1 Peter 2:18-23

18 You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters. Do whatever they tell you – not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are harsh. 19 For God is pleased with you when for the sake of your conscience, you patiently endure unfair treatment. 20 Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong. But if you suffer for doing what right and are patient beneath the blows, God is pleased with you. 21 This suffering is all part of what God has called you to do. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in his steps. 22 He never sinned, and he never deceived anyone. 23 He did not retaliate when He was insulted. When he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.

I was challenged in a devotion the other day to rate myself in my faith using the ranks of military command. After a bit of easy research I found out that there several rankings from Private, to Corporal, to Sergeant to General, to Major, all the way up to the General, there were 19 rankings in all. I had no idea that there was such a chain of command in the military. Anyways it didn’t take me long to realized that I am still in boot camp. Boot camp is a disciplined period of time where you need to focus your attention on training to prepare yourself for battle. I feel as though I am not yet prepared for graduation to Private, even with all of the bible studying that I have been doing over the 3 months. Or maybe I am ready and I am just to humble to admit it.

The next days devotion talked about submission to authority. This is where 1 Peter 2:18-23 comes in. God always does things in his timing, not ours. This was perfect timing on Gods part. I have been dealing with some stuff at work that is unfair, unjust, and just plain not right. I was almost to a breaking point when God allowed me to rediscover this verse about submission. It opened my eyes to who I am. I am a servant of the Living God. God is my General, and I do his will, not mine. God commands us to submit to those in higher authority that we are weather they are right or not. It is Gods job to judge those who are wrong, not ours. That doesn’t mean that we can’t stand up for what is right, but we need to respect higher authority in the end. One day, we will all stand before God on our judgment day.

It is not our job to complain, because complaining never does anybody any good. If you are going to complain to anybody, complain to God first, and if you need to complain to a person, it should be to a very selective group of people whom you trust, these people would know God, and you should only complain to them looking for constructive feedback, as well as accountability.

Let me get of topic for just a moment to express an opinion. There are over 6 million Facebook users today. That is more that the population of the USA, even though less than 20% of the people on Facebook live here in our country. Anyways, I have 56 facebook friends, which is weird because I used to have 58, someone must have dropped me as friend. I cannot believe how many people use Facebook to complain. Facebook is a great tool, it has revolutionized the way we communicate to the world. It is meant to update statuses, and pictures, and videos of you and your family, it is not meant to be a complaining tool. People abuse that privilege way to much. I have a few friends that have almost 1000 friends. If you complaining to the wrong people, it can come back to haunt you. I know someone who lost a job from what he complained about on his Facebook. You never know who is listening, your information is not as secure as you may think. Use Facebook for its intended purpose, not to complain to the world. Instead of complaining about your problems, focus your energy on doing something about it.

Ok, that was my Facebook tangent, thanks for letting me vent. So my point is that we submit to God and his authority, and he commands us to submit to the authority of those higher than us, he will deal with those who abuse it in his own way in his own time. Please understand that I have a hard time with this verse, as well as submission to authority, but that devotion the other day was a great gentle reminder that we serve God not man.

On a final note totally off topic, I would like to tell you about a personal decision that Jane and I made last week. We are currently tithing about 6.5% of our income. We started out at 5% and we are slowly working our way to 10%. Our 10% date was going to be the first Sunday in January 2011, about a year form now. We had a 3 year plan. We decided to take a step of Faith, so on Sunday January 3rd 2010, a year early, we are going to start tithing a the full 10% of our annual income. The reason that this is such a huge step of faith is because we are going to be short about $200 a month. We have no idea where this extra $200 a month if going to come from, but we are trusting that God will provide. We are both a bit nervous, but we trust God. I tell you about this for encouragement and accountability. We won’t go back, it will 10% from here on out no exceptions, but like I have said before, I want people to know that I am striving to be the real deal, not just some self righteous Joe who is going through the motions, No, I am not perfect, and I never will be, but I sure am going to strive to be my best, not to look good for man, but to live for God the best that I can.

Ok, I have talked your ear out long enough, I can’t thank you all enough for all of your support and encouragement. I love you all.

