Following My Wife's Spirit

Let me tell you about my wife. She works, takes care of our son the majority of the time, and tries diligently to be the Christian woman that God requires her to be. That can be difficult at times when you are married to a minister/car salesman. She does her best to follow my lead even when it does not make much sense. There have been many times when I have asked her to just "trust me" because I was doing what I believed God was leading me to do. And during those many times, she is able to do that because she believes in God and in me. But sometimes the shoe changes to the other foot.

My wife has a very generous and compassionate spirit. And from time to time she will look at me and tell me that we need to do something for somebody else right now. This has happened at least five or six times over the seven years that we have been married. And every time, I look at her funny because I have no idea where she is coming up with the desire to do whatever it is she wants us to do. Yet, every time this has happened, she has been right. Most of the time, it involves doing something for someone else who is completely unrelated to either of us (meaning a stranger or a distant friend). One such event happened last night.

I was driving home from work when she called me and told me that we had a friend in trouble and we needed to do something to help. I looked at the phone and asked if we needed to do it right then and there. She confirmed that we did. Now, I want you to understand that I did not receive any bulletin from God that we needed to do this thing. But I have been around my wife long enough to realize that she receives messages from God that I don't. And this time was no exception. So what did I do? I told her to let me get home so that we could figure out how we should accomplish the task together. By the end of the night, we had driven to the other side of town, assisted the friend in a way that was an immediate blessing to them, and spent two good hours together as a family with our son.

As we were driving home, I told her the same thing I do every time we have this type of adventure. I told her that every time she tells me that we need to do these types of things, I follow her lead because I know that she is following the direction of the Holy Spirit. It's not for me to understand, but to be obedient to the Spirit as it is leading her. It's happened many times over the years. And it has always been the right thing to do. So if I can give any advice to you from this story, it would be to trust your spouse as they trust and follow God. Believe me... it works.

Peace and Love,






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God's Voice...Can You Hear Me Now?

Every Christian should want to communicate with God. But sometimes the way that God speaks to us is different than the way we expect to be spoken to. Sometimes God whispers to us. Sometimes He uses a booming voice. I have found in my life that God very rarely communicates to me in the way that I want Him to. But I am also beginning to believe that God has a reason for communicating to us in the ways that He does. Sometimes, God whispers to us because he wants us to sit still and listen. And sometimes God needs to raise His voice to get our attention.

It’s kind of like the way that a teacher communicates with their students. Sometimes the teacher will get the attention of the student by simply standing silently and saying nothing. The teacher will usually use this method when the classroom is being too loud. The teacher will not scream at the classroom because there is something important that the students need to hear. At some point, the students will realize that the teacher is just standing there silently and will quiet down in order to find out what is going on. Then the teacher can say what needs to be said while knowing that he or she has the complete attention of the class.

Sometimes, the student is daydreaming about something other than the task at hand and needs to be brought back to attention. In this case, the teacher will raise their voice in order to snap the student back to reality. These are situations where the teacher is already communicating with the student and the student’s mind begins to drift. The louder voice is needed to wake the student up and bring them back to reality.

If you hadn’t figured it out by now, God is the teacher and we are the students. The way that God communicates to us is directly determined by the way we are acting at the time. Sometimes we are being loud and don’t realize that God is standing before us, waiting for us to focus on Him. Sometimes, we are so distracted by life that God needs to yell at us in order to wake us up. Check out these examples of God whispering and God raising His voice. It is my prayer that we will recognize when God is speaking to us, listen to His words, and apply His instructions from now until Heaven.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike





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This is How Your Bible is Supposed to Look

I dropped off my son at school this morning and was driving home when I saw a book lying on the inside lane of the road. As I was driving past it, I realized that it was a Bible. Now, I couldn't very well just leave it there, could I? I immediately turned around and went back to retrieve it. It had been run over by at least one car (see tire mark on picture below), and about 60% of the pages had been crumpled. Fortunately, there was a name and phone number inside the cover so I took it home to see if I could unwrinkle some of the pages and call the owner. After all, a soldier needs his sword! I showed it to my wife and you would have thought that it was a wounded animal by her reaction. She is a self-proclaimed book nerd (she said I could call her that), and she was visibly upset over the fact that it had received so much damage.

