Love Doesn't Seek It's Own

Hello Everyone,

Today's topic is Narcissism, sort of.  Actually, we are going to talk about another aspect of love.  When we are walking in the God kind of love, we aren't out seeking to get our own.  What does that mean?  In a word, it means we aren't selfish.  Narcissism is a word that's being thrown around a lot these days and it is understandable.  God said that in the last days people will be lovers of themselves or selfish or narcissistic.  Notice again that this is not a feeling.  Selfishness is an action.

What I want us to notice is how that is the exact opposite of Love.  The Bible said that God so loved the world that he gave the most precious person He could to save it.  In fact, Jesus sacrificed Himself in our place to save us.  That's the direct opposite of selfishness.  Something that frustrates me greatly is how the Devil has deceived people into believing that God is some angry person waiting to destroy people.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  God is sitting around looking for ways to be good to us if we let Him.  But we have to cooperate with Him if it's going to work!

So how does this apply to us today?  How do we display Love today?  The answer is simple.  Give!

How do we give?  There are many ways to give.  I was in a position just this morning to give.  It was such a blessing.  The most amazing thing is that I was able to give to the Lord.  I got to give to the One who gave everything for me!  That was such a joy!  I know of a preacher in the local DFW area who goes around and gives out $100 bills!  Now I want to throw an emotion in here because it's a side effect of giving.  That emotion is Joy!  What an amazing side effect!

For many of you who read this, you may not be in a place to give a lot of money to someone else.  Guess what, that's OK!  See God doesn't look at how much money you give.  He looks at you! So what can you do if you don't have a lot of money?  Give your time.  We all have the exact same amount of it.  I heard a slogan one time that said commit a random act of kindness today.  We can certainly do that and what a blessing it is when we do!

Just last week, I was dropping some packages of to FedEx.  While I was there, a random man helped me get my packages into the store.  He blessed me and it only took about 2 minutes of his time.  Now you might even say that you don't have two minutes.  Well do you have 10 seconds?  We can all take the time to pay someone else a compliment (as long as it's sincere).  How long does that take?

To wrap this up, the Bible says that love isn't narcissistic.  God (Love) is the exact opposite.  Instead of being extremely selfish, Love (God) is an extreme giver.  So let me encourage you today, find someone you can bless today.  You will be glad you did!

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Love - Watch Out

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to take a small detour from talking about the attributes of love to issue a warning about our study.  Over the last couple of weeks, I have had more opportunities to be unloving than I can remember in the last year.

For instance, just this morning I was sitting in Starbucks reading and going through my daily routine.  When I got done, I had to take my SUV over to get the air conditioner fixed.  While I was driving through downtown Fort Worth, I turned onto a street and pulled up a little and stopped (I was playing Pokemon Go).  When I did, the lady behind me honked her horn at me for stopping.  Now she couldn't see me so she has no idea I did this but I immediately said something ugly to her.  Why?  Because the devil doesn't want me to learn to really walk in love.

He met someone 2,000 years ago who walked in perfect love all the days of his life, Jesus.  Guess what, the devil couldn't touch him because perfected Love was Jesus' shield and protection.  Love is another name for God and he was walking in perfect God all the days he was here and it protected Him.  Now I am not saying we are going to be perfect because we miss the mark sometime.  But what I am saying is that the more we walk in Love, the more impact we have on this earth.

Jesus walk was so different that it impacted the people around Him long before he ever died on the cross for our sins.  See the devil doesn't want me (or you) to walk in Love because he knows it will drive out his only weapon - fear.  The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear.  It also says that Love never fails.

So are you believing for a loved one to turn to Jesus?  Are you believing for a situation to change at work or at your school?  Are you believing for restoration in a relationship?  Are you believing that you can change something in your life that you don't like?  Are you battling addiction?  The list of questions could go on and on.  But what's the answer to any of these problems?  The answer is perfected love.

I know my love walk is not perfect.  I also know that perfected love lives inside me right now and He is working on my behalf to get me to the right place.  Are you struggling with the whole "God thing?"  Would you like to have perfect love living inside you?  You might say something like, "You don't know what I did.  I did something that nothing can fix.  I did something really bad and God can't love me."  Well have I got news for you.  Jesus' blood was shed for ALL sin.  No matter what you did, Jesus' blood is stronger.  Would you like to start a relationship with Him right now?  All you have to do is say, "Jesus, come into my heart.  I make you my Lord and Savior."  That's it.  If you said that prayer and believed it, something just happened inside you.  You got born again and that Perfect Love now lives inside you.

