Is it in you?

been away for a bit...fighting the flu/ common cold....and long work hours so please forgive my absense......
today at church there was a guest pastor....his message was on the fact that we all have what we need inside ourselves to accomplish the tasks at hand in our life.....it was a good message and I took away a few things from it that I hope I can impliment into my life..... one quote in particular was a instant favorite.

" we tend to over value what we are not and under value what we are."

that is almost true in every aspect of life for almost all of us....I encourage you to stop that way of thinking....I was always told by my grandmother as a child that if I wanted something badly enough I could have it....just go for it and dont let anything stop you from getting it......sounds like your run of the mill inspirational quote for life but ....I tested it out....

At the ripe old age of 14 I met and instantly fell in love with the woman i now call my wife.....I won't go into detail about how many bumps ther ewere along the way let me just say that the hardships we faced as a couple starting at age 14 until now would tear apart 9 out of 10 marriages....GUARANTEED....and im not talking about those minor squabbles of so and so thinks so and so is cute....or I heard you flirted with this person....or I saw you checking her out.....yes we did those but those shouldnt even come close to rocking your marriage.....im talking about families not approving and actually trying to keep you apart....hundreds and at times thousands of miles between us....the loss of a baby...stupid decisions..bad financial decisions..looking for answers in a bottle....straight up spitting in the face of GOD... you name it and we have probably been through it....NO JOKE.... but with all that there.......here I stand at 29 years old with that same girl now as my wife and mother of not 1 but 3 children....and the only answer I can come up with as to how we could do this ....GOD....he gave us a love so strong we knew from the first moment we wanted to be together and we neer let anything stop us.....or relationship was tested and pressured and placed under fire....but by the grace of GOD we today have ....in my opinion....the best and strongest relationship two people can have....

Please let this sink in on you and think about what im trying to say here...... You have what you need in your life to be happy....I promise you....al you have to do is stay faithful to GOD and dont let the world deter you from what GOD wants to give to you.
Hope this helps someone.
Dave

I havent been posting lately due to LOOONG work hours.....sorry...but for those of you still reading....I have two requests.....1 do any of you out there know of a good method for studying the bible.... my wife is looking for a partiular method of breaking down the bible for everyday application.....2nd question....we have a tough choice ahead.....I ask that you pray for us...but any verse that anyone can point me in the direction of for making tough choices concerning the family.

Act of Random Kindness

i have seriously been considdering making a huge sign that lets people know that in these hard times Jesus is there for them and standing on the corner of independance blvd and va beach blvd on friday afternoon at around 4 and just seeing what kind of response I get....wild? stupid? I dunno.....I just want to do it once....once....and see if i get fruit from it.....comment me and let me know what you think.

A ct of
R andom
K indness

ARK....got it from evan almighty....good movie!

Why GOD, why?

Today I dont really have much pulling at me. Outside of the norm anyway so I will just go with a random verse if thats cool with you guys.

Habakkuk 1:2 (niv)

How long O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, Violence! but you do not save?

this is a tough one to swollow....it is a conversation between the prophet and GOD....it asks the same questions most people ask when confronted with GOD...... If god is real why does bad stuff happen.....
I have read a book or two on apologetics but I am not as well versed as I should be when it comes to answering these types of questions... What I gather from 1 Halley's Bible Handbook 2Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole bible and two different applications from the NIV and what I can recall from several various apologetics books is this.....

Though it may seem like your prayers are going unanswered at these times or that GOD is absent from these things , KNOW that he is NOT.....most times you have to look at the long term things.....his will in these matters usually doesnt present itself until much later....and I think that is wherethe popular phrase hind sight is 20/20 comes from.....I know this is where the foot prints story is inspired ..... often times we blame GOD when things go wrong even though the bible tells us in James 1:2-4 Considder it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. because you know that the testing of you faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Then again in James...James 1:12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial,because when he has stood the test, he will recieve the crown of life that GOD has promised to those who love him.