I called the owner and left them a message that I had found his Bible and that he could call me if he wanted it returned to him. Then S. and I sat down and smoothed over the pages as much as we could. As we were doing so, I noticed that this Bible was pretty well used. Yes, it had received damage from being in the street, but that's not exactly what I'm talking about.  I noticed that there were several pen marks, notes, names, and phone numbers that had been written in it as well. You can look at the pictures that I took of it and see that many of the markings were made with different types of pens, pencils, and markers. Also, I figured that the owner must have had this one for a while because there was a date beside his name that suggested that he received in back in 1992. Now I don't know this for certain, but I think it is safe to say that this Bible has been read, studied, and used quite a lot over the last sixteen plus years. You just don't see that type of use in a Bible that stays in the closet collecting dust.

Well, the gentleman called me and we arranged to meet at a location so that I could give it back to him. He was extremely greatful and gave me a big thank-you. Mission accomplished. I was so impressed by the look of his Bible that I went home to check mine out to see how my "usage" was going. I came to the conclusion that i need to be reading more! How does you Bible look? Is it a coffee table decoration? Or is it a well-worned weapon used to complete the full armor of God?

p.s.  God gave me a whisper with the pages that I photographed.  Check out the following verses and see if they don't bless you:

Romans Chapter 1:1-25 (The Gospel Exalted)
1 Peter 4:12-14 (The Christian and Suffering)
Hebrews Chapter 1 (The Son is God's Revelation)

You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

                              Tire track.  Had to remove some phone numbers on this one.

Romans Chapter 1:1-25 (The Gospel Exalted)

1 Peter 4:12-14 (The Christian and Suffering)

Hebrews Chapter 1 (The Son is God's Revelation)

Peace and Love,

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Perfect From Imperfect? I Don't Think So

We have always been taught that all men were born sinners and that all men have sinned. And we are taught that Jesus was born as a human baby to Mary and Joseph. But we have also been taught that Jesus was the only man to live a sinless life. Although I have always believed this fact, I had a hard time putting it into words if I had to explain it to someone. I mean, how can that be correct? If Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph (born of man), and man is always born a sinner, how can Jesus be born of man and not be a sinner at birth? Did God do something to keep Jesus from being a sinner? The answer is a resounding yes!

You see, way back in the Garden of Eden, God told Adam that he could eat from any tree except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course we know how that turned out. The serpent talked Adam’s wife, Eve into eating the fruit of the tree and she gave the fruit to Adam to eat. It was when Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that sin entered the world. It did not matter that Eve ate the fruit. God specifically told Adam not to eat of the fruit. That is important to remember. When Adam ate of the fruit, sin entered into the world. At that point, Adam became infected with what I would like to call a “sin gene.” A gene is “a hereditary unit consisting of a sequence of DNA that occupies a specific location on a chromosome and determines a particular characteristic in an organism.” That means that a certain characteristic that is inside of an organism can be passed onto another organism. These genes can be passed on from a parent to their child. Some examples of this are character traits like eye-color, baldness or sickle cell anemia. Because Adam was the one that possessed the sin gene, he passed it onto Cain and Able (his sons). And because babies are born from the result of a man and woman, the gene is passed from the parent to the child(male or female) in every situation; resulting in all children being born sinners. So I get back to my original question. How can Jesus be born as a human and not be born a sinner? And how can someone who is born a sinner from the start be perfect? The answer is in the fact that God did do something to keep Jesus from being born a sinner.

Remember that Mary was a virgin when she became pregnant with Jesus. She had never had sex with a man therefore the “sin gene” that all men carry was not passed onto her unborn son, Jesus. Because Jesus was born directly from the Holy Spirit, He avoided being infected with the sin gene because Mary herself could not pass it to Him. Thus, it was possible for him to be born as a human baby, with a Heavenly Father, a virgin mother, and a pure and sinless body. Why is this an important point? The Bible tells us that the wages of sin equals death and the only way to pay for sin is through a blood sacrifice. The sin sacrifice in the Old Testament was typically an unblemished lamb that did not have any flaws. Because Jesus had to die as a sin sacrifice for us, He needed to be pure and unblemished. God had to follow His own laws to the letter. Because sin entered into the world, God needed a way for sin to be defeated in the world. And that way was through the perfect death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike





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Ready! Fire! Aim!