If you prayed that prayer, would you please let me know.  Also, please find a good Bible based church so you can start to learn more about the Love that has been put into your heart.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

Love is Not Rude

Today's we are going to talk about another aspect of Love.  Today's topic is rudeness.  Before we get into this, I want to you notice that again, this is not a feeling.  Love is not concerned with whether or not you feel rude.  That doesn't even sound right.  Love doesn't act rudely.  This should be a fairly simple one as we all have been around people who are rude.

I can't tell you that I am around very many people who I would consider just openly rude.  I don't have any friends that would call someone something ugly to their face. And honestly, I wouldn't either.  But let's think about rudeness for just a minute.  Did you know that as we are studying love, no where in the Bible does it say that the person who we are rude to has to know about it to make it unloving.

Ladies, have you ever noticed some other girl who looked like maybe you wished you did and said something to your girlfriend about how she was dresses.  The reality is she's probably dressed fine but you are a little jealous because maybe you can't dress that way?  Guys, have you ever seen a guy driving a nicer car than you and said something rude about the guy just because you are jealous that you can't drive what he drives (I confess I have done this one.).  Well guess what?  That's rude.  Whether or not the other person heard you, doesn't matter.

Now I can hear someone saying, "Well if they didn't hear it, what does it hurt?"  That's easy.  It hurts your faith.  How?  Well, doesn't the Bible say that faith works by love? (Galatians 5:6)  If we aren't walking in love, it will hinder our faith.  Before I go farther, I don't want anyone to stand in condemnation and you need to know that God is a graceful, merciful God.  I know this because there are several places where I have acted unlovingly and God is blessing us tremendously.

But here's the thing - I don't want ordinary faith.  I was in a Starbuck's several months ago and there was a girl in a wheelchair.  I wanted to pray for her and see her healed and out of that chair.  When I thought about it, I heard the Lord say, "If you pray for it, I will back it."  I know it was the Lord's voice!  Guess what I did!  Nothing!  I left that girl in that wheelchair and left the store without speaking to her.  Why?  My faith wasn't strong enough.  I want my faith to be stronger and stronger every day.  I've had a vision for a long time of us walking into hospitals and emptying them because God healed every person in them.

That type of dream doesn't come to reality with weak faith.  That's why I am working to get rude behavior out of my life.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

Love Does Not Dishonor Others

Hello Everyone,

OK everyone.  Before we get into today's topic, I want to tell you what I've seen in the last week.  I thought I was pretty good about not bragging on myself and yet I caught myself doing it three times that I remember in the last seven days!  The latest time was just this morning to a friend of mine and I was bragging about this blog!  That's completely ridiculous because I strive to write what the Lord tells me and so I can't take credit for any of this.  I have been before the Lord and asked for forgiveness.  So let me encourage you to watch what you are doing this week and see if there are any areas were you can improve.

So let's get on to today's love topic which is love does not dishonor others.  So what does this mean?  Dishonor is means to bring on shame or disgrace. Now this an interesting topic to me because there is a big difference between bringing shame on a person and telling someone about an inappropriate action.  As a parent, it's my job to train my children so when I tell them about something they have done wrong, I am not trying to bring dishonor on them.  I'm trying to keep them from getting hurt.

That's exactly what God does with us.  We know He is Love so everything He does is based in Love.  When He tells you not to do something, He's trying to keep you from getting hurt.  For instance, when He says that we should not steal, it's because He knows the effect it will have on us both in this world and in the spiritual realm.  But let me be very clear on something - He IS NOT shaming us as a person.  He's trying to correct our actions.  He knows that these actions will get us hurt and He loves us too much to see us get hurt if He can correct us.

What does that tell me?  In order to determine if you are walking in love in this area, examine your heart and check your actions.  Notice again that this definition of Love is an action word.  It's still not a feeling.  When we have to correct someone, are we being clear that we love them and they are valuable?  Are we being clear that they are extremely valuable?  If so, then correction is coming the right way.  If not, then we have to change the way we correct someone.

The other point I want to discuss is something a little more obvious.  When we talk about people are we bringing dishonor on them?  Even if they never hear us, it doesn't change that what we said or do is not walking in Love.  If you are an American and a Christian, are you saying bad things about our current president?  Did you say bad things about our last president?  I am not telling you that you should support what they do or what they believe.  It's OK to disagree with that but if you are saying bad things about their character, then you are not walking in love.