A voice from Hell

You lived next door to me for years;

We shared our dreams, our joys and tears.
A friend to me you were indeed,

A friend who helped me when in need. 


My faith in you was strong and sure;
We had such trust as should endure,
No spats between us ever rose;

Our friends were like - and so, our foes.



What sadness, then my friend, to find,
That after all, you weren't so kind,

The day my life on earth did end,

I found you weren't a faithful friend.



For all those years we spent on earth,
You never talked of second birth.
You never spoke of my lost soul,

And of the Christ who'd make me whole! 


I plead today from hell's cruel fire,
And tell you now my least desire

You cannot do a thing for me;

No words today my bonds will free.



But do not err, my friend, again
Do all you can for souls of men.
Plead with them now quite earnestly
Lest they be cast in hell with me! 


Author Unknown

What's really been going on

Going back and reading my previous blogs, I notice that they are all intended for words of encouragement. They make it sound that I have my perfect little life all put together. Well, here a news flash for you. My life is not peas and carrots, or tea and honey, take your pick. The things that I write in this blogs are my struggles, I am writing these blogs for myself, as a journal if you will, but I am making them available to anyone who wants to read them. But please don’t assume that everything in my life is going peachy keen. I am a human, and a sinner, just like everyone else on this planet. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 I make just as many mistakes, and I screw up the same as anybody else. I am still terribly disgusted with my prayer life. I am doing great at work, my work life have been life changing because of my prayer life. But at home is a different story. When I am at home, there are no problems, all that I have is love for my family. I play with my kids, and talk to Jane about her day, and they typical stuff that that husbands and wives talk about. Our home life is a perfect word, with virtually no problems. There are no distractions, no conflicts. So what’s wrong with that. It’s because things are going so well, that I don’t feel the need to think about or rely on God. Sure I spend the first hour to hour in a half with my bible every day, but than for the next 6 hours until I goto work, nothing. I hardly think about God. That’s what the problem is. When we are distracted in life from trials, and problems, and dead end jobs, and chaos, we turn to God for comfort, patience, and understanding. But when things are going our way, and life is going great, we leave God on the sidelines, and he sits on the bench until the enemy starts to win, than we call God in for defense. When life is going great, this is need we need to be thanking God for His glory, and His peace, and His love. Things at home are going great because God is good, God has blest my family more than I will ever know. But do I spend my time at home worshiping God and giving his thanks for everything that He has done in my life. No, well, at least not nowhere near enough. That is my struggle, even though I have made a huge conscience effort over the last month to do better in prayer, I am still a work in progress. So there you have it, I am a work in progress, but so are we all, but be encouraged today, because even though we all fall short, God still loves us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and whoever so believes in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.

Walking in the presence of God

Last week I blogged about my struggle with prayer. I said that I read a devotion about being in Gods presence all the time. I actually read that in chapter 12 of the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. You remember that book, it was popular like 5 or 6 years ago. Rick Warren quoted a from some letters written by Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence spent the latter part of his life living in a monastery in Paris back in the 1600’s. Brother Lawrence spent his life mastering how to live in the presence of god 24/7/365. He wrote 15 letter which were published into a book called, The Practice of the Presence of God. Curious, I sought out this book online and was pleased to find out that is was available to to read online at http://www.practicegodspresence.com/brotherlawrence/practicegodspresence09.html. I printed it out and it is only 22 pages long, a very easy read. His book of letters is absolutely inspirational. It was amazing at what I learned, I highly recommend clicking on the link and reading it. Without spending time with to much detail, the gist is how Brother Lawrence mastered living in Gods presence all the time. What I want to focus on is when I learned from it. I had previously started praying several time throughout the day for short amounts of time instead of praying for a big chunk of time in the morning or at night. This has been life changing in itself. What I learned from The Practice of the Presence of God is how to do it better. This past week I have been spending a lot of time at work in prayer, which is probably where I need it most. The results have been amazing. People are are telling me, “you seem different, not in a bad way, but I just can put my finger on it.” I am turing heads, I love under cover ministry. Anyways, I don’t know about you but for me, work is the place that I have the hardest time, thinking about God, and being the same person that I am at church in Sunday morning, which is the person that I want to be all the time. Since putting this into practice, I have since started praying for every guest that I come in contact with each day, which is anywhere between 100 and 200 people depending on the day. The prayer is basically, ”Lord, I ask your blessing on (guests name) this evening, in Jesus name, amen.” This is not a very long pray, it is quite short and generic, but if helps to keep me in Gods presence all day, plus I get to bless people, which is way cool. I have also started praying for each person that I work with. I still do get distracted quite easily and forget to pray for my guests, but that’s ok. When I do miss a few, I soon think about God, and pick up my prayer with the very next guest. It is no where near perfect, but it is something that I am working on, and I am noticing that it is not going to be easy, but it is a challenge that I am excited to overcome with the help of God. I encourage you to ready this short book, and pray to God to see what he might have you do to improve your prayer life.