Does anything seem odd about the title above? When you watch those old movies with the firing squads they always ways have the solders line up and get ready to shoot the condemned guy with the blindfold over his eyes. The commander in charge of the firing squad will call out, “Ready…Aim…Fire! And the firing squad would get ready, take aim, and fire in unison. What do you think would happen if the squad fired their weapons before they took aim? They would probably not hit the intended target. Not only that, but they might even shoot something that they did not intend to shoot.

Sometimes, we do the same thing in our lives. And that is very similar to what Moses did in his early life. There was something inside Moses that made him know that he was responsible for the welfare of the children of Israel; but he initially went about it in the wrong way. In Exodus 2:11-25, the story is told of Moses killing an Egyptian and then being chastised by one of his own people about the incident. Verse 13 states that the Israelite asked him, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses did eventually become responsible for all of the Israelites and it was because of him and his brother Aaron that the Israelites were freed from Egypt. And it was Moses that led the people to the Promised Land. This was God’s plan for Moses. I want to repeat that Moses knew that he had a purpose. But because that purpose was not completely revealed at that time, he went about it the wrong way and made a mistake. And because of that mistake, he ended up running away from the very people that he was trying to protect.

How are you like Moses in your life? Have you made any mistakes? Did you think about that mistake and say to yourself that you could have avoided some pains if you had just waited a little while longer before taking a particular action? Did you go Ready…Fire…Aim? And then did you look at the damage and realized that you should have aimed first? Don’t worry if you did. I have done the same thing as well. There are some things that I wish I would have thought out a little bit more before I committed to a particular action. But here’s the good news. Even though Moses made a mistake early in his life, he was still able to go ahead and be the man that God destined him to be. You and I can still be the men and women that God has destined us to be. All we have to do is listen for his voice and be obedient. After Moses had been out in the desert for a time, he met God in the form of the burning bush. It was at that moment that Moses was RE-AIMED into the correct direction. We have an opportunity to be re-aimed in the direction that God wants us to go. All we have to do is listen to God when He speaks to us and allow Him to direct our path. We too can be pointed in the right direction. God has a destiny for all of us. Just remember to be patient and allow Him to aim us.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike






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Daily Reminder of Death

I work at a car dealership that is located just off of a busy highway in San Antonio known as Loop 410. Less than ten miles away from our dealership is Fort Sam Army base. So we usually see a lot of traffic coming off the highway and along the access road. Most of the traffic consists of your typical crazy road rage driver. But at least once every two days we also see a funeral procession go by. It’s easy to tell when it’s a funeral. You usually see the motorcycle police flying down the ramp with their lights on and they park in the middle lane of the access road so that all traffic has to stop. The next thing that you see is the hearse, followed by one or two limousines containing the family. After that, you see the line of cars that make up the funeral procession. But you have to look carefully to tell which cars are in the procession and which cars are simply traffic coming off of the highway. The easiest way to tell is that the funeral procession cars are typically the ones with their hazard lights on. This is so each car can tell which cars are going to the grave site and which cars are not. It’s not like Ruston, Louisiana where I’m from. Back home, it’s easy to tell which cars are in the funeral because the other cars pull over to the side of the road when a funeral procession goes by.

Whenever I see the procession go by, I always look to see if I can see the people in the cars. Most of the time the traffic is moving slow enough that I can see the expressions on their faces. The drivers are typically leaning forward and focused on the task at hand. The passengers are either helping the driver navigate, or are staring blankly out of the window. And those are the people that I find the most intriguing. I wonder what’s going on in their minds. I have attended many funerals in my life and I know the things that go through my mind during those drives to the grave site. I typically think about the person occupying the hearse, I think about their life, and the things that have been said about them throughout the day. I also think about the day that people will come to my funeral and the things that they will say about me. I know that sounds a little morbid but it’s the truth.

On one occasion, my friend K. and I were outside watching the latest procession go by and he made an interesting observation. I was telling him about people that I knew who were relatively young, but facing some pretty tough odds concerning sickness. I also told him about a twenty-nine year old minister that had recently died of prostate cancer. He was living the life that God desired of him (as far as we all knew) and then just like that…he was gone. I was thinking about that and saying that life was just not fair sometimes. And K. looked at me and said something that I had not thought about before. He said that we get so caught up in thinking that life is the top of the mountain when it is not. The top of the mountain is actually being able to see God’s face. We spend so much time investing in our lives here on earth that we sometimes forget that this is just a temporary mode of travel, not the final destination. Heaven is the final destination. This life on earth is simply the road that we must travel to get there. The important thing to focus on while we are living is to make sure that we do the things that we need to do in order to get to Heaven. And that is making sure that Jesus is the head of our lives.

