God's Lessons

For 13 years I have been preaching and guiding souls to finding God and what God means to them and over those 13 years I have seen sins and mistakes made left and right.  Tonight I have a serman that may be quite different than what you have been taught in the past, you ready for it?  God doesn't want you to be perfect.  There it is, something so simple but yet so profane.  I'll say it again, God doesn't want you to be perfect.  He wants you to sin, he wants you to fall and he wants you to get up. Now your probably yelling at the screen, WHAT!?!?!?  Let me break it down for you, Life doesn't suck, you make it suck.  The world isn't out to get you, you make the world out to get you.  We as the lambs of God try so hard at everything we do, we find reasons everything happens but we are finding the wrong reasons.  There are ten commandments right, do you know them?  Do you know what they are?  They are the basic guidelines of God, but what if we took those away?  Could you survive with out them?  I know I could.  Do you need to be told, that killing is wrong?  No, you don't.  You know deep down in the body of yours that killing is wrong.  So why do it?, because you know it is wrong duh.  Humans through the ages of evolution has pondered the meaning of life and all the questions below it, they worked hard at answering the big question of Why.  At some point we needed some pretty strict rules to help keep us on the straight and narrow.  But over the years we took so far that we have forgotten to live, the one thing that god wants from us.  Now when I say "To Live" I don't mean to take a deep breath of air, and drink plenty of fluids.  I mean to love thyself, to love your brothers and sisters of man.  To love the gifts that God gives us everyday.  To love the planet that he allows us to live on.  But because we work so hard to do the right things, to give meanings to everything we forget who we are, why we are here and how to love.  Does it matter all the time why something is the way it is or why it happens?  No, sit back and enjoy its wonder.  Now some of you are probably asking "Why does God want us to Sin?"  God doesn't want you to go out and purposely sin, but he wants you to make the mistakes.  He wants you to learn from them, fall down so you can learn to pick yourself up with the knowledge of what you did so you don't do it again.  By taking a step back from our daily stresses in our lives, we can start to see the beauty in everything that is around us, we can except those who are different but what they have to offer to make our personnel world even more beautiful.  That means when you sin or make a mistake don't plan every step for the next ten years to make sure you never do it again, but remember what you did and what led up to that mistake.  So when it does happen again you can say, "Oh, wait maybe i should do it differently this time."  The next question is "What are you going to do with all this extra free time?"  and the answer is Live.  Go make more mistakes, go love, go make friends no matter how different they are, go pick flowers, go give thanks.  It doesn't matter what you do as long as you appreciate every moment as a blessing and not a pain.  Some of you are probally saying, "If we do that, then the devil will or is guiding us."  And you are right to a point but wrong in the same level.  The devil guides us every single day of our lives, in every decision and every fork in the road.  No matter what we do the Angel of Light will always be there to say "Hey man, lets go do this.  It will be fun, Trust me."  But the devil is greedy, selficous and pig headed.  He is only looking out for himself.  Sound familiar?  Look around you, everyday we see and do things for ourselves or for only people who are close to us without asking how it affects others, the stress of our lives become so profound that we no longer see the minor details, but when you let go of all those strict rules we can start to see not only the devil riding our backs but we can see god in every corner of our lives, especially when we fall.  Remember what it says in the book of Luke, it teaches us not only how to treat others and ourselves but it teaches us how to live.  So relax and don't worry so much about everything, you might be surprised what may happen.  If you get scared then just remember that you aren't the only ones, we all are scared of change but is it change that we are truly scared of or is it the freedoms that we may have in our lives of being truely happy?  That is a sermon for another day.  God Bless

Lost Road

Quoting ourselves

 If there's one thing that we should have learned, it's that... you know, our brains have always outraced our hearts. Our science charges ahead, but our souls lag behind. Let's start anew.

