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Have you ever had someone in ministry, or even someone who knew you were a Christian ask you this? I for years dreaded this question because when I got asked what my testimony was the only thing I could usually think of, if I was lucky was something good that happened that week. Some weeks I dreaded that question because of my own negative and struggled to find something Good that had happened in the last week…However I can say Thank You Lord, I have a different perspective on life now. I’m no longer bound by negative but I know that my king died for me and that through him I do truly live a more abundant life. I am a child of the MOST HIGH KING! Amen!

Anyways what comes to mind when I think of my testimony is finally having God’s grace to forgive the person who tried to kill me when I was 16 years old. I won’t mention their name is it’s now under grace, but for years I always thought to myself then would ask for forgiveness, but I thought is this going to keep me from getting into heaven. The day that I made the step to forgive her wasn’t a day that I would have expected to either. I walked into a local eatery and was having dinner with my wife, I had saw her sitting with friends eating as I walked in but avoided making any contact with her. The entire time I dined I was thinking to myself you really need to walk down there and just tell her you forgive her. Today could be your last chance. I finally convinced myself to do it but I told myself I was going to do it as we were leaving so that we could enjoy our meal and I wouldn’t have to worry if anything went sour about my dining experience be ruined. After eating and paying I approached her table and I identified myself in a way that she would know exactly who I was. I then referenced the incident that caused me so many years of pain and even hate towards the individual. She denied it but she and I both know the truth, plus she had admitted to doing so in a court hearing once so hey I know what’s s true…Anyways, I just looked at her and as calmly as I could as I was super nervous I said I just wanted you to know that I forgive you before I turned around and walked out. Getting into the car, I felt as though the weight over 2 tons just rolled off my shoulders. More recently, I have been cleaning the pews of the church with an upholstery shampooer, while not grand it’s a step into serving the ministry that I’ve not previously been a part of. I’m looking forward to see where I grow within the ministry and look forward to many years serving Lyons Community Church or wherever God has me to be.

Well it’s getting closer and closer to March 25-26, 2022. I’m so excited to take a trip to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum with the church. When Leslie announced the church wanted to take a trip and visit this, that it was open to anyone as long as they paid their way I was beyond excited. I actually thought my mom would enjoy so I invited her, and my brother Paul was interested as well as Jr and even my nephew Kelan. So now it’s pretty much going to be a family affair haha.

Anyways, I did get the chance to talk to Lesli about a week ago about how this whole getting there thing was going to work and we basically decided that we would meet as a group at the church in Lyons, we would leave from there and try the best that we can to Convoy as a group to Kentucky and arrive at Ark Encounter at roughly the same time. Currently the plan is to get to the parking lot about 9a and enjoy a day there. I’m hoping having activities like this will get my family to be more open to coming and checking out my church.

So anyone that’s known me personally for a while probably knows how much I can’t stand B.O. like it literally makes me sick to my stomach. Well this morning I walked out of the house not even in a rush, but forgot to apply deodorant before leaving. So of course upon discovering this I half freak out because I don’t have any deodorant in the rental car and I have to go into work at 9a. It was 7a when I realized this, knowing it took me an hour to get to Bloomington this morning to drop Mykle off because of the Icy Roads I knew running home for a stick was out of the question. Before Mykle got out of the car, I had her check our bank account I figured there was more than enough and there was but didn’t want to spend money she had planned for something else. So I go head towards Walmart after dropping her off. In my head I’m thinking “If I forgot to apply deodorant before work, what in the world does the day have in store for me?”. So I park and start heading for the door and noticed there is an elderly lady leaned up against the back end of her car, obviously unsteady on her feet in Icy conditions. I stopped to ask her if she needed a helping hand to get inside the store and offered her my arm. She obliged and I walk with her in, she begins to tell me that she fell already once this morning and was sore, but knew if she fell again she most likely wouldn’t be getting back up without having to go to a Nursing Home for Rehab. (Inside chuckle cause I work for Garden Villa and the specialize in this) so we walk slowly towards the door and she tells me she had just been sitting in her car praying and Asking God that he not let her fall again and that she was so thankful and blessed that I came along.

So I we get inside Walmart and she goes her way and I go mine. At this point the whole this day is going to be a rough one starts to dissipate and I began to think Wow, man I was in the right place at the right time for her. Then it dawned on me. I wasn’t just in the right place at the right time, God allowed me to be an answer to her prayer. I forgot to apply deodorant so that I would go out of my way to Walmart to purchase a stick, I would just so happen to arrive and walk in at the time she needed a steady arm to get her across the parking lot. Thank you lord for allowing me to be a vessel for you and for allowing to be the answer to someone else’s prayers. Allow me to continue to be used in the manner and to do it in a good attitude. Amen.