To be sure, I don’t want to see God face to face just yet. But I don’t want to get so caught up in holding onto life that I forget that my life is only important in regards to what I am doing for the Kingdom. My job is to make sure that Mike is going to Heaven; then to make sure that my wife and son are being led in the same direction that I am. Finally, I am supposed to make sure that as many people as possible are led to receive Jesus in their lives as well. And that helps to put my focus back in balance. So remember what is most important in life. To be saved, and to make sure others know Jesus for themselves. I hope that this little story will help you to appreciate life fully for what it is. Life is our opportunity to get closer and closer to God until we can see Him face to face.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike






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True Calling

In order to really be a solid minister or Christian, you have to go through some things. How else can you help the people? I am finding out that being a minister isn't just about the sermon. It's about how you relate to others. My family and I have been going through some spiritual growing pains for about the last year and we are learning what it truly means to be in the ministry. But every time I decide that I want to feel sorry for myself, God reminds that there are others that have it rougher than me.

The first situation involved one of my neighbors that got evicted from his house last Wednesday. I don't know him very well, but he had to leave within twelve hours of getting notice. All of the neighbors were helping him to load a moving van so that his possessions would not get left out in the yard in front of what used to be his place of residence. My wife and I went and helped with the moving of things, and I met a lot of my neighbors for the first time that day. It was a horrible way to meet the neighbors, to be sure.

The second situation happened on yesterday(a Wednesday again). I was driving home from work and took a different direction to avoid some traffic when I saw a man sitting on the side of the road. Not exactly on the side of the road, but about twenty feet away from the edge of the road. I knew that he was homeless by his clothes and hair, but something about him made me drive over to a convenience store and get a sandwich for him. It was probably the recent sermon my Pastor preached on the Good Samaritan. As I was driving back over to where I saw him, I wondered to myself if he would accept the sandwich or not. I called him over to my car and asked him if he was hungry. He said yes. I handed him the sandwich and told him my name was Michael. He smiled at me and said his name was Lazarus. I immediately though to myself that I was talking to Jesus(<---see this link for clarification). We talked for a couple of seconds and I left, but I couldn't help the feeling that I had just seen Jesus. Now, I didn't tell you these stories so that you could be impressed with how great I am. Trust me, I have a lot of flaws for God to work on! I told you these stories because they showed me a couple of things: 1. My life could be a lot worse. 2. Jesus is still walking this Earth, waiting to see who is going to speak to Him. Have you seen Jesus lately? Did you speak to Him? Just a thought. Peace and Love, Rev Mike



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My Week In The Hospital Part II (Room 316)

This is a continuation of the post that I made a couple of weeks ago. I was talking about being in the hospital and walking the halls of the third floor. I was realizing that although I needed to be in the hospital, I was not in danger of getting any worse. I was doing what I was supposed to do. That is, I was staying attached to my IV (I named it Joey), I was drinking plenty of water, and I was going to the bathroom every 15 or 20 minutes because of the IV and the water. So I was getting better with every passing day. But because I was in the hospital, and I was not in danger any longer, I had plenty of time to think. So I walked and thought. As I went into the cancer area every day, I would go to an area that I began to call the sun room. It was an area that was about 10 feet wide by 20 feet long. There were three doors in it. One door was the door that I always used as an entrance to the area. The other two doors were locked and marked Employees Only. I assume that they would take me into the secret lair of the hospital. The room was large enough to contain two sofas and three large windows. If you looked out of the windows, you had a lovely view of I-35 and the latest construction going on at the hospital. I have to tell you that I hated that room for two reasons:

1. It was the dead end road on my hallway highway.
2. It was at least 15 degrees hotter in that room than any other area on the floor.