A Feeling

Close your eyes and listen, what do you hear?  Do you hear your heart beat?  Can you hear your soul talking to you?  Can you hear God whispering to you that he loves you?  When things get bad we often will start asking God questions on why and sometimes we yell and scream at him.  Not that we hate him but sometimes we need to vent.  But what if you can't vent, what do you then?  We look at those who surround us for help but when they don't listen how can we get the help.  God created many of us to be imperfect and though it is a blessing in many disguises it can also be a curse to our lives.  Many of us will walk this Earth alone and frustrated searching for some one to truly listen to us and see us.  How will you help?  The answer is simple, it all starts with a "Hello".  When you say "Hello" for a brief moment in time, it stops.  Everything stands still to that person and a small amount of emotion fills them but it may be brief.  The second step is still easy "How are you feeling today?"  Now the hard part has started, Feelings, now that is a hard word for most of us.  How do we feel?  Do you feel unloved, appreciated, hated or truly loved?  Don't ever pass over the chance to look at how you feel, it is a rare thing.  God teaches us to listen and we work oh so hard to hear the word of God but do we work just as hard to listen to our brothers and sisters of this world?  If I was to tell you "I feel unappreciated "  What does that tell you, are you going to make a simple remark or allow that person to share his or her world with you and that is gift not only from the person but from God.  I can tell you how I feel all day but if I get the feeling you are not listening then I feel bad and will close up, "Another person who doesn't care"  Another feeling that is added to the list.  If you are excited about something and wish to share it, would you want someone to brush it off like it is nothing.  No, you wouldn't, you would want to scream at the top of your lungs and tell the world.  So remember, listen to people and how they feel, and put as much work into it as you do trying to listen to God.  I know you can do it....  I have a feeling about you :)

Are we alone?

Everyday we are put to the test, whether it be a math test, social test and even a test about ourselves.  Whether we pass or fail, the question is who do we look to for the answers?  Well most people will say "God will give us the answers."  What if I told you that is wrong, what if I told that God doesn't give you the answers, what would you do then?  Well for most of us, we feel alone, we feel that no one is there for us if God isn't giving us the answers.  But listen there's more.  Just because isn't giving you the answers doesn't mean he isn't there, you see God is like a parent.  When your raising a child, do you tell everything he needs to know to do a job, or do you teach him and then say "You can do it, just think about it."  At some point in our lives, God lets our hand go to walk on our own.   But here is the weirdest part of it all.  God puts strange people in our lives, people we may know and people that we have no idea why they are here. This is where I am going to blow you mind away, to teach us.  Every person in our lives even the ones we just pass on the road or see on tv, family members and friends, all of them are placed in our lives to teach us, to comfort us and to learn from.  Just because we can't see it all the time and it may be hard to pull the blinders from our eyes and minds to see that it is God putting these people in our lives.

I will give you an example, growing up I was surrounded by people that made my life very difficult and I allowed myself to change for evil and toward God but once in a while someone came into my life that helped me see who I was and who I wanted to be.  For example, sitting in Lee County Jail, I was angry, I was in there for fighting, driving with no insurance and so much more.  Now sitting there in my cell I was yelling everything that I could think of, planning and scheming how I can get out to the world again.  But the chief of police took me into his office and asked me "How are you feeling?"  Now that took me off guard, people didn't ask that back then.  It made me think how I am feeling inside and I realized for the first time that I was a very angry person, he told me that I was a good guy but just lost.  That was my first step in my life to becoming a man of love and not hatred.  Now things didn't change over night for me, it took work.  But looking back at the years, God has always been there through every person in my life.  

Now lets look at your life, in your life how many people can you look at that has helped you.  The answer is everyone, some are more obvious than others but you will be amazed to see that even the person you may have only glanced at and it gave your stomach a knot, or made you think about your life.

You see if God gave us everything in the world, with out letting us fall we would be very spoiled brats.  If God gave us nothing we would be filled with hatred, with out a care in the world.  But God has let our hands go.  Giving you the knowledge to make it into wisdom by placing people in our lives, and some times we ask "Why did have to be so severe?"  We are sometimes placed into situations that make no sense, we are beaten, lied to, abused and just lost.  But if God didn't care, he wouldn't give you the oputunity to learn and grow.  Look at your lives now, are you in a better life because of it, can you help others?  I can vouch that God is in your life, mingling the lines of our lives with others, for more lessons yet to come so we can build ourselves a life of love.  If you can't ask and maybe we can find these people in your lives with Gods help.

