I wont complain this thanksgiving day

I believe that this gospel song is fitting for this Thanksgiving. Don't complain, but thank the Lord for everything He has done for you. He is worthy of all of our praise. God bless you and your families. But don't forget to keep in your prayers today our men and women in the armed services. Keep the homeless in your prayers. Pray for the sick. Pray for those followers in Christ who are suffering for the His names sake.

"I Won't Complain"
By Rev. Paul Jones

I've had some good days
I've had some hills to climb
I've had some weary days
And some sleepless nights

But when I look around
And I think things over
All of my good days
Outweigh my bad days
I won't complain

Sometimes the clouds are low
I can hardly see the road
I ask a question, Lord
Lord, why so much pain?
But he knows what's best for me
Although my weary eyes
They can't see
So I'll just say thank you Lord
I won't complain

The Lord
Has been so good to me
He's been good to me
More than this old world or you could ever be
He's been so good
To me

He dried all of my tears away
Turned my midnights into day
So I'll just say thank you Lord
I've been lied on
But thank you Lord
I've been talked about
But thank you Lord
I've been misunderstood
But thank you Lord
You might be sick
Body reeking with pain
But thank you Lord
The bills are due
Don't know where the money coming from
But thank you Lord
Thank you Lord
Thank you Lord...

ENFORCED SLOWDOWN - By Lee Walters

A special treat for you all. A gentleman I have gotten to know through my church has offered to share his writings on this blog. His name is Lee Walters. He is a retired US Air Force Chaplain. Keep us in your prayers. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Lee Walters.  

Have you ever looked out the window of an airplane at the ground passing under you?  Way down there are roads, cars, buildings, houses and, invisible to you at that height, people.  Have you ever wondered what you were missing?  I mean, you have to be missing a lot.  There are all kinds of things to see and do down there that you will never know anything about because you are soaring way overhead at hundreds of miles an hour.  Life is a lot like that.  We get terribly busy and we start to miss some important things as we fly through our daily routines.   

The 23^rd Psalm contains some of the most familiar, comforting and beautiful words in the Bible.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. ³ He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. ⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. ⁶ Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

In case there is any question about who the shepherd is, in John 10:11 Jesus said, I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  Psalm 22-24 make up a triptych of psalms that belong together.  In Psalm 22 we see the cross of the Savior.  Jesus lays down His life for the sheep.  In Psalm 23 we see the shepherd’s crook as He leads us through this life, leading, guiding and conforming us into His image.  And in Psalm 24 we see the Sovereign King’s crown.  In Psalm 22 He dies; In Psalm 23 He is living and in Psalm 24 He is coming again to reign.   

The 23^rd Psalm is also informative.  The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. This is my favorite picture of my relationship with the Lord: I love Him.  He is my shepherd and I am His sheep.  But, calling me a sheep is not the most complimentary thing that can be said about me.  A modern sheep rancher destroys the myth of sheep being nice, sweet, helpless little animals when he said, “These sheep are stubborn, hardheaded, and pig headed animals. Besides that, they are dirty and filthy.”  That is a picture of the human race.  I apparently need a lot of help from Him for my daily life because my chances of living my life pleasing to Him on my own are zero. 

Now there is an unusual ministry that the shepherd has in our lives.  I call it the ministry of enforced slowdown.  It says; He makes me lie down. It’s like I don’t have enough sense to slow down and smell the roses so I have to be forced to slow down at times.  And where does He force me to lie down?  Not in a bad place; it’s in green pastures.  And He makes you lie down to see some things I could never see when I’m running through or flying over.

Now, the Lord has many means of making us lie down or at least to get us to slow down.  I've experienced a few.  He's got medical brakes that He steps on to slow you down, financial brakes, family brakes; all situations that forces us to stop and give it attention; some circumstance which comes along that forces us to go slower.  Then there is the retirement brake and the old age brake which allows us to go slower from now on.   

When one of these situations hits our lives we tend to grumble and resist every step of the way.  But God has things for us to see that we're missing when we go through life at full throttle.  Maybe we have been missing the person we are married to, and God is saying, “Slow down! Rediscover the treasure I gave you in this person.”  Maybe we’ve been missing the daily drama of our child growing up right before your eyes; days we can never get back.  God is putting on the brakes so we can get to know our son or daughter.  Unfortunately, it seems that a crisis is what brings a family closer to each other.