Nevertheless, I still visited the sun room on a daily basis, spent about two minutes in there, and immediately turned around and walked out. One particular day when my wife came to see me, I started getting restless again and told her I wanted to take a walk. She decided to walk with me. So we did my usual route. Down the hall to the ICU area, take three left turns, up the hall to the other end of ICU, take three more left turns, through the double doors back to the main hall. From the main hall, you walk down to the cancer ward and take a right. Go through the double doors and walk down the hall to the end. At the end of the hall is a left turn only. After the left turn, you go through the final set of double doors and viola! You are in the sun room. Now you must remember that I take this walk about three times every day, so I have already decided that I will spend my usual two minutes in there and go back out. But since my wife was with me, she asked me to sit down for a while so that we could relax outside of my room. She immediately liked the sun room because it was an open space. I gave her one of my looks. She told me she liked in there and wanted to sit for a minute. So I lay down on one of the couches in the room and she took the other. As I lay there on my back, I noticed something that I had not seen in about four days. Laying there on the couch I could look out of the window and see the sky and the clouds. I had never stayed in the room long enough to notice. Because my wife made me stay in there, I was able to see the clouds and remember what it was like to be outside. It was a wonderful feeling. For a moment, I was not in the hospital attached to an IV. I was lying on my back, bathing in the sun. I never would have experienced that moment had it not been for my wife. I told her later that I never liked that room until I went in there with her. For the rest of the week, I would go visit the sun room and look out the window. But instead of looking at the highway and the construction, I made it a point to look up at the clouds. And every time I did, I remembered my wife and the beautiful blessing that God has given me in her. When was the last time you looked at the clouds and remembered God's blessings in your life? Why don't you try it today? You never know what you might see.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike





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I Don't Have Any Salt! (Lessons From Room 316)

It was Thursday of last week and I was sitting in my hospital bed. I was so annoyed, I didn't know what to do. It was not that I was upset about being in the hospital. I had already come to terms with what my situation was and accepted it. No, I was angry because I was looking at some unsalted green beans on my plate. This was the second day in a row that I was going to have to deal with some bland tasteless veggies. And I was upset about it. Earlier in the week I noticed that the vegetables never had any seasoning on them. I tried to make due by pushing them around in whatever sauce I could salvage off of the main entree. But on Wednesday and Thursday there was nothing to push the vegetables in. So I was annoyed. Luckily for me, the young lady that brought my tray to me was still in the room serving my roommate. I decided that I'd had enough. As she was walking toward the door, I summoned her back to my bedside. In a polite (but firm) voice, I asked her if it would be possible to have some salt for my vegetables. She looked me square in the eye and said, "Sir, you are on the reagular diet. Your salt is in the package there on your tray". I looked down where she was pointing. There was a small package that held a straw and a napkin. I don't use straws so I had never examined it before. I picked it up and flipped it over. On the other side of the napkin were three little packets. One was sugar. One was pepper. And the final one was... wait for it. Salt! Needless to say, I felt foolish. But I only had myself to blame. You see, I had never asked for salt before. I could have been enjoying the salty goodness of my vegetables all week long and I did not because I had simply failed to ask someone.

There is a biblical lesson that I learned from that moment. In James 4:2 it states, You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You do not have, because you do not ask God (niv). I had sat in my bed, day after day, and silently complained to myself because I had no salt. Up until that final moment, I had not thought to ask anyone for help. I also never actually looked for any salt on my tray. I just assumed that what I wanted was not available. Matthew 7:7-8 states, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened". How many times do we Christians walk around upset over things we don't have only to discover later that the very thing that we wanted was available for us? Even worse, it was right there within our grasp the entire time. But we neither asked for it or looked for it. I could have enjoyed my food even more if I had asked for some salt earlier in the week. It is a lesson that I pray will stay with me from now on. As we go through our days, let us remember to always ask, seek, and knock. Ask God to guide our lives, seek His face, and knock on the door of humility. I use humility because sometimes my pride will not allow me to ask or seek. This lesson was a blessing to me. I hope that you will find it to be a blessing as well.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike





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My Week In The Hospital (Room 316)

I didn't post last Sunday because I was getting sodium bicarbonate pumped into my system. I was getting sodium bicarbonate pumped into my system because the levels of enzymes in my kidneys was around 250,000. These levels should have been less than 1000. How did I do it you ask? I went to work out with a trainer and really overdid it. As a result, my muscles broke down too hard and sent massive amounts of protein and blood to my kidneys and my urine was brown (sorry if that is gross). Anyway, I went to the emergency room and they admitted me in. This was Saturday night/ Sunday morning because I finally got admitted at 1:30am. The next morning the doctor on shift told me that if I would have waited a week to come in, my scenario could have been:
1. Lose both kidneys.
2. Lose liver
3. Death.
4. A really bad combination of all three.