Stranger Called Love

You are important!  Now you read that and you are probably asking yourself "what is that suppose to mean?"  And i will reply to something that is very simple to answer.  In God's eyes you are important, everything you have to say, everything you have to feel and everything you have to do.  God will never turn his back on you, God will never say "That isn't enough" and God will never lie to you.  In a world today we live in, we have forgotten how to treat each other so "we" feel important.  We have forgotten that what and how we treat others can and is a sin.  Now you maybe saying "Well sometimes"  or "I don't do that".  But you do and it is still a sin.  Where did the humanity go and why don't you ask God is this how I should treat people.  The Bible teaches us how to open our hearts to our brothers and sisters of Christ.  That doesn't just mean in church.  That doesn't just mean our fellow Christians, and that doesn't mean just to those who ask for it.  ~Those who are the hardest to love are the ones who need it the most.~  Look at that quote and look at your life.  You go out with your friends and you feel loved, you feel a whole lot better but when you get home how is that hole deep down in your chest a void so deep.  But to get a constant love in your life you must learn how to give it in return.  So I challenge you today, when you wake up and your looking in the mirror, ask yourself "How is my love cup?"  I ask you the same question, How is your love cup today?  Do you feel half filled with love, are you empty or can you honestly say that you are filled to the brim of love.  And if your cup is not full, how can I fill it today.  I, Brad asks you this How can I help to fill your cup, How can I love you so you feel loved?  Then go out to the world and ask people who you know and ask them "How is your Love cup today?  And how can I help fill your cup?"  You may be shocked by the answers in both yourself and in your friends and family.  The answer may be so simple as in "I need a hug" or "Can we go sit in the park together."  Love is the easiest emotion to give as long as you are open to give it.  And last and not least, Love is free.  Lets say it together "Love is Free".  Love should never come with a price tag, it is nothing to be auctioned off.  Does God and Christ say will unless you do this then I will love you or Hey I loved you now you owe me.  No they don't and neither should you or any other person.  So i leave you today with a simple question "How is your love cup today?"  And How can I help fill it?  I love you, unconditionally, with no debts attached, no matter your past.  I love you for who you are and the choices that made you the beautiful person you are today.

My God's name is Bob

Every now and again we run into someone who say "My God is the True God" "My Truth is the only Truth" and so on.  Usually at that point we will get very defensive but is that what God wants us to do?  Does God want us to go around and tell everyone that "Your Wrong and I'm Right"?  Well let me tell you about my god and his truth.  My God's name is Bob, say hi Bob.  Bob is a all knowingly, all loving god.  Bob doesn't want you to go out and kill people, he doesn't want you to sleep with your neighbors wife or to steal.  Here is the best part, Bob knows you will make mistakes in your life.  Some big and some small.  Now don't get upset at me and Bob for being different for he is God, he is our king and he is the father of our lord Christ.  You see as Christians it is our duty to take his teachings and spread it across this world to those who are in need. It is our duty to extend our hand of love and kindness to those with heavy hearts and souls.  But does your method the best method?  No it isn't, neither is mine nor theirs.  Everyone learns differently and God knows this, so why would God appear to just one person and say "Hey this is it, you can't figure it out then your going to hell!!"  That isn't the fact, I once heard a story from a pastor while I was in the service and he told me of a guy who believed that God was a cockroach.  As hard as it was not to laugh it was hard to believe that this man of God would allow such a thing to continue.  But he told me that this guy had several problems in his life but the one thing that was constant was this cockroach that would come out everyday at 3pm.  This guy saw this as a sign to keep fighting his demons and not to give up.  Now this cockroach slowly brought him to Christ but still today he believes with all his heart that God came to him as a cockroach.  Do you have a cockroach I ask?  I know I do....  Through out history there has been so many names that has taught people the laws of the scripture but we tend to throw away it all because it doesn't fit with our way of thinking.  C.S. Lewis wrote in his children s book that Aslan was the all powerful God and he says "Children here you know me as Aslan but in your world I am known by other names."  In the Bible the name of God has had his name changed many times also.  So is it hard to believe that God may come to me by Bob and to you as Jesus?  Remember next time when you are out in the world ready to bring in the flock that sometime new math isn't always better than old math and no one likes being told that their wrong but instead inform them that what their going through in their life is one of the many stepping stones toward Christ and the teachings to a warm and loving life.