Something new

Going to try something new starting today with a daily photo. Just thought I would try it out.

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Before you wake

Before you wake today I will tell you I love you. I miss you and ill talk  to you soon!!! Love daddy

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Before you wake

Before you wake today I will tell you I love you. I miss you and ill talk  to you soon!!! Love daddy

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Devo's

I've been in the book of Esther the past few days and really had an awesome time today!! thought I would share some insights

Esther 2:1-8, 17

The story of Esther is filled with romance, adventure, and danger. Her ordinary Jewish life suddenly became remarkable when she found herself in the position of Queen of Persia. We clearly see the Lord's sovereign hand at work as He called her to fulfill a very important role in His plan for the Jews. But can you imagine how upset, confused, and uncertain Esther must have felt as the details were unfolding?

We may feel the same perplexity as we live each day without knowing the future. Sometimes it is easier to see God's calling in someone else's life rather than our own. His plans and purposes are working out in perfect progression, but from an earthly perspective, the developments may seem chaotic and bewildering.

Esther's story is an encouragement to trust in God's will and purpose for our lives. Every believer in Christ has a calling from the Lord. He doesn't save us and then leave us to fend for ourselves; instead, He continually guides each of His children in the work He has planned for his or her life.

God's calling includes not only what we do but also who we are. Each experience in life is a tool that the Lord uses to shape and equip us to become the people He wants us to be--with regard to character as well as conduct.

I feel that if we begin looking for the Lord's hand in our lives. We will see He is working out His plan, sometimes silently and softly, sometimes with jarring disruptions. But He is always there, directing and moving. Never imagine yourself to be insignificant in His eyes. We are so highly esteemed that almighty God has designed a unique calling for each and every one of us. 

God is Good!!

Wow

OK so it's been so long since I've even had time to write on here. a lot has happened at home and at work. Well i just what to share some resent events at work last week (the short story) I was assaulted by one of our girls and had to press charges on her. Unfortunately it seems that she has not learned her lesson for she is still being a bully to others. Well this really got me down and ready to give up with all the girls. I had enough of the drama!! then today while in the office I was talking with one of our new girls *Molly*(not her real name) about some choices that she made this morning with some of the other girls shared with her why that was not something we allow to happen and then gave her the consequences that came with the actions. then God took that conversation and lead it into talking about God's grace and the price of that grace and she PRAYED TO RECEIVE CHRIST INTO HER HEART!!!! The Father took the crappiest week ad just made it all worth it! I can be yelled at cursed out threatened and all but when just one gives their life to Christ it's a happy day!!!! and nothing else matters!!!!

I will praise you in the storms of my life Lord it's all for your glory!!

Thanksgiving... and More

Thanksgiving Day has long been a favorite holiday of mine. For me, life doesn’t get much better than a holiday that includes great food, friends and family, and football. It is appropriate and good that we take focus on this day to give thanks to God for all of His blessings to us – as individuals and as a nation.

For most of us, a thankful thought here and there, reading a poem, article or story about thankfulness, and a prayer before dinner is about the extent of our focus on thanks – which if you’re at all like me, is a significant focus! I find it very interesting, however, that in generations past, a day of thanksgiving also included a focus on confession of sin (both national and personal), and prayers that we might be the kind of people and nation God wants us to be, and that God would heal the wounds of war.

“And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed…” 
George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789.

“And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.” Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863.

Today, while you are enjoying the blessing of home, food, family and friends, even as we give thanks for the blessings we enjoy, let’s also remember that giving thanks is only part of our spiritual duty. We are also called to confession of sin and to ask God to help us (both individually and as a nation) to walk in obedience to all that is right and good, in step with God’s desire for our lives. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done.

Psalm 105:1

Kyle

This is from the devotion i had with our girls this morning and it went so ell i wanted to share it with you Who we are today is a direct result of our past.  We all have scars and wounds from the words and actions of others and from our own failures and mistakes.  (This I am reminded of just from the job that we have and the different girls we get in here) But for the Christ-follower this is not the end of the story. As the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to remake us into new creations, these scars from our past become stepping stones to spiritual maturity. Listen to and embrace these top ten principles from God's word and allow Him to rebuild your battered self-esteem:

10 I am created
For we are God's workmanship. Ephesians 2:10

9 I am chosen
For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you...1 Timothy 1:4

8 I am protected 
Protect me as you would the pupil of your eye. Psalm 17:8 (NLT)

7 I am complete
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3

6 I am victorious
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:37

5 I am called
[God] has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace...2 Timothy 1:9

4 I am forgiven
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

3 I am free
Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

2 I am loved
 I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jeremiah 31:3

1 I am accepted!

JEHOVAH-ROHI

I wanted to do something a little different i love going through the different Hebrew names of God and their meanings so today's name that i have chosen is JEHOVAH-ROHI  (The Lord Our Shepherd) one of the most famous places in the word that you can find this name is Psalm 23. I love all the illustrations about God being our Shepard and how  the Shepard takes care of his flock  and when the one sheep gos astray he will leave the others just to find it and when found he takes it  and will break his leg and place him in a sling next to the chest of the Shepard so that he will stay there and get to know the Shepard and know his heart and the sound of his voice so that when the sheep is all better he will not go astray and will stay near the voice of the Shepard it means so much to me to just know that he WILL leave the other 99 to come and find me and take care of me. I will encourage you to pray to God as Jehovah-rohi ( The Lord YOUR Shepard) and thank him for the valleys he has walked threw with you and the times in your life where he has carried you close to his heart to learn his ways.