I know to the non believer this sounds so "Standard Christian Response" GOD has a purpose blah blah blah....hope ...faith.... yadda yadda ya.... To that I can only say...fine...believe that GOD just hates you...believe that there is a GOD and rather than what the bible says about him think that he isnt perfect and does hate you....so if somone so powerful hates you sooo much ....how then are you able to have any joy in your life.....any one second of happiness...even that one shred of luck that falls your way from time to time.....if GOD does hate you and does have the power to infulence your life in such ways why then do you get moments of stressless living? That to me is a much harder question to answer.....

In closing know this....sometimes you suffer so that you may learn a lesson.....if that is the only reason its still a good one. your parents use the method when they punish you for a wrong doing and it hopefully worked there......know that GOD does not hate you or anyone going through tough times...maybe he is simply trying to break them and show them how much they really need him.....who knows ...not me. Hope this helps someone.

Anger Answers

here is what the bible says:
Eph 4:26 (niv)
In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

Why?

Eph 4:27 (niv)
Do not give the devil a foothold.

Anger stored up becomes wrath....and you should not considder youself as one who can wield the power of wrath.....only GOD can wield wrath and still be fair in judgment.....you as a human will most likely go overboard!

plus....in the event you are angry at someone the bible says in james (james 2:8 niv)
If you really keep the royal law found in scripture "Love your neighbor as yourself" you are doing right.

and we all know that those who pass judgment will be judged accordingly......keep that in mind before you blow up on somone.......

None of these say it is wrong to be angry....infact if you look at my first statement it is assumed that you will at some point become angry......so I would say anger is not WRONG persay.....its how you handle it ....go figure right.

I will say that medically it can be harmful to hold your anger in....it can cause a LOT of physical ailments and emotional turmoil.....so if you are getting angry....find an outlet.

I am as of yet unable to find an outlet for my anger.....my traditional ways are not working lately and I am seeing that a few of those ways were not as healthy for me as i thought they might be....soo I am on a search for a new way to relieve some of my anger wish me luck!

Anger

Lately I have been feeling an old friend creep back into my life.... I have been getting more angry at the smallest of things lately.... I was at first chalking it up to my situation.....or the fact that I have been keeping it bottled up for a while but now I am beginning to wonder if its not apart of another of my prayers.....recently i asked god to fill me with passion....Iwas and am tiered of living a dull existance and i wonder if anger isnt a part of the way I show passsion.....I dont know why but looking back on it I see in my life that where I get passionate about thingsthere also is a bit of anger attached to it.... I cant help but think its just part of who I am.....do you think this is wrong? is this normal? is it healthy? these are all things tha pass through my head when i finally calm down from being angry....... I dont want to bottle my anger up again as it makes me feel less emotional on a daily basis but I know that my anger is also the most powerful of my emotions and it can cause me to act irrational or worse....Im kinda cought on this one....gonna hit the books and see what i find....feel free to comment me any suggestions.

Breakdown!

Today I had a breakdown of my soul.... today while alone...in the shower...I began to pray outloud to the lord....I was asking hime fo rthe wisdom I need to lead my life and my family in todays world...but as I was praying for this I realised that part of me wanted the wisdom so that people would admire me in a way....but when I realized what i was doing I stopped...I hit my knees and I asked GOD right ther to humble me...humble my heart....put me in the right place and then fill me with the wisdom I needed to glorify him and not me....I thanked him for my family...I thanked him for my wife...she is my inspiration and a major part of the man I am today....I thanked him for sending such an awsome loving and supportive woman to help me in my life....then I thanked him for sending his son JESUS to earth ....I thanked him for sacrificing himself on the cross for my sins and the sins of the world.....I asked GOD to use me as a tool to open the eyes of those who have not yet seen the path ....and GOD filled my heart with absolute SORROW....There I was in the shower on my knees praying to GOD and weeping like a small child.......I was overcome with grief and sorrow and the feeling of being unworthy of what JESUS had done for me and for what GOD had blessed me with in my life.....the tears fell sooo hard and so fast I couldnt believe it..... I felt my stone cold...passionless heart break into more pieces than there are grains of sand in the desert......and I got out of the shower and sat in my room crying .....finally I was able to get my arms around my wife and again...the tears fell.....

