true beauty

This post is not only for wives but also for husbands. 

Wives are to submit to their husbands. 

Husbands, you cannot take your wives for granted.

"Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see purity and reverence of your lives." (1 Peter 3:1-2)

I am not married yet...I am almost exactly two months away, but this verse is so true of my fiancé. 

It's been a bit of a difficult week with work stress and also finding out Rach and I both have to quarantine again. I remember on Tuesday morning, I was pretty bummed out. For me to not be in great mood means that I am defiantly stressing out about something. Tuesday morning, Rach told me that I needed to listen to some worship music in the mornings to get me feeling good and excited for the day. She told me how she was tempted to listen to other music but just felt like she needed to stick to the worship music. 

A couple days go past, and this afternoon as I sat down and started reading I turned on worship music and all the negative thoughts and feelings I had just disappeared. 

I didn't take action on what Rach said right away, but it stuck in my head.

Rach's words were not what made me feel better, her actions and the way she was living inspired me to take action that brought about change.

For all my friends who are husbands, pay attention to your wife and the way she carries herself. It's worth more than any words I could ever write. 

A changed life speaks loudly and clearly, and it is often the most effective way to influence a family member. In this scripture, Peter instructs Christian women to develop inner beauty rather than being overly concerned about their outward appearance. 

Husbands will be won over by their love. 

True beauty begins inside.

foundation of freedom

How do we reach out highest potential? 

That is pretty prominent question that millions of people ask themselves on a daily basis. Everyone wants to know what they're absolute maximum potential is. 

As Christians, Christ uses a different tool to help as reach our potential...

"Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God's salves." (1 Peter 2:16)

Christians use freedom as a tool for a life of exuberant service. It's the foundation that God gives us to reach our highest potential. 

Because God gives us freedom from religious rules and eternal guilt, we must not seek to indulge our own desires; instead we should reach for the bet God has for us. We need to let our freedom sing of power, joy, and love - accountable to God, devoted to others. 

Do you ever wonder why it seems like we have so much freedom as believers? It's because God freely gives us the ability to reach out highest potential. If we had rules and regulations we had to follow as believers, nobody would reach their highest potential. What's attractive about rules we have to follow? Absolutely nothing. What's attractive about freedom? Absolutely everything. 

eight years

Ed Mylett has quickly become my favorite people when it comes to strategizing how to become an elite performer and maxing out your life. I had never heard of Ed until a couple months ago when I really started listening to his podcasts. 

I enjoyed his podcasts so much that I recently bought his book and just started reading it. What I read last night put into perspective just how short life really is. This evening, that is what I want to share with you. Ed's words, not mine. 

The average lifespan of a person is seventy-eight years. Of those years, twenty-eight will be spent sleeping, and seven of those sleeping years are spend lying awake at night with worry. Factor in the average elven years watching television or surfing the internet, ten and a half years working, four years of driving, the years spent eating, getting dressed, and doing mundane tasks, and it leaves you with approximately eight years to life your life. If you were told right now that you had only eight years left in this life, what would that do to your sense of urgency? How deep would your gratitude for each moment become? - Ed Mylett

How crazy is that? I hope this hits you pretty hard tonight almost like a wake-up call. Life is short. Let's max out every minute we have. 

frontwards prayer

If I took a step back and completely reevaluated my life - one of the first things that I would need to fix is prayer. Right now and for the past couple months, I have viewed prayer completely backwards. Prayer was almost like the last resort for me, and I am sure that some of you may have felt this way before. To me, I feel like I get results when I am constantly doing something, like reading or writing. Prayer was what I did last. If I wasn't getting fulfillment, I would start to pray and ask God for it. 

As it turns out, we need to have a frontwards view when it comes to prayer. It should be the the first thing we do, because it's direct communication with God. 

When I finished my run this morning, I usually use that time to thank God for all of the things that I am thankful for. Today that felt a little different. I still thanked God for all the wonderful blessings in my life but I felt like God was telling me that I need to do this more. That I need God and that I need to directly communicate with him more than once a day.

How I felt this morning wasn't just a casual feeling that I should do something more...it was like God grabbed my shoulders, looked me in my eyes and told me that I need him. More than anything else. 

I will tell you what, that got my attention. 

