Conversations with you

They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.  John 6:21 How often do you want to take Jesus into you boat bit he has already given you what you need?  The disciples of Jesus were in a boat in the dark of night and the sea was stirred up.  The same thing happens in our lives when we it is dark and the wind has made our heart restless.  We we feel that Jesus is distant in our lives and we feel alone and afraid.  Jesus reminds us constantly we are never alone for I am with you always.  How often we reach a point that, ok Jesus I have struggled enough I should have asked for help a long time ago, but he knew what you needed and provided for you before you finished asking.  Jesus is always at your side ready  to guide your boat through the rough times to the place you were heading.   And they arrived immediately, God is not restricted by time.  Th...

“Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”  Luke 24:32 This scripture passage is where it all began for us.  Stephanie and I were sitting in a garden at a church in Sedona and praying for direction.  (Picture  of  the flower garden and of us in the garden)  A man walked past and asked, "what are you praying about".  From this point forward he changed our lives.  We sat and talked to him for hours, and he truly opened the scriptures for us, this was our "Emmaus moment".  He said things in a way that made sense and showed us what God was telling us in the scriptures and how that played into our lives.  Our hearts before this were not open to what God was trying to tell us, "Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!". (Luke 24:25)  What does that mean?  What are you telling us?  It took a while to c...

They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.  Mathew 28:9 When you greet Jesus, how do you react?  Do you bow at his feet and give him the respect he deserves?  Do you remember what he did for you?  Do you know that just 4 short days ago he hung upon a cross to take away your sins?  Do you truly understand what this world would be if the suffering, death and resurrection never occurred?  Where your life would be?  Try reading Leviticus chapter 18 or Numbers chapter 11 and see if this would be a better life that you would like to follow.  Jesus Christ came into this world to save us from all sin and for that I will always bow at his feet and thank him for everything that he has done for me.   There are people that will persecute Jesus and deny him.  There are people who will not follow his commandments and beatitudes.  There are people who just can not find time to give him the Adoration and respect he deserves. ...

Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.  John 8:34 We are less than two weeks away from Easter and this is our opportunity to seek God's forgiveness.  We are all sinners, until you can admit that you don't stand a chance.  Once you admit that you are a sinner you need to understand that God wants to forgive you of your sins.  There is alot of discussion around confession and what is right and what is wrong.  First look at what John 20:23 says, "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven" and then look at Leviticus 19:21-22 "he shall bring his compensation to the Lord, to the entrance of the tent of meeting,  a ram for a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for the sin that he has committed ".  The bible is an a...

I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.  John 5:30 Today's Gospel of John comes after Jesus heals the man who had been by the Bethesda for thirty-eight years.  He longed to be healed.  Tradition holds that the first person to feel the swirling water would be healed, and he struggled each time to get there.  Thirty-eight years is a long time to wait for healing, Jesus knew his faith was strong, did he truly believe the waters would  heal him or was he waiting for Jesus.  At this point Jesus said, "pick up your mat and walk" and the man was instantly healed.  This irritated the Jews who followed each letter of the law, not only was the man carrying his mat on the Sabbath, but Jesus healed him on the Sabbath.  After the healing is where Jesus equals himself to God and this irritated the Jews more and were looking for a reason to kill Jesus....

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.  (Luke 1:30-33) Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord.  Do you fear God?  What are you afraid of?  Are you afraid of what he might ask of you?  Are you afraid of what he might  tell you?  The fear lies in not wanting to change who you are, not wanting to accept the fact that there is a power above all that can change you.  Fear is not accepting the fact that you are wrong and he is right.  Apply the words that Mary says in response. to your life, "may it be done onto me according to your word", (Luke 1:38) The true fear is in the fact that I can not or I will not change the ar...

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.  I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  Mathew  5:17 To do the will of God is to understand what the fulfillment of the law really means.  Am I doing right if I do the least possible for any particular activity during my day?  Am I doing right if I stand idle while someone talks bad about a person that I do not know or that I do not like?   Jesus did not come into this world to recreate all that God had created, he came to answer the questions we have around what God created.  He fulfilled everything that was written in the old testament that was prophesied and is answered in the new testament with his words that were spoken.  Jesus tells us a little later that eventually heaven and earth will pass, but until then his law will stand as a testament for all generations.  And if you abide by the law in following the commandments you will  be ...