My brother was with me when I woke up Sunday morning. My wife and son arrived a little later on. The rest of Sunday was realizing that I was exceptionally blessed to not have any organ damage, and getting used to the fact that I was going to have to stay in the hospital a few days. On Wednesday, I learned from my assigned doctor that my levels went up to 264,000 before they actually stabilized and began to come down. Once again, I began to realize how serious this could have become. Now I have never been in the hospital before, so the fact that I have to stay in bed all day long is driving me crazy! So I began to walk the halls of the floor that I was on. Basically, the third floor consists of three major areas. The kidney/ major organ wing that I was on, the cancer ward, and ICU. Now I was able to walk pretty much anywhere on the floor I wanted because I was not allowed to go outside. So I walked through the cancer ward and I walked through ICU. This is where I began to see God's blessings in my circumstances. I began to call the ICU ward the place where "they tie you down by you face". This is because almost every patient had something attached to their nose, their mouth, or both. I would assume they were for oxygen and feeding tubes. One person I saw was a double leg amputee with both tubes attached. During the week I would wave to the patients in these rooms as I walked by. They seemed to appreciate it. I didn't go in their rooms because I didn't want to be a pain in the butt. But there was also the possibility that I could infect them with something because their immunity systems were very weak. Most of the nurses and visitors they had were covered up with aprons, gloves, and face masks too. The cancer ward was even more intense. The sign on the door going in stated that no children were allowed into the area under the age of 14. That lets you know how severe their circumstances were. I'll tell you more later.

Peace and Love

Rev. Mike

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The Holy Spirit As an Interpreter

I've been a minister since July of 2001, so I have had plenty of opportunities to see God in action. But, I am only beginning to understand how the Holy Spirit moves in a person's individual life. I have preached many sermons on Sunday mornings and during Wednesday night prayer meetings. Most of the time, I feel like I do a good job expressing what God want me to express. For the record, the word of God always makes a great sermon. It's just that sometimes the preacher (me) doesn't do a great job of translating the scripture. But I discovered a really cool thing about how the Holy Spirit works on people during a sermon. The first time this happened was around 2002 or 2003. I had just preached a really good sermon from the book of Mark chapter 9, where the father of a possessed son stated, "Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief!". I felt that I preached exactly what God wanted me to say and the Holy Spirit moved on the people to understand every illustration that I presented with clarity. After the church service was over, I was shaking hands with everyone and feeling good about how everything had turned out. But that good feeling turned to a slight bit of confusion. As I spoke to three different people, I received three different reviews of what I had said in my sermon. All three people told me that I spoke to them and that they were blessed by what God had revealed to them through my sermon. But they all had three different interpretations!

I discussed this with my Pastor. I told him how I specifically said one thing in my sermon, and somebody heard a completely different message from what I KNOW I said. He smiled and explained to me that what the people understood from my sermon may not have been what I was trying to say to them. But it was what they needed to hear in order to be encouraged. What I am trying to say is that the Holy Spirit took my words and adjusted them to the individual needs of the congregation. As a very elementary example: I was sure that I said apple. One person heard orange. Another person heard peach. Still another person heard grapes. But no matter what they heard, the fruit was still tasty and filling to them. What happens when you hear a sermon? The Holy Spirit will minister to you where you are. You may be further along in your walk with God than I am. Or, I may be further along than you. But we can listen to the same sermon, and both receive a message that is specific to what we need to hear. And we can both be blessed by it. Here's another way of looking at it. I can read a scripture in the Bible and pull a different meaning from it as a thirty-four year old, married, father of one than I did when I was twenty-four years old and single. At both ages, I was able to get something out of the scripture. But my life experiences have changed a lot over the past ten years. As a result, the scripture has been expanded for me in order to apply to a more expanded life. The Holy Spirit has allowed my eyes to be opened up more now at thirty-four because I need it more. As a result, I can appreciate what God is saying to me right now just as you can appreciate what God is saying to you. My prayer for you is that God will continue to speak to you in the way that you need Him to just as He is speaking to me. May we all continue to hear clearly the voice of God today, tomorrow, and forever!