1 Thessalonians 5:17

What does this verse mean to you? I have noticed over the past several weeks that my knowledge of God in my life is growing quite a bit, but my prayer life is suffering just as much as it ever did. I have been studying up on worship. Worship is not just something that we do on Sunday morning, worship is a lifestyle. It is the lifestyle that I want to achieve. My goal is to be able to be aware of Gods presents all the time 24/7. I read in a devotion a few days ago that when you try to pray for any extended amount of time, it is easy for your mind to wander, therefore you loose focus, and the prayer is no good. So what I have been putting into practice is praying lots of times each day for short periods of time. So my prayer is broken up during the whole day. This has been a really cool experience for a few different reasons. First, I am praying throughout the day, therefore, I am aware of Gods presents throughout the entire day. Because I am aware of Gods presence throughout the day, I find that I am finding other things to pray for through out the day. I was at McDonalds today, and being aware of Gods presence at that time, I said a prayer for the cashier, and while I was at it, I said a quick prayer for the whole staff. This is just one example of many. So now I am looking for things to pray for through out the day, and am actually getting excited about it, keeping me all the more aware of Gods awesome presence. It is very cool to see how God is working in my life. I am still a work in progress, and I am still struggling, but I am really excited about my new prayer life.

My prayer oh' God

Oh Lord my God in you I find my hope,
Oh Lord my God in you I find my Peace,
Yet I struggle everyday, as a sinful and broken man.
Lord, why are you so good to me when I don’t even deserve it?
Am I really as devoted to the lives of others as I am to myself?
Do I have the patience to endure difficult people and trying circumstances without losing the sense of your presence?
Am I kind to those who cross my will?
Am I truly living in subjection to the Holy Spirit everyday?
Lord the answer to all these questions are no,
Yet you are so good to me.
Help me Father God to answer yes to all these questions.
I know that I can not live in sinless perfection,
But I know that I can live without sin ruling my life.

The full Armor of God Ephesians 6

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (NIV)

I was encouraged last week trough a devotion to study Ephesians 6, talking about the full armor of God. I thought for a few days how I was going to do it. Because God works in mysterious ways, low and behold I went to church on Sunday morning and the sermon was about the Full Armor of God, it was one of those, this sermon was written for me kind of Sunday mornings.

I have a lot that I want to say, but first here is my disclaimer. I did the research, but I can not take credit for anything written in this blog. I am only writing what I found in my research on the Full Armor of God. I have 3 sources, first, Londa Ramsey, my pastor who did the sermon on Sunday morning. Second RealArmorofGod.com a division of Optimus International, Inc., and third Got Questions Ministries www.gotquestions.org. So understand that none of this is coming from me, but from my research. So Here it is.

The first element of our armor is the truth (verse 14). This is easy to understand, since Satan is said to be the “father of lies” (John 8:44). Deception is high on the list of things God considers to be an abomination. A “lying tongue” is one of the things He describes as “detestable to Him” (Proverbs 6:16-17). We are therefore exhorted to put on truth for our own sanctification and deliverance, as well as for the benefit of those to whom we witness.

