Thoughts From Brian

Hello Friends,

It is such and honor and blessing to serve the Lord! He gives so many blessings to each and every one of us. Some of them we see and some we don't see! None of us deserve the blessings that God gives, yet He gives them to us anyway. Inside all of us that should evoke some type of response. In me it produces an extreme desire to want to serve Him in any way I can and in ways I can't. God will fulfill the desires in our heart that are His desires. His most extreme desire is that we would love this world in His name. We all feel quite inadequate to accomplish this task but we must remember that love is a decision. I have to actively make a choice to serve Him, to love Him and to love others on His behalf.

Like you, I have been bought with the Blood of Jesus Christ and my life is not my own. God wants me to spend my life on Eternal things, on things that will matter throughout eternity. The things that I possess in the here and now will matter very little on the other side of life (in eternity).

We all must focus on the things that are above. In Colossians 3:1-3 "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

Jesus came to seek and save the lost, to bring light into the darkness, to set the captives free and to find those that are lost and give them Eternal Life. This is our calling and it can only be accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit. But it all starts with a choice! Lets chose today to pick up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Him.

Luke 9:23-25 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"

Brian

Hello Friends,

I want to share with you the things I am most thankful for:

1) My Eternal Life through Jesus Christ and my relationship with God
No gift Card or gift could ever match such a wondrous gift. In 2007 Let's thank God every day that Jesus made a way for us to reach the Father in Heaven and is even now preparing a place for us to dwell with Him for all Eternity amidst the beauties of heaven. This is truly the unspeakable gift! "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." 2 Corinthians 9:15

2) Family
I have the greatest family in the world and hope you can say the same. Anne is amazing! Megan is dazzling! Katelyn is terrific! JJ is awesome! The best fam in the world right here in my house! Wow, ain't (excuse me, I meant isn't) God grand! But even if you don't feel that way about your family at least you have one so treasure them every day! There are hundreds of millions of orphans in the world who have never even been adopted into a family many of them live on the streets looking for food and a place to sleep each night.

3) Purpose
If you are a Christian you do have purpose! Perhaps you haven't discovered the intimate details of it yet. But if you read the holy book (the bible) you have a general idea of what it is and can start the New Year living to fulfill it. We can start with this: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Luke 10:27 Many people in America just drift through life working for position and accumulation of wealth. We on the other hand have PURPOSE to live each day to bring glory to God and to bring others to the Treasure of Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.

5) Friends

I feel very fortunate to have a great pool of friends in my life. They truly are the greatest friends! Many, I don't see often but just knowing they are there is a good feeling and I know I can count on them if I need them. I pray they feel the same about me and that you feel that way about your friends. Don't hold any grudges or un-forgiveness towards them or anyone, for it is like a cancer that hurts all infected by it's grip. Even if a friendship in the past seemed to end on a sour note, let's learn to hold no feelings of anger or un-forgiveness towards them but rather, treasure the good memories of every friendship and let the bad go, just like Jesus and God my Father does for me! "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Hebrews 10:17

5) Provision
We are not a wealthy family by this countries standards but I thank God today that He has provided all of our needs "according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19. This Christmas many people are looking for certain things under the tree and will forget for a moment about that certain person, Jesus who died upon the tree for our sins and spiritual poverty. As we go through the day lets thank God for everything and everyone in our path let's not even think about what we don't have or wish we had, let's just thank God! He knows what we need and will provide it if it is a necessity. Did you know that the 1.2 billion poorest people in the world live on a mere $1 a day.
Let's thank God that He has blessed us beyond that but also commit this Christmas and this year to help the poor and needy from the pool of provision He has given us. We all can do something and that certainly would make Jesus happy on this day we celebrate His birth.

Statistics say that if we own a house and a car (which many of us do) we are among the 5% richest people in the world. So this year, let's do what we can to give something to the poor and needy.

We've already done our shopping and perhaps opened the gifts that our families and friends have given us. We've thanked God for the people and things He has brought into our lives. We've perhaps enjoyed some special Christmas celebrations with our churches or friends. So now let's take a moment and ask God "What would you have me do to spread your blessings to this world you still so love?"

He will show us, He loves those kinds of prayers!

God bless you and your family today as you celebrate His birth!

Brian

So often we live our lives waiting for and dreaming about some moment or moments in the distant or not so distant future. We refer to that time as SOMEDAY! It's that place and time where we perhaps see ourselves serving God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. It's that place and time, where we'll be determined to do the things that make a difference for God! Things like feeding the poor, helping the homeless, caring for the orphans and widows and most importantly evangelizing those that don't know Jesus Christ and are headed for a very real Hell where they will face eternal separation from God and eternal torment.

SOMEDAY, we think to ourselves, we'll be free of all the burdens and distractions of life to serve Him wholeheartedly. SOMEDAY, I can see it now!

Believe me brothers and sisters, it's great for us to dream about serving God wholeheartedly in the future but there's a problem with this type of thinking and living, if it doesn't include some TODAY. Unfortunately, it's how many of us live! We bypass or walk right through the divine appointments that God has given us today to be a blessing to someone and we put off until "tomorrow" or SOMEDAY what God has called us to do and be today

It's so easy to say and think "I'll do it, SOMEDAY! At least that makes us look like we are concerned about doing the most important things. But truthfully, if we are the SOMEDAY type of thinkers we are what I call KINGDOM PROCRASTINATORS. One of our favorite phrases has become "I don't feel led" and we can never seem to find the time in our busy schedules to do the most important things. We have become "hearers only" of God's word. God has called us to be "doers" of the word, in thought and deed, TODAY and SOMEDAY!

Let me say, I'm a firm believer in God's grace and mercy, I draw upon it every day and I'm sure you do as well! We need it to be freed from our selfishness and shortsightedness. We need it to get beyond being people who just dream about serving God to being people who actually do serve God.

TODAY, by God's grace and mercy we need to become people of vision, determination, commitment, sacrifice and surrender! And SOMEDAY, when time as we know it ends we can stand before God and hear Him say "well done, though good and faithful servant".

I know that SOMEDAY will come, if we keep our eyes on the one who gave His all for us and begin to give our all for HIM and for those Jesus died for. Why not start TODAY?

In His love and service, Brian Weller