DUUUUUKKKKE!!

DUDE!!! The game was awesome!! We won, but the best part was getting to go out with the press and meet Coach K and some of the players! the guys I took had a great time as well but since they are carolina fans they did not have as much fun as i did!!!! anyways i'm trying to come down from ths Duke High right now so i can maybe go to bed!! 

Later

Duke Ball game!!!

I am so excited! since i am the only Duke fan on campus i was asked to suffer at a Duke home game with floor seats in the VIP section. I get to take two youth with me and we leave at 3:45pm!!! 

Go DUKE!!!!

Been a while since i put something up thought i would drop in a few lines before we get started on dinner and then off to church. We had an Awesome Sunday school lesson today it was for the youth but as a youth guy it was cool! The pastor compared the life of Joshua to the lives of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D Roosevelt. It was very neat I was very proud of our girls in church today how they show interest and wanted to learn more. It's been that way with our devotions in the morning to. Which I think is very important because we are teaching them that God is to have a big part in our lives that he is the one that we take all of our problems to and our praises. We're getting ready to start to go through some of the names of God like, EL-SHADDAI, JEHOVAH-JIREH, JEHOVAH-ROPHE, JEHOVAH-NISSI just some of my favorites and teach them how we serve a God who is all powerful and able to meet our many needs.

Well that's it for now need to jump off here and take care of some things!

PS 

Please keep in prayer one of our girls " Sue" no this is not her real name but pray for her as she will being going back home on the 11th of this month pray that God will protect her and guide her through her life and send people her way to help and encourage her!

Thanks,

Kyle

Don't Avoid the Impossible

"But Jesus said to them, ""They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."

MATTHEW 14:16

Jesus asked His disciples to do something that clearly was impossible. There were five thousand men, along with their families, and they were famished. There were only five loaves of bread and two small fish -- obviously not enough to feed a multitude. The cost of food for even a portion of the crowd would have far exceeded the disciples' small budget. It may have seemed absurd to the disciples that Jesus should ask them to distribute the paltry amount of food to the massive crowd. Yet that is exactly what Jesus asked them to do. Because Jesus had given the command, the disciples obeyed and witnessed an incredible miracle.

Christ will lead you into many situations that will seem impossible, but don't try to avoid them. Stay in the middle of them, for that is where you will experience God. The key difference between what appears to be impossible to us and what is actually possible is a word from our Master! Faith accepts His divine command and steps out in a direction that only God can complete. If you only attempt things that you know are possible with the visible resources you possess, those around you will not see God at work. You will be the one who receives the credit for a job well done, but God will have no part in it.

Take inventory of your life and the decisions you are presently facing. Have you received a word from the Master that awaits your next step of faith? If you will proceed with what He has told you, no matter how incredible it might seem, you will experience the joy of seeing your Lord perform a miracle, and so will those around you.

What Do You Think Four Years of a President Obama Will Bring?

Focus on the Family recently published it’s “Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America,” a list of dire speculations about how America will quickly become a difficult place for Christians to live if we elect Barack Obama as the next president. From the intro:

This letter is not “predicting” that all of the imaginative future “events” named in this letter will happen. But it is saying that each one of these changes could happen and also that each change would be a the natural outcome of (a) published legal opinions already written by liberal judges, (b) trends already seen in states with liberal-dominated courts such as California and Massachusetts, (c) recent past promises, practices, and legislative initiatives of the current liberal leadership of the Democratic Party and (d) Senator Obama’s previous actions, previous voting record, and previous public promises to the far-left groups that won the nomination for him.

List of possible natural outcomes include:

>Complete “far-left” control of the U.S. Supreme Court.
>A Supreme Court ruling establishing the constitutionality of homosexual marriage.
>Christian professionals (doctors, lawyers, social workers, etc) leaving their practices and professions en masse rather than adhere to new homosexual anti-discrimination laws.
>Hate speech laws prohibiting Christian ministries from having any influence on college campuses.
>An end to any and all restrictions on abortion with the passing of a national Freedom of Choice Act.
>Doctors and nurses losing their jobs for refusing to perform and assist with abortions.
>The outlawing of home schooling.
>Multiple attacks in U.S. cities by terrorists emboldened by our withdrawal from Iraq.
>Limited and rationed heath care for senior citizens and a rise in euthanasia.
>Homosexual activist groups effectively shutting down any Christian publisher who releases anything critical of homosexuality.