The belt of truth can secure anything that will cause you to stumble or fall when moving around quickly in Christian daily battle. We need to always be spiritually sharp, alert and ready to respond with spiritual mobility and spiritual agility.

Also in verse 14, we are told to put on the breastplate of righteousness. A breastplate shielded a warrior’s vital organs from blows that would otherwise be fatal. This righteousness is not works of righteousness done by men. Rather, this is the righteousness of Christ, imputed by God and received by faith, which guards our hearts against the accusations and charges of Satan and secures our innermost being from his attacks.

Verse 15 speaks of the preparation of the feet for spiritual conflict. In warfare, sometimes an enemy places dangerous obstacles in the path of advancing soldiers. The idea of the preparation of the gospel of peace as footwear suggests what we need to advance into Satan's territory, aware that there will be traps, with the message of grace so essential to winning souls to Christ. Satan has many obstacles placed in the path to halt the propagation of the gospel.

The shield of faith spoken of in verse 16 makes Satan's sowing of doubt about the faithfulness of God and His Word ineffective. Our faith—of which Christ is “the author and perfecter” (Hebrews 12:2)— is like a golden shield, precious, solid, and substantial.

The helmet of salvation in verse 17 is protection for the head, keeping viable a critical part of the body. We could say that our way of thinking needs preservation. The head is the seat of the mind, which, when it has laid hold of the sure gospel hope of eternal life, will not receive false doctrine or give way to Satan’s temptations. The unsaved person has no hope of warding off the blows of false doctrine because he is without the helmet of salvation and his mind is incapable of discerning between spiritual truth and spiritual deception. 

Verse 17 interprets itself as to the meaning of the sword of the Spirit—it is the Word of God. While all the other pieces of spiritual armor are defensive in nature, the sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon in the armor of God. It speaks of the holiness and power of the Word of God. A greater spiritual weapon is not conceivable. In Jesus' temptations in the desert, the Word of God was always His overpowering response to Satan. What a blessing that the same Word is available to us!

Think about the sword of the Spirit this way. Each particular relevant individual scripture is a sword unto itself and very effective in battling Satan and temptation. Think about it, not one sword, but thousands of swords. Pick the verse best for the temptation, the best sword for that battle. It’s just like golf, you have to pick the right club for the swing.

How does this effect you, you need to get up and get dressed in the full armor of God, every day. What, you say that you already accepted Christ. Well that’s great, your a naked body with a great big helmet. Oh, you read the bible everyday too, terrific, now your a naked body with a helmet and a big sword. No my friends, you need to put on the full armor of God. This is why, we need to win the lost, and defend ourself against our enemy.

Accepting Christ is just the beginning. God can change a man or women in an instant, but it takes time to build character. All six pieces of armor are imperative to another.The only part of the body that is not protected from this armor is the back, and Paul has a great explanation for that. We are never running away form our battle, we are always on the offensive facing our battle and enemies head on.

As we previously heard, the sword in the only offensive weapon that we have. However, the sword can only extend as far as our hand can reach, so we need a few weapons of our own. Let me give you four.

Number one is prayer. The most powerful and lethal weapon that we have is prayer. And if you have the ability, you need to pray in the spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray continually. This is one of the two verses in the bible that it only two words long.

Number two is praise. Praise and worship will silence Satan.

Number three is the preaching of Gods word. Read 2 Timothy 4:1-4. Even Jeremiah 23:29 says, “Is not my word like a fire?” By preaching, our word is like a hammer that can break a heart of stone. Do you know anybody with a hardened hear?

Number four is our testimony. We need supernatural power to witness with our testimony. With God, we have that supernatural power.

In closing my friends, we need to ware the full armor of God everyday if we are going to win this was. Who’s side are you fighting for?