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." (James 5:16-18)

Like I mentioned above, the Christian's most powerful resource is communication with God through prayer. The results are often greater than we thought were possible. 

Some people see prayer as a last resort to be tried when all else fails, just like how I was doing. This approach is backwards. Prayer should come first. Because God's power is infinitely greater than ours, it only makes sense to rely on it - especially because God encourages us to do so.  

fulfilling his plan

If I would've woke up this morning and already started planning and hoping for what tomorrow would be like, I would not be fulfilling God's plan for my life. Or on the other hand...this weekend is my bachelor party. It's the first time I will see most of my best friends in months. I cannot wait. If I wake up everyday only thinking about that then all those days would've been useless. 

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14)

Life is short no matter how many years we live. Don't be deceived into thinking that we have lots of remaining time to live for Christ, to enjoy loved ones, or to do what you know you should. 

It's easy to put off your relationship with Christ. For some reason, in the midst of our busy lives, that's the easiest part to push off until tomorrow. I think about my day yesterday...it was extremely busy from the time I woke up to when I went to bed. When I sat down to read my bible last night I did it so quickly and lackadaisical that I don't even remember what I read. I remember telling myself that I would just spend more time in the Word tonight...

Work, friends, going out, time to relax, all these things, are easier to put before our relationship with Christ. The more we put Christ off, the worse the habits are that we build. 

When we live for God, we actually fulfill God's plan for us. 

I mean think about that. Every day when we wake up, make the most of the day, and live for God, we fulfill his plan. When we wake up thinking about other things, we get caught in the trap of trying to fulfill our plan. 

My hope for you is that you start to live for God daily! Start to think about God more. Start to pray more. Start to get in the Word more. Lets commit to fulfilling his plan. 

poor and simple values

Those who have simple values are often despised by our affluent society. Meaning that the people who are able to stay in their lanes and are not easily influenced are too often ridiculed by others who live by what society wants us to do.

It's easy to look down on those people. For me it was that way for years. Not that I was doing anything really crazy, but if someone wasn't fitting in with my teammates or the group of people I was in, it was like we would all outcast them. I even think about my later years playing basketball at college. All I wanted to do as a freshmen was fit in and be one of the guys. As my years progressed in school, I started realizing that I didn't need to be like everyone else. I didn't need to participate in conversations, or think how others thought. I was happy in my simple ways. Even though it was hard for me at times, even thought I might not have fit in as much, I was content and I was more happy living a life that was simple vs living a life where I felt like I needed to fit in. 

"Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" (James 2:5)

I might looked different in the eyes of others, but I knew that I had a lot of faith that the decisions I was making were worth it. 

Guys, I was always to be super honest with you too. I was never anywhere close to perfect. I am still not. There were still times were I tried to fit in and wanted to be like everyone else. Times where I said things and did things I probably shouldn't have. So it wasn't like a flipped a switch one day. 

It took me time foe me to be comfortable and have a lot of faith in God that being a little different was completely worth it. If you are someone right now who struggles with what I am writing about today, I promise you that you got this. Our relationship with God is the most important part of our lives. We have to be okay with putting other things on hold so that we can put Christ as number one. 

Simple values might not seem worth it, but in the long run they will be. 

perseverance and the race

Throughout my walk with Christ, ever since I have accepted Jesus into my heart years, ago I have always felt like I could do and be better. No matter what my life looked like and what I was going through, there was something deep down in me that made me feel like I could do better. Even to this day, it's still the same. 

You see, as believers we are called to persevere. We are called to persevere at all times because perseverance produces good character that is obedient to God. Without it, we would give up and never get to the point where we feel like we should be at. 

As I believer, I feel this way and I believe most other believers feel this way as well because the best is yet to come. I believe that in life, we get bits and pieces of heaven all of the time. Whether it's someone loving you deeply, or seeing God's beautiful creation. God continues to bless us in ways that we could never imagine. 

Perseverance to me is this: never give up, I can do better, and I will be better, no matter how hard things get, I know that everything I face will be worth it...

If you don't feel like there is something more you could be doing, than I really want to hear from you because I have simply always felt this way, because I believe that perseverance is what God wants to be engraved in all of us. 

"Let perseverance finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, no lacking anything." 

(James 1:4)

When we persevere throughout our entire walks at Christians, that perseverance will lead us to becoming mature, complete, and not lacking anything. I mean how awesome does that sound? 