The worst thing about this type of problem is when we are not walking in Love, it stops faith from working in our lives because the Bible says, faith works by Love.  So when we speak badly about someone who isn't around, we aren't really hurting them because they may never even know it.  Unfortunately, we are hampering our faith in our own lives.  It's time we all start walking in Love more and allowing our faith to produce the great results in our lives that we all desire.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Love Does Not Boast

Hi Everyone,

Today's topic is boasting.  When I looked this word up in the dictionary, one of the definitions was to brag about yourself or to brag about your stuff to others (that's the Minion translation).  It's interesting because it is very similar to pride but we will talk about pride in the next post.  Again, I want you to notice that bragging is an action, not a feeling.  We don't feel bragging, we say something that is bragging.  So what does this mean?

We all know the one upper.  In fact, sometimes we have been the one upper.  You know the person.  If you tell as story, they have a bigger one.  If something good happened to you, something better happened to them.  So we shouldn't brag about things in our life right?  Well if that's the case, then we should never tell anyone when something good happens to us or when we do something great right?  Wrong!  I want to stop and say that just because you tell someone about something you have or did, does not make it bragging.  When you tell a story to puff yourself up, that's bragging.

Let's look at God for a minute.  If God is love and love doesn't brag, then what happens all the times in the Bible where God talks about who he is and what he's done?  Is he bragging?  Certainly not.  When we brag, we normally do it to impress people and I don't think the Creator of the universe needs to impress His creation.  So what is He doing?  He's trying to build our faith.  When God tells you something about Himself, it's not because He's trying to brag.  He wants you to know that He's able to provide all things so that when you have lack, you can trust in and rely on Him.  He wants you to know that He can heal people so that when you are sick, you will go to Him for healing.  He wants you to know that He created everything so that when you need anything, you can go to Him.

So here's what I have learned today.  There's a difference between bragging and telling someone about something that's happened to you.  That difference is motive.  When you brag, you want people to look at you and how great you are.  When you tell someone about something great that you did or happened to you and you do it to encourage them, then it's called ministry not bragging.

Let me finish by asking you this question.  Do you find yourself ministering or bragging when you tell people what's happening with you?  I know there are places in my own life where I can do this better.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Love Doesn't Envy

Hello Everyone,

Today we are going to think about something love doesn't do.  As I said earlier, love is an action verb.  The feeling of being in love is great but it's not the core of Love (God).

For this particular aspect of Love, it's interesting because it's something Love doesn't do.  Love doesn't envy someone else or something else they have.  This should be another easy one right?  Well in one sense that's true.  But let me encourage you to check yourself on this and see if there are any hidden areas of envy in your life.  I know I have found them in mine.

Let me give you a couple of examples.  I go to a gym and work out every day during the week.  I run in the morning before work and I lift weights with a little more cardio at lunch.  I'm in decent shape for 46 years old but the truth is I'm not as fast as I used to run and I'm 30 pounds overweight at the moment.  So what happens in the gym?  I can walk in and see someone working out who is in better shape than me.  Every once in a while, the devil will put a thought in my mind that says there is something I don't like about that person.  I don't like the way the act or how much they talk.  I don't like the way the hog up all the machines.  I don't like how long it takes them to get a set done and get out of my way.  Well here is what the Lord showed me about that one day.  What someone was doing or not wasn't the cause of my irritation.  What irritated me is that they were in better shape than me.  My envying of a person didn't come across as envy.  It came across as something else.

Let me tell on myself again.  I could be driving down the road and see someone speed past me or cut me off in traffic by getting into my lane and get upset with them.  This happened more times than not if the person was driving a really nice car.  I might even say under my breath something about how they think they are special or privileged, etc., because they were speeding or something else (which I have done myself on more than one occasion).  That seems logical right?  They should slow down and should be more careful in traffic.  But the truth behind what made me mad was they were driving a car and I was jealous of them because it looked like they had more money than me.

So what's the big deal with being jealous right?  After all, while I am not being loving toward either of those people, I am certainly not hurting them and neither of them knew I even had a thought?  Well, even if you don't say something hurtful to someone, this is still very damaging - TO ME.  Why?  Well, it blocks the flow of love out of my life and into someone else.  While that's bad enough, it also caused me to be unsatisfied with what I had.  Think about it.  Instead of enjoying the fact that I am in good health and the Lord has blessed us tremendously financially and every other way, I was unsatisfied and couldn't enjoy what I had.

So let me ask you this.  Are there any areas in your life where you might be secretly envious of someone else?  If so, I encourage you to get rid of it.  Envying is really dangerous to your health.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Love is Kind

Hello Everyone,

Today's topic is love is kind.