Possibly you've been missing quality time with the Lord Himself, and God is saying, Be still and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:11)  Retirement has afforded me time to spend with the Lord like I never had before; to get to know Him more intimately.  It is hard to “be busy and know.”  We can be flying right past our Lord day after day.  In the confusion of a busy life our priorities got jumbled.  At the speed we've been traveling, we can't even see the faces of people.  In fact some of us are flying so high and so fast that we can’t even see people.  We can't hear what they're saying. We can't enjoy the journey because we are so obsessed with the destination.  So in His love, the Shepherd has declared a slowdown for me.  I have embraced it! 

If all of a sudden you can't fly like you're used to doing, don’t allow yourself to be frustrated or complain about your situation.  Embrace it!  Thank the Lord for making you lie down so you can see some green pastures that you've been flying right over.

Green pastures and still waters

Psalm 23:1-3   
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Psalm 51:14-17

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,The God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness^. O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.

Psalm 34:18:19

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Proverbs 13:20

He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.

I am so thankful for His teaching and for listening to me. The Lord taught me that I wasn't built upon Him, the rock of my salvation. When adversity came, I folded like an old wallet. On top of that, I added another weight to my load. I was trying to raise money to help the blog out by selling t shirts that advertised the website. When times got hard, I complained. I had forgotten what had worked in the past. What had worked in the past was thanking the Lord and praising Him.

I work at a call center where people call in to make reservations to go to their doctors appointments. Most of those people are seniors. I don't use my computer networking skills. In fact, for the most part, the job is easy. Where I struggle is when the call doesn't go as planned. When the person on the other end isn't "playing nice". I have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. I am a disabled veteran. I am going to describe the best that I can what it feels like when I have an episode.

So needless to say, I don't deal with stress very well. To make matters worse is that when I am having an episode, I get a little louder, I feel frustrated, and I get a bad attitude. What also didn't help me was my management telling em to "tone it down" and to calm down. After the episode I feel guilt and shame. This time though,it laid very heavy on me. Like never before. I came home defeated and I wept. I never asked for this. I hate it. I hate what it does to me and I hate what it makes me do to other people. If putting up with me is bad, try being the one having to go through this horrible experience.

But the Lord was going to use this to build me up and make me stronger. Thank you Lord for being so faithful and true! He sent me reinforcements. I remember coming home and locking myself in the bathroom for a while. I wept and prayed. I had never felt this down after an episode. The Lord is the best listener because He let me come before Him and the throne of grace to cry, complain and tell Him how I felt. Now when I look back, I see how the Lord began to work. I came out of the bathroom and my wife listened to me. She didn't judge me, she listened to me. That's all I needed. Then when I was done, she hugged me, gave me a kiss and told me that everything would be alright. I didn't believe it then, but the Lord was going to make me a believer.

The Lord began to mobilize other believers to comfort me. Prayers began to go up on my behalf prayed by others who have faith in the Lord. I recall one brother made a video on YouTube and shared it with me on YouTube. I only know this person via Facebook. I saw him in person once after a worship session last month. His words were encouraging and made me think about what I was doing. I wasn't fighting back with the truth. I wasn't picking up my sword and my shield to protect me from the fiery darts of the enemy. I had put down my helmet and let the enemy wound me mentally. In his message he told me to praise the Lord. To pray in the spirit. I did that. I was on my last break and I put in my headphones and I listened to one of my favorite gospel songs "Touch me Lord Jesus" by Margret Allison. With tears in my eyes and my heart low, I praised the Lord. It was hard to do. I would be lying if I said it is easy.

The whole time I was down, I was not alone. The Lord was with me. He also brought in wise people around me to comfort me and speak the Truth into me.  After all that occurred, some of my friends have become brothers and sisters because they are born out of adversity. One brother that has always had my back showed me love and encouraged me. The one thing that stood out to me the most was this following quote "Thanks Nick for being who you are: a broken sinful man, redeemed by the grace of God, and not afraid to boast His name publicly! Love you man!" I had forgot whom I belonged to and the words the Lord used for him to tell me uplifted me. I looked in the mirror and I remembered that, yes, I am a broken and sinful man who has been redeemed by the grace of God. Even in my brokenness and in my failure my brother still loved me and my God still loves me too. More then I can comprehend and understand. 