I’m not sure if I shared it with everyone whom is reading this but last month Prophet Bob prophesied that our church would do 30-days of Fasting & Prayer. I didn’t do a Food fast, but a social media fast. As someone who commonly “Doom” scrolls through facebook or browse’s Twitter for new tech articles to read yesterday was a hard day. I wanted so hard to keep opening the app, opened it up a couple times but as it was loading I closed it and had to remind myself that I was fasting. I don’t consider that cheat as it was rather a moment of human weakness but I overrode that in reminder and in prayer that I was trying to accomplish something bigger. I signed up for both Friday 4th & 11th. I feel next Friday will be more impact for me as it will be a second time of doing so and feel I should also have better self control over myself in this fast.

I can’t wait to see how not only how I grow but how our church body grows as well. Lord thank you for covering me in grace and allowing me to continue to grow in you.

I know, I know…It’s that time of year again, New Year=New me! Well guess what, every year people make many resolutions they never intend to stick to. Why? Simply because they get caught up in the whole peer pressure that at the beginning of every year you have to do something to better yourself. Why do most of these resolutions fail then? Simply put the attitude and mindset do not align with the goal set.

Say for example I say this year I want to lose 60lbs, I’ll be happy with my body, how I look and I’ll be more attractive. It’s a nice goal, healthier, slimmer, and even more attractive. However this goal will likely fail because the core of the goal is simply to lose weight, in HOPES of being happy. So how does one actually set attainable goals? The first step is to be happy with who you are at your core. Have a core set of values, check everything you do by these values and you will not have to go around feeling guilty or shameful all the time. The second key is to get a positive mindset. 90% of our battles take place in our head, our enemy Satan will put temptations in front of us to hinder us. The bible says resist temptation and it shall flee, this is the truth, but we must also decide that just because temptation has come our way or because we’ve had a rough day that we will not let that detract from our growth. If our mindset is to grow into a better version of ourselves and we fall short. Our first step is to ask God the father to forgive us of our uncleanliness, we do this in prayer. After petition God and become clean we ask the Lord to give us strength to fight the battle next time. That’s all! Now the battle has been won in the heart and in the mind and we no longer have to worry about our eternal soul. And we can go back to be our happy self again.

Well if you’re looking at your calendar, you can already tell this is written during the Christmas season. This is a season I have despised for years. However this year I have decided to embrace the Christmas spirit. I’ve bought several Christmas cards and will be sending them out soon. I was actually semi-happen to see the Christmas tree go up. Today my wife and I drove out to Tulip to the Tulip Trestle and watched the Santa Train pass overhead. We then went to the craft show and looked at Christmas tree and ornaments, why we decided to not purchase those items today we did come home and put up Christmas lights outside.

Yesterday when I came home, I checked the mail in the mailbox as usual to see what the day had brought. In it I received a card from my work. Upon opening it was a card entitled “Thank you” The card had a handwritten note thanking me for being so flexible with them and doing what they had asked of me and not complaining much of it. Inside the card though was also a folded piece of paper. It was printed a e-mail. I had taken a resident out as is standard business in my line of work, and I encountered a family member of that resident. The family membered emailed the staff at my company to say that he appreciated the attention, and patience I had given to their loved one in their time of need. He wanted to make sure that it got back to my supervisor that in their eyes I was an asset to my employer.

After having worked what felt like a day in forever, to come home to such a nice letter just made my day.

We all love having a clean house, car and even a clean church. But to get these things clean, we must work at it. We must remove all the filth that makes them impure.

In our spiritual life we need to do the same thing. We must remove all the filth that makes us impure. Things like unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, and even revenge. With our earthly things you must cleansers to remove filth. It can be anything from soap to using a sweeper. With your spiritual life you must use only the purest cleansers. We must remove that filth with prayers and forgiveness.

God is our cleaner. He will come in and clean out the old filthy hear. If we go to him in prayer and we have forgiven others, then he will purify our heart again. So if we love having clean things, then we know how to get them clean now. Keep using the cleaner (God) to keep our heart pure. No one likes to stay in a dirty place, and neither does the Holy spirit. Let’s keep a clean heart, like we want our other things to be kept clean.