Peace and Love,

Rev Mike





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Hello and Goodbye

Today has been an interesting day. I had the opportunity to experience life and death in less than 24 hours. My wife and I are Godparents to the second child of two of our best friends. So this morning we attended the baby dedication at their church to make it official. For those of you that are not familiar with baby dedications in the Baptist church, it is based on I Samuel 1:1-10. Tonight, I have just returned home from the memorial service of one of the mothers of our church (RIP mama G). In the morning, I had an opportunity to celebrate a new life and all the potential that children have. This evening, I was equally blessed to celebrate the life of a warrior for God that "fought the good fight". I think it is fitting that I pause to reflect on both.

They say that every time someone passes away, somewhere a new life is coming into existence. The new life helps to give back some of what you lose in the old life leaving. How ironic that the new life I celebrated was in the morning and the old life we celebrated was in the evening. In a way, today symbolized the way we can view our own lives. The morning is like the beginning of your life (the birth). The evening is like the end of life (the death). We, as well as everyone else are in some phase of our lives. Weather you are in the morning, noonday, or evening of your life, you have an opportunity to make good on all of the potential that you had when you were born. No matter where you are on your journey, the next step you take is a step toward fulfilling the promise of God in your life. What have you done to ensure that you are fulfilling your potential? What have you done to hinder your progress? I know that I can look back over the past year of my life and see the good and bad decisions that I have made. But today has helped me to realize that no matter what we are doing, we only have so much time to do it in. I ask again... where are you in the day of your life? What are you going to do with the time that you have left? I hope that you can think about it and push on toward what God has planned for you. Don't know what God has planned? Just ask. I know He wants to tell you.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike

I See God In My Fishtank

Don't worry, I'm not losing it. This does have a point. I recently acquired a twenty gallon aquarium and set it up. A good friend of mine gave me six fish to get me started. Everything was going fine for the first month and then I decided to add about four more fish. Well, let's just say that everything got a little unpredictable after that. I had one fish literally changed colors to show himself as the dominant fish. He then began to kill off the others! The four new fish were all dead within 48 hours. And he even killed one of the original fish and then he and the other four remaining fish stripped the body down to the skeleton! After some research on the Internet, I discovered that the death of some of the fish was unavoidable. You see, even I were to go in and remove the dominant fish, another fish would take over the dominant role within the tank. Then the new dominant fish would exert his or her authority over the tank. It's just the way it is. That's kind of the way life is... Now here I go, so follow me on this.

Our lives are kind of like my aquarium. We are just going along minding our own business when wham! Life comes along and shows it's true colors. The next thing we know, we have lost friends, family, time, patience, and fellowship with God. We can't control everything that happens in our world. But we can control how we react to it. Even though we get attacked by life on a daily basis, we can go to God for relief. The trick is not to try to avoid the pitfalls in life. The trick is to make sure that we have a good relationship with God no matter what our situation. Life is full of hills and valleys. Either you are just coming out of a trial, you are going through a trial, or you are on your way into a trial. There is always going to be something. But as long as we have God on our side, we know that eventually everything will be okay in the end. Even if the end result is death, we have a home in Heaven. My goal with this one is just to let you know that you cannot control everything that happens in your "fishbowl" life. But thankfully, you don't have to. Give up control to God. Today and in the future. And everything is going to be alright in the end.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike

picture by michael thompson





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Father Figure

Everything I ever learned about being a man, I learned from my brother. Pure and Simple. My brother taught me how to tie a necktie, stand up tall, and shake hands like a man. I later practiced that firm grip on him, the older men at church, and all of my sister's boyfriends. Those were the little things that he taught me. He took great care to ensure that I knew Basic Manhood 101. But everything he taught me as a kid paled in comparrison to what he taught me as an adult.

As an adult, he taught me how to change my thinking about people, how to be a good husband to my wife, and how to be a good father to my son. The interesting thing about it is that he didn't know he was teaching me these things at the time. He was just being the man that God commanded him to be. He lived his life and took care of his family. He did this as a physical provider, but more importantly, he did it as a spiritual leader, a nurturer, and an encourager. He never tries to force his hand, but always looks for an opportunity to give advise when needed. He is my pattern as a husband, a father, and as a man of God. I just wanted you to know that... Thanks J.

Peace and Love,

Rev. Mike





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