"Follow the Leader"-John 10:22-32

Hey guys!!! Have you ever thought about how many times Jesus calls us Sheep? Have you ever thought about how many times Jesus calls Himself the "Good Shepherd?" It's kinda crazy to think about what Jesus was calling Himself and not only that, but what He was challenging us with as being the Sheep of the Shepherd. Think about Sheep for a second, what do they do? They walk around, eat, sleep, and provide wool, and.....that's about it.

Another thing they do is that they follow the voice of the Shepherd that leads them...they will literally run away from unfamiliar voices and band together to get away from it because they do not know the stranger's voice, yet the coolest part about that is they will run toward and follow the voice of the Shepherd!!! Jesus calls us to follow His voice and to remain as close to Him as possible because He is the One who leads us...He's the One who desires to protect us, and He's the One who provides for our every need. There are so many references to Sheep in the Old and New Testament and there's a reason...we need that familiar voice to lead us and we need to be willing to sprint toward it and follow it with all of our hearts. Are you willing to run away from the voices that are not leading you to something great?...Are you willing to sprint toward Christ who is our Good Shepherd?...He desires us to follow Him with all that we are...LET'S TRY IT!!!-GRACE AND PEACE.

"When He Speaks...People Listen"-Mark 1:21-28

Have you ever heard God speak before? Have you listened? I think so many times as Christians we struggle with hearing the voice of God, we struggle with allowing God's voice to permeate our outer walls of life and busyness and we fail to hear when He wants to speak, it's so hard for us to hear from Him when we hear so many voices going on about us...so the question is...do we listen?

In Mark 1:21-28, Jesus went down to Capernaum and this was a very festive time because it was the time right after the wedding recorded in John 2 and the Passover is about to be there so Jesus went to the temple to teach in the Synagogue.

Well, here in Mark we see that he was teaching and imagine that...people were amazed at His teaching, as it says because... "He taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law."-(Mark 1:22)

The greatest part about this whole story is what happens afterwards and here's a quick run down: A man who was there with an Evil Spirit began to cry out and even proclaimed Him as the "Holy One of God" and then the greatest part...Jesus casts out the demon in him and not only that...He tells the demon to "Be Quiet" and the demon comes out!!!

Isn't it crazy to think about this for a second...I mean here's a guy that didn't just have this demon right then and there, it was probably something he had been hiding and something that the others probably knew there was something about him, yet never wanted to say anything and at just the time where they're amazed at Jesus and His teaching, this guy's demon shows its ugly head. Crazy!

Here's the deal...at the presence of Jesus, this guys life was never the same...at the VOICE of Jesus all of a sudden this demon was irritated and then cast out...what power! what strength! what sheer amazement!!!

Jesus simply speaks and this demon listens!!! It's crazy to think about the power of the voice of God because all too often we think about that "Still small voice" yet we need to recognize that Jesus' voice and words bring power, they bring strength, they bring the ability to change lives...so the question finally comes down from above...CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? GOOD!!!!-Grace and Peace.

"Do We Really Love Each Other?"-John 13:31-38

Have you ever wondered what Jesus meant when He told the disciples, "They will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another...?" I love this phrase by Jesus because this was right about the time that Jesus was predicting His betrayal by Judas to John (the beloved Disciples) and predicting His denial by Peter three times and Jesus' life was seriously fixin (yeah, that's a Texas term...), to get rough, I mean really rough, but He wanted to leave and send them with the ultimate example of what He wanted to leave behind, His love for them so that they would love one another.

Have you ever thought about how hard that must've been for the Disciples to hear? That the man they had grown so close to, shared fellowship with, loved one and were loved by, eaten many meals with, stood up for (Peter...and the sword...let's just say the man who had his ear cut off, probably wasn't the biggest fan of Peter but was a fan of Jesus...wouldn't you be if He put your ear back on?). Anyway, these guys had given up their jobs, their families, their livelihoods, their friends and everything else that was precious and valuable to them to follow this Jesus and now He was leaving them...can you feel the pain they were feeling? OUCH!

But, the coolest part of it all is that Jesus gave them an example, He didn't leave them with nothing, He actually had been showing them since the time He came into the flesh in John 1:14, to the time of His betrayal and even to the time on the cross how to love genuinely. How awesome it was that Jesus had not only talked about it but showed it and challenged them to show it to everyone else...so the question is this, DO WE REALLY LOVE EACH OTHER? He told us the world around us would know Him through our love for one another...Grace and peace.

"He is ALWAYS Faithful"-2 Timothy 2:11-13

Have you ever wondered why God continues to love us even when we don't deserve it? I wrote and spoke on this a bit in yesterday's blog, but the question still remains to me, why does God constantly come through for me and love me and remain faithful to me, even when I am unfaithful to Him? Why is it that He is always there to hold us up even when we've committed the same sin for the Umpteenth (is that a word?) time? Time and time again, God has shown me His faithfulness and you know what I've done in return? Remained unfaithful, you know I think what we are guilty of doing sometimes is thinking nothing of sin, I mean we commit sin everyday and we throw it off as the cliche, "well we all sin everyday." My problem with that lies in the fact that I want to be faithful to God and sometimes I just have the hardest time being faithful, remaining sinless even for an hour, or praising my God when I overcome a temptation.

Isn't it great to know that God is faithful to us even when we SO don't deserve for Him to be? It blows my mind each day to know how much God loves me and how even when I turn my back on Him and remain in sin, or even when I pay Him no attention that He remains there waiting for me to come back to Him. Even when He's the last thought in my mind, I'm the first in His...crazy huh? It would be so easy for Him to just say "forget it...I'm not gonna continue to love Him when he continues to screw up all the time" but He never says that and He always promises that He will remain with us, it's a crazy thought! Just an encouragement to you...God will remain faithful to you even when you're not faithful to Him and I'll say it again...when He's the last thought on your mind, you're the first on His-Grace and Peace.

"Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; IF WE ARE FAITHLESS, HE WILL REMAIN FAITHFUL, FOR HE CANNOT DISOWN HIMSELF."-2 Timothy 2:11-13