Twas the month before Christmas

*T'was The Month Before Christmas* 
*When all through our land,* 
*Not a Christian was praying* 
*Nor taking a stand.* 
*See the PC Police had taken away,* 
*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.* 
*The children were told by their schools not to sing,* 
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.* 
*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say* 
* December 25th is just a ' Holiday.* 
*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit* 
*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!* 
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod* 
*Something was changing, something quite odd! * 
*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa* 
*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.* 
*As Target was hanging their trees upside down* 
* At Lowes the word Christmas - was no where to be found.* 
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears* 
*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.* 
*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty* 
*Are words that were used to intimidate me.* 
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen* 
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !* 
*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter* 
*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.* 
*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith* 
* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace.* 
*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded* 
*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.* 
*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'* 
*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.* 
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say* 
*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS , not Happy Holiday!*

Goals to reach

I was doing a bible study this morning and had to answer this question. List 3 ways that you feel you are still conformed to this world? This question challenged me. A true Christian will consistently live more for Jesus every day, meaning when I feel comfortable where I am, I will not stop there. As a christian we need to be consistently going out of our comfort zones to do the Lords work. My challenge to myself is to create 10 things that I need to do to improve my walk with Christ. You can see the list below. Please help to keep me accountable by asking me how I am doing with my list. Also any positive reinforcement is encouraged. I would also like to challenge you to make your own top ten list.

1. Less gossip
2. Better attitude at work
3. Really focusing on Matthew 25 (it’s not a metaphor)
4. Not judging others
5. more daily time in prayer
6. more daily time in the bible
7. Reaching out to others, especially family and friends
8. Impulse buying
9. Keeping my kids accountable for their walks with God
10 To be the same person at work as I am at church and at home

Thing of this world

As you read in my disclaimer, I will no longer be a man of the world but a man of God. There is so much junk going on in the world right now, and we as Americans live our cushy self centered lives and don’t even have a clue about what’s really going on in our world. I was definitely in need of some r and r, and a vacation was exactly what I needed. Wow, Las Vegas, what an incredible distraction for a Christian trying to live a Godly life. It was hard to keep my faith in the forefront of my mind in Las Vegas, I would even go as far as to say that I took a few steps backward in while in Las Vegas. I missed a Sunday of church, I missed a whole week worth of faith based, uplifting, and encouraging podcasts, and didn’t listen to any Christian music. I did however manage to spend an hour each morning with the Lord, with the exception on once. To be honest, Las Vegas did not impress me, sure there was a lot to do, but the best part of Las Vegas was the food hands down. Jane and I went on Vacation with 2 other couples. My favorite part of the whole trip was not the trip itself, but being able to share my experiences with my best friends. It’s like the master card commercial, Trip to Las Vegas, $1500, food, $500, Extra hidden fees, $200, sharing the trip with my best friends, priceless. And for the record, those figures are not accurate, but you understand my point? We spent two of our afternoons in Vegas, actually outside of Vegas, we spent an afternoon at Red Rock National Park, and we spent an afternoon in Mt Charleston National Park. Both were beautiful. You can see pictures at TheBoxethFamily.com. The beauty of the mountains are an inspirational example, of Gods Glory. We also spent a morning at the Grand Canyon. In a word, “wow.” The Grand Canyon was a great place to thank God for all of His beautiful creations. The last thing that we did on our trip was visit the Heart Attack Grill. The whole reason for this trip was to end up at the Heart Attack Grill. This is where I indulged in gluttony, by eating a 6,000 calorie burger called a triple bypass (it was the best burger I’d ever had). This vacation was planned before I made the decision to change my life. It was also pre paid, so I had to go, and of corse I wanted to go. It was just that much more challenging keep the Faith if you will. While walking around Vegas, people are everywhere, taking pictures and videos with there fancy cameras, people are throwing money around left and right, and in the midst of it all there were homeless people digging through the garbage cans for food. The people in Vegas of corse were 100% completely oblivious to these homeless persons. Because I believe and do my best to live by Matthew 25, I did buy a few bagels with cream cheese, for some of these homeless men. I don’t say that because I want credit or acknowledgment for what I did, but because, I am a Christian, and as a Christian, we need to love others just as the bible commands. Matthew 22:36-40. While doing my random acts of kindness, I was witnessed by others. They may not have thought much of it, but I made them turn there heads, and that’s a start. These homeless persons, are only a small percentage of the homeless throughout the world, there are people of this world who starve daily, who are sick, and can’t get medical, persons are being killed for there beliefs or color of there skin, and the list goes on. But we don’t think about them, we don’t think about or brothers and sisters around the world, we live in houses, and drive cars to work, and buy all of the latest and the greatest, living in complete selfishness, not ever even stopping to think about the people in this world less fortunate than us. Here is a statistic. If you live in a house, and drive a car to a job, you are in the top 5% of the people in the world. Think about that next you miss that great sale at JC Pennies, or when you are angry because your mortgage is going up $25 a month, or you have to cut out McDonalds from your budget for the next few weeks because of an unexpected car repair. Now before you start calling me a hypocrite, I am just a guilty as any other American out there. But, I am aware, and I am making a conscience effort to change the way I think, act, and feel. I may not be able to change the world, but if I can make a difference in on persons life, than it will have all been worth it. I have a challenge for you. You have heard of random acts of kindness? I want you to do something nice for someone less fortunate this week, without expecting anything in return. Bring a meal to that homeless person that you pass by every day on your way to work. The next time you see a buy one get one free, buy the one, and give the free on to someone who could never afford it. And if you really want to change a life, sponsor a child in another country, there are plenty of legitimate programs out there. I always here, why would you sponsor a child in another country when there are plenty of children who need help here in America. I have two responses to that. One, what are “YOU” doing to help any of the children in America, let alone a child in another country. And two, we have programs in America to help children, but there is no place to go for children in other countries. In closing, I hope that I have challenged you to as least consider what is really happening in this world, it’s not about you, and remember, that from dust you were created and to dust you shall return. Genesis 3:19.