OK people, I'm not for Obama, and I know that he will be our new president, which is def. not good. Especially for the Christians! But listen... Who do you all think is in control? When the disciples were in the midst of the storm, they went to Jesus and asked Him if He even cared that they were about to die! Is that what were doing? Jesus said that was because of their unbelief! Then he calmed the storm instantly! Jesus is in control, and He wants us to worship Him. He doesn't want us to fall down in fear! Praise Him in the storm. So instead of coming to Him and saying that He doesn't care, God wants you to say, thank God the Lord of Creation is in the boat with us! Let us rise up and worship the Lord God Jehovah! Jesus Christ the almighty son of the living God! For He is in control! And, And even if this cup of destruction doesn't pass from us, then let God's will be done. Quite being whiny and unsure of the Lord, and get on your knees and repent! Maybe God is testing us to see how we'll react to changes in this country that go against His Word. Maybe He's sick of all our empty TALK and our lack of ACTION in establishing His kingdom in America. Maybe we're in for a thrashing. Maybe God is going to use OBAMA to bring us back to Him as a nation- on our KNEES.

The list goes on, but I’m interested to know what you think. Read the letter. Do you think an Obama presidency will be this bad for our nation?  Please comment

Is Your Worship Wandering?

Our hearts and affections are fickle. Even as Christians we can wander off like dull sheep, following other bypaths, chasing other goals and gods, falling in love with lesser things. When we give our hearts to Christ, our old natures don't die. We're given new natures, but the old ones have not yet been eradicated. The moment we quit walking in dependence on the Holy Spirit, we're in danger of misplaced affections, of wandering after the world.

It Happened...

It happened to Noah. After the Genesis flood, he became a farmer and vineyard keeper, and on one occasion became too attached to his wine. His resulting drunkenness created a family scandal (Genesis 9:20-24).

It happened to Abraham. Despite his faith in God, his love and concern for his beautiful wife Sarah drove him to deceit on two occasions (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18).

It happened to Gideon. The Lord used him to lead Israel, but he took from them their gold, and "Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house" (Judges 8:27).

It happened to Samson. Here was a man whose birth was predicted in advance, who was dedicated to the Lord from infancy, and who was gifted by God with supernatural strength through the Spirit. Yet his passions continually led him astray.

It happened to David. The man who wrote, "O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth…," had a wandering eye that led him into adultery, murder, and cover-up.

It happened to Solomon. During an intense moment of worship, the young king beseeches God for wisdom, and the Lord answered abundantly. Yet Solomon wandered off, married foreign women, and when he was old, "his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God" (I Kings 11:4).

It happened to Peter, prompting Jesus to say, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men" (Matthew 16:23).

It happened to Demas, who, having accompanied Paul on his journeys, finally forsook him for this present world (II Timothy 4:10).

It even happened to the church of Ephesus, who had counted among its pastors Paul, Timothy, and John. In Revelation 2:4, Jesus said: "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love."

It can happen to you and me.

What Happens When We Wander?...

The result is that instead of becoming more Christlike, we become increasingly like our new "god." But if we love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, we’ll become increasingly like Christ, for we are "created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24, NIV).

How To Avoid Wandering...

How can you avoid wandering from wholehearted worship?

Rededicate yourself to Christ each day. Just months before his death, missionary David Livingstone wrote in his diary: "Birthday. My Jesus, my King, my life, my All; I again dedicate my whole self to Thee." (for a great little Bio on Dr Livingstone go HERE)

Ask God to search you. We're expert self-deceivers, and we often don’t know our own hearts. I tell the girls we work with all the time about what Bible talks about on this topic and point out scripture like this prayer: "Search me, O God, and know my heart." (Psalm 139:23, KJV).

Replace wandering with wondering. a Professor of mine Dr. Adams once said, "I have never lost the wonder." Take time to relish the beauty of God’s majestic creation.

Give your tithes and offerings. Where your treasure is there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21).

Pray for a blessing in attending church every Sunday, Sunday night, Wednesday night or anytime you go to Church for Corporate worship. Train your mind to concentrate on the words of hymns and songs you sing, on the prayers offered, and on the sermons preached.

Maintain your personal devotions. This is one of the hardest things to do. Yes even for me but it's hard to wander too far away when you’re meeting Him day by day in Bible study and prayer and that has helped me greatly.

Have you replaced your worship of God with a misplaced affection? A relationship? A goal? A hobby that's taken over your life? A house, car, boat, or some other "big ticket" item? Confess this to God, turn back to Christ, realign your priorities, and have no other gods before Him.