to be a great leader on and off the football field.

My niece Mackenzie will be performing with the Varisty cheerleaders at Homecoming this year.  Mackenzie is only in elementary school but is fast becoming recognized for her cheer & dance skills and talents.

While I do not yet have any children of my own, I am extremely blessed by God with wonderful nieces & nephews, great nieces and nephews and a new great, great nephew.

Summer seems to have went by so quickly this year and I am not sure if the move has had anything to do with it or not but we’ve been in Richwood for 42 days now and loving every minute of it.

God has blessed us with an amazing church family and with a great leadership and I am so thankful and blessed of God to be entrusted with the Spiritual care of this congregation.

This life, as a pastor is my calling and my passion.  It’s not a job to me, not in the least.  Being a pastor is a life and calling that I live out 24/7/365.

It’s a tremendous blessing, honor and privilege to be called by God to such a life.

I am a blessed man and I owe it all to my Heavenly Dad!

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My Desire

August 20, 2009

“This is my desire, this is my return; this is my desire; to be used by you”

~Jeremy Camp

I am so thankful to Almighty God for placing in me the fire, desire and drive to not only answer, but to follow the call He has placed placed on my life and birthed in my heart through the Holy Spirit.

I am so blessed beyond words to live out this life as a pastor.  I become so excited when talking about my passion for ministry and building relationships and seeing other people come to Christ.

There is this fire that just burns within me as the excitement builds to share Christ with people and to share what God has done in my life and to listen and hear what God has done and is doing in the lives of others.

I want to hear your story.  I want to hear your testimony.  I want to hear how God has used and is using you; and I want to hear about your passion for what God has called you to do in your life.

I serve THE great, almighty and awesome, one, true, living God who is full of love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and grace and I am so humbled by the fact that God uses me to preach and lead and minister and equip and build relationships.

I believe with all my heart that ministry is relationships and we need to spend time with one another building relationships and reaching out to others with the good news of Jesus Christ.

When I look back on the past 14 years of ministry and life it’s been an amazing, wild ride, full of ups and downs but through it all the one constant has been my Heavenly Dad and His love and desire for me as His child. Praise God.

It is my desire to live for God, to serve Him with gladness and to share His goodness, love and forgiveness with everyone I encounter.

If there is one thing I am most passionate about, it is serving my Savior and my God!