I know for those of you reading this your probably going ....OK ...he cried...and... but thats what is important....I prayed to be humbled and GOD answered me right then and there.....I as a man normally do not cry..... I have been in many painful situations in life and many joyful situations and tears are not a normal response for me.....not saying i havent shed tears but they are not normal....... I am a man who works in construction and coaches football....I have told my son before when questioned why dont you cry dad...I told him because men dont cry....yeah im that guy....a bullet hole in the chest wont get me to cry but here I am ...balling like a baby.....talk about being humbled...... it was an amazing experience.....I can't put into words how awsome it felt ......but I can say I have a new view of the lord and the sacrifices he made for US.....
I hope this helps someone.

Fasting 2

ok so for those of you who were interested...here is what i learned on my fasting experience....
I found myself twinge once or twice with hunger but it served mostly as a reminder to me to stop and pray for those women we were fasting for.... I cant honestly say I felt closer to GOD that day as a result of my fasting but I was able to focus on my prayer life in greater detail for one day....infact I felt like I should have gone for moe than a day as honestly there wasn't much to fasting for 24 hours.....at the end of it I honestly wasnt hungry until I finally ate something....My hope is that as a church our fasting doesnt go unanswered....time will tell. Ill keep you posted.

For those of you waiting to find out what fasting is...... Fasting is in its most BASIC lamens terms....a trade off.....you are going before GOD and saying lord...this part of my life needs attentionand as an effort to get more help from you in this area....I am going to 1 humble myself and ask for your help...2 i am going to give up the luxury and indulgance of food for this ammount of time as a sacrifice to you to show you how serious I am taking this and how much I would like to have and need you help with this....Its a sacrifice to the lord on your behalf....There is scripture upon scripture about how to do this and website upon website about how to and not to do this propperly....I urge you all to pick up a bible and get in the word....do some research and try it.....its actually something we as christians should be doing as a part of our walk so please look into it further for yourself and let me know how it works for you. Hope this helps someone.

Fasting part 1

As an experiment I would liek to know what everyone thinks fasting is and or is for....please either leave me a comment at the bottom of this post or email me at coachdave757@gmail.com I will beposting about what fasting really is tomorrow and then be filling you in about my experience with a recent fast on the following day.....please also feel free to let me know about any stories you hae about fasting. thanks in advance.
This will help some one :)

P.S. soul central on wed night at 8....Wave church! see you there.

hello all,
Sorry I didnt write yesterday....between two AWSOME sessions at WAVE CHURCH in Va beach and prepping snacks for the game plus we did "meet the pastors" where I may have trash talked my way into a basketball game with one of the pastors....not worried he only played for NC State...averages 33.3% from the arc and 100% from the line for his career at that school....im in for it this time LOL...itll be fun... at anyrate sorry I couldnt squeeze you guys in there yesterday I hope you forgive me.

It feels really good to be apart of a church that wants you there....not judging you....not just asking you to empty your pockets but genuine want for your companionship....fellowship...input the whole thing.....I have been invited to several cell groups and am going to atleast one of them comming very soon....the 13th...It feels really good.....oh and as an update the friend I brought to soul central a week or so ago is bringing a friend this week.....awsome stuff.... Its so hard to focus on daily life right now....I just want to wrap myself up in the church and enjoy myself....I know thats bad but good at the same time....but here is the real scarry thing...we are all but committed to moving to Houston in 6 months or so...we new it was gong to be hard to leave but this church has laready got me questioning my motives to move.....we will see...

For those of you in driving distance of a WAVE church I urge you to take in a service....if you dont like it then dont go back....but if you take in just 1 service with an open mind....I promise you will be back! Honestly its like jesus is throwing a party and its happening at WAVE....If you dont know where on eis email me or check out thier website... www.wavechurch.com hope to see some of you there!
as always... I hope this helps somebody