Be careful that you understand love before you start dating someone. Love is not self seeking. If the person you are dating puts you in a situation where you are doing something you don’t want to do, that person is not loving you. In fact – as soon as a boyfriend or girlfriend puts you in a situation where you will be giving something away you don’t want to give, your boyfriend or girlfriend is getting ready to dump you. They have lost interest, and respect. Love always wants what is best for the other person, not for self. Love always wants to meet the needs of someone else, and not your own. It isn’t self seeking. God spends a lot of time in the word asking us to save ourselves until we are married. We would be smart to follow this advice., and if the person you are dating is willing to put you in a situation where you are sinning against God, then that person does not love you, for love by its very definition would never do that! Love can wait. So did Jessica Simpson. Love is patient. Make the person you are dating love you. Demand it up front. And stay away from situations where temptation could strike, like dark rooms, or houses were parents aren’t home. When my wife and I were dating she wouldn’t come over to the house unless my parents were home. And when I lived in my own apartment, she would not come over. Now that’s the kind of girl I wanted to marry, and I did.

Genesis 3. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals –That’s right. The devil is sneaky. And he starts talking Eve into eating the fruit that God told Adam that they were not to eat. Well Eve seems to know the rules, but the devil convinces her, saying “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you be like God, knowing good and evil” Hmm. First of all, Adam and Eve were made in God’s likeness and image, which means they were already like God ...

You ever wonder if you were an accident. If your parents hadn't ever met, where would you be? ...

Jesus is out walking on the water – well that may not surprise you anymore, but it freaked out the disciples. They saw some dude walking on water and got scared. So Jesus says..”Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” There are a lot of things a person could be afraid of. Living in fear of bad things is not Jesus plan for you. Jesus is saying “Don’t be afraid” Well Peter steps out into the water and tries walking on it. But when he realized that people don’t naturally walk on water – he got scared, he began to sink. Jesus caught him. Jesus will catch us when we are sinking, but Jesus plan is for us to have no fear of this world and what it has to offer. Instead we are to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, and lean not on your own understanding. Your understanding is that people sink in water. With God all things are possible. But Fear can mess it up. Since fear starts with our thoughts, then we can stop fear by taking our thoughts captive. Phillipians 4:8 Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy, think about such things. Every time you sense fear creeping up on you, you start being afraid, replace your thoughts with something good. Having a scripture memorized can be just the trick. Something like “The Lord is my refuge and my fortress, my God in him will I trust. ...

I’m sure you’ve heard it said, well you reap what you sow… So lets talk about sowing and reaping, seed time and harvest. Genesis 8, As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. A farmer will tell you If you plant corn, you will grow, corn. Well what does this mean to you. Whatever you currently have growing in your life, there is a good chance you planted the same thing some time ago. If all your friends have betrayed you and are talking bad bout you, maybe you can go back to a time when you did the same to someone. If you got a ticket for speeding, you probably were speeding If you want love, give love. If you want friendship, give friendship. If you want hate, give hate. It’s all up to what seeds you plant. Galations 6 says “a man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the spirit, from the spirit will reap eternal life.” Hmmm, that’s a tough one, destruction/ or eternal life, destruction, eternal life…Lets all go with eternal life. So ask God, what can I sow today that would be pleasing. What are you going to sow today ...

What are you here to do? Hebrews 12 says Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us That’s right, God has a specific purpose for your existence. A race that he’s marked out for you. But how do you know what that is? Where are the markers? The passage goes on to say… “let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Our purpose can be discovered by allowing Jesus to author and perfect our faith. An author writes a book. Jesus wants to write your faith, and perfect it. We keep our eyes fixed on him, even though he’s invisible. We can do this by reading the words he said, and following his example in the way he lived. You see John 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word of God. So fixing your eyes on Jesus can mean studying God’s word. We need to be sure of what we believe before we can live our purpose for God. In studying and learning, and allowing the Word to author and perfect your faith, that is, what you believe, you will infact begin to clearly see the race that has been marked out for you. Now all you have to do is run your race with perseverance, and with that, I need to quit now ...

Ephesians 1:22 God placed all things under Jesus his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, his body. So Jesus is in charge of the church. This tells me that church is incredibly important to God. Can’t I just have church at home, I mean, going to church can be such a pain…And maybe I don’t always like everything I see going on at church…Well what does Jesus have to say about it? After all, he’s head of the church.. John 15:5 If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. How do we remain in Christ except to be connected to his body, which is the church. Going to church is a charge of inspiration from God’s word for personal growth. It makes us better. Pastors can get from God a message that is specifically for the congregation. What an advantage those who attend church have in life. When you attend a church there might be people and things that you don’t agree with. I wonder if that’s Jesus way of teaching you how to love unconditionally, how to serve, how to forgive, and how not to be judgmental. Remember, it’s like a family, and who doesn’t fight a little bit with their brothers and sisters ...

As far as I know (that’s my way of disclaiming everything I’m about to say) every state in America has a “seat belt law”. When I was a kid you could play ring around the rosy in the car. I used to sleep up in the rear deck (by the Jensen 6X9’s) of a 1972 Buick when I was a kid. I could fit up there until I was about 15 years old. (don’t laugh, it was a big area) This couldn’t have been safe. Yesterday I was putting my new baby in the car seat, and it took about 10 minutes of strapping him in. There’s a shoulder harness, a waste harness, and then a little strap for between his legs as well. There’s even a roll bar. You could shoot him out of a circus cannon through a flaming ring and he’d be unscathed. It’s more safety gear than they put on a Six Flags level 5 coaster. But it’s protecting children. America cares about your kids. Oh, except if they are riding on a school bus. Safety is right out the window; why would we need seat belts on a school bus? I mean, it’s just a bunch of kids ...

It’s the 20somethingth century now, and people are still saying on their voice mail greeting “Hi, it’s me (I think I know who I called, I dialed the number), I’m not here right now (really, probably not information you needed to share), but leave your name and number at the tone and I’ll get back to you.” I think we all know what to do at the beep by now. What’s worse, now the cell phone providers have gotten involved, and they say things like, “To leave a call back number press 9, or stay on the line and blab la…” Its five minutes before the beep happens ...