Then came Sunday. At my church we had a thanksgiving pancake breakfast. I was still feeling all crummy inside. As I stood in line, it seemed like everybody wanted to get by and cutting right where I was standing. I felt like I was in the way. WHY ME?! Why do these people HAVE TO pass through right by me. I want to be left alone and enjoy these pancakes. Everything was getting on my nerves that morning. The pancakes were great and I sat with my family and a nice lady and her son whom is a friend to me and my family. After breakfast, those who stayed for the service, went to the worship center. It was an open mic to allow the congregation share what they were thankful for. Story after story, the pride, the ego, and the anger began to melt away. I had it so good and others who have it worse still manage to give thanks and worship God. Thank you Lord for humbling me. 

But there was still one sting that had not been tied up yet. My PTSD. After service was done, one of my sisters came to talk to me and my wife. She had spent 20 years in the US Army and was also diagnosed with PTSD. I didn't know that the Lord was about to use my sister. She encouraged me. Reassured me. She shared her story. There was something that stuck with me. A couple things actually. PTSD are just initials and the Lord has over the world. Including PTSD. This mental illness will be for my good and His glory. It is my cross to carry and my calling. She told em that she knows that the Lord is building me up and through my experiences I will be able to comfort people as well. She told me when I feel down to pick up my bible and read it. It didn't matter what I read because it is Gods word and it is all the truth. The truth will set you free. The Word is truth and with it we fight against the enemy. I was advised to pray more, to pray with my wife, to fast and to praise God more often. I was told to memorize a verse and use it when I am down. The last thing that stuck with me was, whenever anyone asks me "How are you doing?" I should reply "God is good." Because even when I am down and out, God is still good.

In regards to the t shirt sales for the blog, 4 were only sold. I bought those 4. The Lord knew my intentions and my heart, and perhaps it wasn't in line with His will. I believe He has something better in store for me and this blog. I prayed and I left it up to Him for the results. He did answer. It was a No. But that is okay because He knows what is best for me, what is best for this blog and what is best for the readers of this blog. We have to trust in His timing, His will and His wisdom. The bible says that we have to know everything or have everything figured out, it just says to trust Him.

I don't want anything else. He made me lay in green pastures by still waters. The Lord has restored my soul and He lead me back to the path of righteous for His sake. I have learned how to sing and praise the Lord. When I offered my broken and contrite heart to the Lord, He didn't despise it. The Lord was close to me when I was down and out. But He delivered me from my afflictions, all of them! The Lord surrounded me by wise people because He did not want to me to be lead into destruction. See! He is so faithful and true. In Revelation 19:11 it says "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True..." The one on that white horse is the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, HE is Faithful and True.

Go hard or dont go at all

Act 20:24 - But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

 Isaiah 40:28-31- Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary.His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

 "Just because I believe in God, just because I have faith in God, it doesn't mean that I'm immune. It doesn't mean that I'm immortal" - Ayrton Senna

Have you ever thought about quitting? I thought about quitting this past week. I wanted to quit going after my dream. I wanted to stop but God has other plans. Instead the Lord is showing me how He is powerful and He can use anybody He wishes for His purpose and for His glory. 

The other night I stayed up late and watched a documentary about formula race car legend Ayrton Senna. I had it on my Netflix playlist for a couple of months. I was bored so I finally watched it. I had put it off because I knew my wife wouldn't want to see the movie. So I had my chance and I was not prepared for what the Lord had in store.

See, Mr. Senna was a devout believer in our Lord. The Lord made way for this man. I could see God's handiwork in his life. The story was as if it came out of the bible. Even Senna's death had God written all over it. According to his sister Viviane, Senna had sought strength from the Bible on the morning of his death after the events of the race weekend: "On that final morning, he woke and opened his bible and read a text that he would receive the greatest gift of all, which was God himself." Later he died on the race track after hitting a concrete barrier at 145 miles per hour. After his death the FIA improved race track conditions, improved race car safety and for the time being, he has been the last death in F1 racing since Senna's death in 1994. One of the paramedics was interviewed and said that he himself was not religious but when Senna gave up his last breath, it was as if he could see his spirit leave his body. On the head stone of Ayrton Senna it reads "NOTHING CAN SEPARATE FROM THE LOVE OF GOD".  Amen to that.  I was in tears. God wasn't done though.