Our blessings from the Lord

On vacation there were a few prepaid expenses that were paid to one of our friends credit cards. Three expenses to be exact, totaling $302. I did not know this figure until the day after we got home. We counted the cast that we still had in our pocket when we got back, and that total was exactly $300. Praise God.

Also upon coming back back from vacation we found out that we had accidentally taken out to much money for our daycare expenses last month, we already have enough taken out to cover the whole month of November. Praise God.

Lastly, while on vacation the Grandparents watched our kids, and in doing so used up all of the breast milk that we had stored, which was the plan. This just means that we will have to use formula to supplement any breast milk for the next 3 months until Japheth turns one. We got home and found some extra breast milk hiding at the bottom of the freezer that we had forgotten about. Praise God.

It is the little things in life that God does for a person to prove his love.

Do we really want to change?

Do we really want to change? When we reach the point where we realize that our own efforts are getting us nowhere, we accept the conclusion that we can’t change ourselves. The next question to ask is, “Do we really want our lives to be different?” God usually does very little in our lives until we get honest with Him. He knows if we’re asking Him for deliverance when we really don’t want it. Often, we have an investment in our problems. We’ve spent years becoming comfortably adjusted to our situation. Keeping our sin has its benefits: we get a certain amount of sympathy, it allows us to escape responsibilities and provides a form of excitement. Often we’d rather rearrange out thinking to accommodate our sin than tackle a seemingly impossible problem. If change isn’t happening in out lives, we may need to admit that we don’t really want it.

Quote by Steve Gallagher

Being attacked by the Devil

This has been as extremely difficult week for me. I am continuously being attacked my the devil. I know that my sudden life change is what our Pastor would consider shaking hell. I am officially a threat to satan’s kingdom. But I will persevere. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21. So anyways you may recall a video that I put out on You Tube about a month or so back, about our last experience with Tires Plus. As you may or may not know, you can comment of You Tube videos. Last week I had 2 comments on my Tires Plus Blog. The gist of both comments lead me to believe that they were both employees of Tires Plus and defending there jobs, and lets just say that didn’t have anything good to say about me. Some of the words they sued were retard, dumb a**, Einstein, (in a sarcastic way), and quite a few other words that I won’t repeat. For out of the heart comes evil ideas, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. Matthew 15:19. I have since pulled that blog from You Tube, but not because of them or their comments, but more on that a little later in this blog. I also had 3 incidents at work that were quite similar, but I won’t go into detail about them because of the excessively strict blogging policy that I had to sign. By the time Sunday morning came, I was feeling let down. But during praise and worship we sang Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone), the new version by Steven Curtis Chapman. I’ve heard this song a million times, we sing it in church quite a bit. But this particular time when I sang the chorus, God spoke to me, this is the Chorus.