As great, or as bad as your life might feel right now, it's for a reason. You are simply not mature or complete. Which is not a bad thing, because we are all the way! 

I encourage you with all my heart to persevere. Let perseverance finish its work so that we may be made complete. 

praise His name

Life is busy. Something that I have started doing this past month to help put things into perspective is praising God's name out loud. It's simply a part of my mooring routine. Once I work out, I make sure I take a 10-15 minute walk and during that time I thank God for everything in my life, I praise him for how good he has been to not only me but everyone I love, and I pray. It felt weird at first just walking around and talking out loud but I have quickly realized I need to do that daily.

There are mornings where I am busy and don't have time, and those days I just feel like something is off.

One of the things that are crazy to me is that it sees like there are more times on a daily basis that I hear people use God's name profanely rather than praising his name. 

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that openly profess his name." (Hebrews 13:15)

Our lips should confess God's name in praise. 

I am telling you that if you start doing this you will notice a difference in your life. I am not perfect at it either. Sometimes I might spend 5 minutes praising God in the morning and I wish I could remember to do it at the middle of the day or even the end. 

Little changes now make bigger changes later. 

My one thing for you is to start praising God's name more. Mainly because you hear it wrongly used so many times. Be a light, praise God, and I can assure you that your heart will start to change. 

the race

Over the past couple summer months and leading up to the fall, I have really tried to get in a habit of running. I don't run crazy far, just 4 miles nearly every day. I am not training for any sort of race and I am not trying to get really fast, I just want to stay in good shape. 

Before every run there are a few things that I always need to do, or my run isn't going to be worth it. I always make sure I have drank a lot of water throughout the day, I stretch, and I put on some comfy running shorts. It's nothing too special, but I know there are things that I need to do to prepare for my run. 

Of course there are days where I am not perfect, days where I didn't drink a ton of water, or times when I have forgotten to stretch. I'll still run, but things just seem off. 

Why am I sharing this? Because God has a race marked out for us. 

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by a such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Hebrews 12:1)

When I go on my runs, I don't put of my suit, wear my sandals or jeans, or eat a bunch of cheeseburgers, because I know that those are things that are going to hinder me. All of those things I just mentioned wouldn't allow me to run the way I do everyday.

This is what it's like when we are called to run the race that God has marked out for us. We must get rid of the things that are going to distract us. The sin, the secrets, and the things that keep us from living a life that glorifies God. 

But how do we do this? 

1. Choose friends who are committed to the same race 

2. Drop certain activities

3. Get help if you can't do it alone

I want more than anything for you all to be able to run the race that God already has marked out for us. I think knowing that it's already marked out for us is huge. It's not like God is going to say: "surprise, here is a race you have to run." 

It's already marked out for us and it's up to us to run it. I don't know about you but I am all in and I hope you are too.

A lifeline around you

Life often forks in two different directions and the Bible gives us a clear choice between the two. The responsibility that we have is that we must take the higher road, even though it looks difficult and treacherous. 

That road gets steep in places. The climb takes a toll on your energy. It gets lonely. Not many are on it, but more than you imagined, and some because of your example. 

It gets slippery, Satan blows ice on the narrow passages. Despite the dangers, the higher road is bound for the peak, and you’ll make it - God has a lifeline around you. 

When you are tempted to falter in your faith or to turn back from following Christ, keep focused on what he has done for you and what he offers in the future. Then keep climbing.

Joy comes from spreading the news

God loves ALL people. God loves ALL nations. 

Joy comes from spreading the news about God around the world. 

“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us - so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May all the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. May God bless us still, so that the ends of the earth will fear him.” (Psalm 67)

I noticed something very unique in this Psalm...every verse mentions God’s relationship with the entire globe. Often...I forgot that it’s not just us in America who God is going to save, it’s people from every tribe, tongue, and culture. 

The intended audience of this message pans the world. God repeatedly spoke to and through his people about his love for all nations.

This Psalm was written for and is about you. 

I would encourage you to not limit yourself and your faith in thinking that God is only going to save us...expand it. The entire globe is pretty huge..and from having the unique experience to actually travel to the other side of the world, I know that God’s love for people I met in Beijing, China is the exact same as my next door neighbor in Indiana.