Sunday came and before the pastor read his sermon to us, one of the elders from the church got up on stage and talked about a member of our church who is very ill. The man was born with down syndrome. He was not expected to live past 12 years of age. But God had other plans. His name is Billy Ballard and he is now 53 years old. I had seen the man before around church. He is so kind. Always smiling.  I met his mother and she use to be a Sunday school teacher at the church I attend. She was very short and would talk about how the kids she use to teach are so much taller than her now. I would often see him walk his mom their vehicle and help her in. It is so wonderful to see that nowadays. Sad to say that it's a rare sight to see. It was a blessing to watch Billy love on people. Well Billy is sick and only the Lord knows if Billy will live longer here or the Lord will call him home with Him. But the elder shared stories how Billy didn't let his circumstances stop him from serving the Lord. I admire his servants heart and his love for the Lord. I am blown away how God could even use Billy Ballard's life to be a testimony of our Lord Jesus. In tears I thanked the Lord for what He showed me.

Whatever was left of pride and control I had was done away with. I was humbled because I was trying to do what only God can do. God could use a hot shot race car driver to make His name known and His agenda happen. A man who was young and healthy,  died young. But then on the other hand you have a man who was odds were against him but God strengthen him. God has plans for Billy and Billy's circumstances were not gong to stop God from using Him. The one who wasn't suppose to live very long, has lived half of a century. I believe that both of these men are equals. How? They both were used by God as a vessel. No matter how big or small the task, we are called to be faithful with what we have been given.I believe they both went after the Lord hard. 

I am very sure there many times in both of there life's they wanted to quit. But they didn't and found their strength in the Lord. I wanted to quit writing and sharing my faith online. I want to make this blog bigger, better and nicer. But it's not about what I want. I have been called to be faithful with what I have. No matter if the Lord would want to set a table in front of my enemies on a large scale or if it's writing on my blog and only a few people read it. Well it was worth it. If one person gets saved because of the writings in this blog, it was all worth it. I am guaranteed that Gods word will go out and not come back empty.  I do not labor in vain. 

I learned I have to go hard after Jesus or don't go at all. That is the bottom line. I know that I am not guaranteed an easy life and I will struggle. But I do not struggle alone because the Lord is always with me. Says so in the Bible and I believe that it is God's word. He is the one called faithful and true. He sure lives up to that and much more. I am learning to release more control to God and learning to trust Him. I have been told many times that I should be careful what I pray for because God might give it to me. Well, I asked to be more like Him and I believe my prayers are being answered. Yea I suffer and I fail but it will all be worth it when I come face to face with my Savior. Oh I long to hear Him tell me that I am good and faithful servant and that I can enter His joy.

The Lord wants somebody to know that you shouldn't give up. If you have fallen down, get back up. If you have sinned, repent and ask the Lord for forgiveness.  He is faithful and just to forgive the sins we confess to Him. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, expect sin. That is good news! I have failed so many times. But here I am, still going for it. God is still rooting for us when we fall. Get up and dust yourself off and keep going. All the struggles will be worth it at the end. God promised and all of Gods promises are YES and AMEN through His son. The finish line is in heaven and our exceedingly great reward awaits for us there and we will have Him always.

Go hard or don't go at all. Being called "hardcore" or being a "radical" believer in Jesus is suppose to be the norm. But we think that being that way is weird and uncomfortable. The bible says that the Lord will spit out the lukewarm because they are neither hot or cold. Go after Jesus or don't do it at all. If you go for Him it is guaranteed you will fail many times. You will fall. But God says GET UP AND KEEP GOING. All the struggles and pain will be worth it. His grace is sufficient.

Update: Billy Ballard went to be with the Lord on July 30,2016. 

Give them nothing! But take from them everything!

When your in the army of the Lord, you got action everyday. The battle goes on day and night. When the fight comes to you, you must be ready to fight! Fight with the sword of the spirit (the bible) and protect yourself with the shield of faith. Faith is having trust in Gods love, power, promises and timing. The helmet of salvation, the breast plate of righteous, the belt of truth and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Ephesians 6:18 - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Our fight is spiritual, not physical. To those who don't believe,they think we are crazy, But they are the ones who are foolish because they don't know the truth. Our job is to let everyone know the truth. Its up to the Lord and them if they will believe or not.