My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing grace

My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. It doesn’t matter what other people think about me, but doesn’t matter if people accept me for who I am. Because of Jesus’ love for me, my chains are gone, and I have been set free. If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. John 8:36. These people attacking me have nothing against me. It wasn’t them that were attacking me. It was the devil attacking me through them. And I forgive all of them. I have no hard feeling. God laid something else on my heart that morning as I was driving home from church, thinking about the sermon. I felt led to do an extreme make over of MitchellBoxeth.com. So I deleted all of my blogs from You Tube, as well as MitchellBoxeth.com. This website will no longer be a website about me, but a website about the Love of Christ Jesus. My mission is to win the lost at any cost. It’s time for a life change, and this is it. For you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me. Psalm 61:3

Prayer and Accountability

I have spent the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out how to do this blog. I didn’t know if I wanted to do it by video or written. I have been trying to figure out how to say what I want to say. Well now that I have your attention, let’s get started, but rest assured this isn’t going to be anything bad, or even anything surprising, it’s just a life update, and yes Jane is on board with all of it, and a part of every decision that I make. On Friday October 2nd and Saturday October 3rd, I attended a Men’s event at my church. In short, it changed my life. The point of this weekend was to learn how to live a pure life. Pure in everything you do, meaning getting rid of all the garbage, and unnecessary baggage. In essence, to get closer to God. I have been trying to do this in my own life for years, and have never figured out how to do it. I would pray regularly for God to change me, help me to be a better person, help me to not gossip, help me to be the real deal, help me to not just go through the motions, which I was doing by the way. I learned two very important things over this weekend. First, I learned how important is it to dig down deep inside so that you can humbly and earnestly confess and repent ALL of your sins to God. All of your sin, no matter mow big or how small. The second is daily reading of the bible, and prayer, first thing in the morning, to jump start your day. If you spend time with God every morning to start your day, than later on in the day when you are faced with a temptation, you have your daily time with God to think before you act. I can’t just expect God to magically make me a better person, without my doing anything. I have to meet God half way, If I don’t make time for him, how can I expect him to help me to overcome any trials. You see, I leaned that I am very selfish, not on purpose, it’s just the human nature. The bible teaches unselfish unconditional love, and that is what I want, to love other before I love myself. The other part of that is you can’t just read the bible for 5 minutes in the morning, and pray for 5 more minutes, and your good to go for the day. No, it doesn’t work that way. My commitment as of October 4th is this. A minimum of 2 hours a day in the word, or a combination of reading the bible, devotions, and reading christian material, and I also committed to a minimum of one hour each day for prayer. Wow, 3 hours a day, that’s a lot. Give 10% of your time to God. People always find time to do the things that they want to do, and they pencil God in if they have the time. Well guess what, that is backwards thinking. You need to make time for God, and everything else comes secondary. Anything that you put before God, anything that comes before God in your life is an idle. The first commandment is, You shall have no other God’s before me. So, I am getting rid of my idles. I gave up TV and canceled my cable, and sold, yes sold my 65” HD TV. We brought the 27” TV from the bedroom, down to the living room, and are now getting 12 channels with our digital converter box, and indoor antenna. TV was not an idle in my life, but the garbage that is on TV is noting but a distraction, and a non stop advertisement of a godless world. I gave away my Nintendo Wii, no more video games. I also deleted all of the games that I downloaded onto my iPhone that I considered an idles. I even went as far as deleting a few people from my Facebook, and stopping following a few people on Twitter. So after 2 in a half weeks of doing these things daily, where had it gotten me? I feel like a new person, I can put my hands up in the air and yell I am free, and mean it, it is the most amazing feeling in the world. I am still as on fire for God today as I was the day I came home from the Men’s weekend. I can not even begin to tell you how much I needed that life changing wake up call. I am not yet no where near where I want to be, but I am certainly on the right track.