OK this one should be a no brainer right?  We all know what it is to be kind.  My wife teaches kindergarten and she teaches her kids everyday to be kind to each other.  If I asked some of her five year old children to define kindness, they could.  The would tell me that kindness is being nice to a friend or kindness is sharing your blocks with another kid.  They might say kindness is letting someone get in line in front of you.

They would be right about those being acts of kindness and acts of love.  Notice again that this is an action.  It's not a feeling.  When we are kind to people, it makes us feel good but the kindness itself isn't a feeling.  Already we know that love is an act of the will because kindness is an act of our will.  We make a decision to do something kind for someone else.  As a matter of fact, I am plotting an act of kindness right now and it feels good.  I am really going to enjoy myself tomorrow doing what I have planned.  I'm excited about it.

So here's the slight change the Lord showed me about kindness this week.  Did you know the Bible says Love is patient and love is kind?  Now I have always taken those two things to be separate things.  In other words, Love is patient.  In a completely unrelated event, Love is kind.  But what I am just getting a grasp on is what happens if we combine the two at the same time.

In other words, what would happen if while I was being patient with someone and waiting on them to change or do something I want, etc., I do a kind act to that person or in that situation.  As I said last time, patience creates the space Love needs to grow and work.  If that's true, kindness is a fertilizer that helps love grow.  While you are waiting on your friend to apologize or your spouse to change, you are being patient and that's showing love.  Now take the next step and fertilize that situation/person with an act of kindness.  It will help you be patient and it will help the situation grow.

Remember this, every time you do an act of kindness, you are operating in Love which means you are operating in God.

An that's another Opinion of the Minion

I Want to Know What Love Is

"I want to know what love is.  I want you to show me...."  Have you ever heard that song?  Those are lyrics from a song in the early 80s.  Yes, I am dating myself a little because that was the golden age of music for me.  But it's a popular theme these days.  We want to experience love.  We want to be in love.  We want to feel love.

It's interesting that in every song on the radio and for most people when you ask them about love, they tell you that they want some feeling associated with love.  Have you ever heard someone refer to love as a matter of the heart?  Have you ever someone say follow your heart?  Most of the time that means follow your feelings and let me tell you that can lead to disaster.

Another song from my day said, "What is love, baby don't hurt me...."  So let's tackle things that describe love in general.  First of all, we know that God is love because the bible says that He is.  That means that God equals love and Love equals God.  I will talk in more detail about many of the attributes in later blogs but let's look at a few attributes of Love.

The Bible says, "Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  It does not demand it's own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."  1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I want you to notice something about these verses.  Most of the attributes of love listed are action verbs, not feeling verbs.  How many times to you hear people say, "I feel patient" or "I feel kind"?  I don't know if I have ever.  I have been patient with people and I've been kind to people but I don't know if I've ever felt kind.

Take a look at something else.  All these attributes are things that we DO to other people.  Did you notice that not once do these verses say that we should be expecting this from someone else?  Now you might say that if someone is ACTING this way toward you then they are not acting in love and I won't argue that but if we are walking in love, then we won't keep record of being wronged.  Let me be clear, I am not saying that if someone is abusive to you that you should stay in the relationship and never keep record of being abused.  If you are in an abusive relationship, get out!  But when you do, then chose to walk in love and forgive.

It's when we get past feelings and start living into Love the way God sees love, then we will experience the greatest victories in our lives.  The Bible says that Love never fails.  Are you worrying about your parents?  Are you worrying about your kids?  Are you worrying about some other person?  Then make the decision to act and walk in Love with them.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Love is Patient Part 2

Hello everyone,

I wanted to take moment to tell you about a few things where I have/am learning to love by being patient.  I didn't really understand the power of the force of patience until recently.  See, patience provides room for love to grow.  It's critical.  Let me explain.

Last week, my wife and I were going through the normal things in life.  We were working and raising kids.  Now each of our children is fearful and wonderfully made.  That means sometimes we wonder about them.  Just kidding.  That means they are wonderful and amazing children.  They are God's gift to us and I get excited when we catch glimpses of what's really inside them.  But there are other times where they are challenging.

Parent's have you ever been frustrated because your children don't grow up as fast as you would like?  Have you ever wondered if they would grow up at all?  I can't tell you how many times my wife and I have worried over our children because of their choices or how many times I would ride them about a choice they made over and over.  But what I realized was that in some ways, I wasn't being loving.  Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't correct our children because the Bible says that God corrects those he loves.  But what I am telling you is that in other cases if we will be patient with our children and give God room to grow them up, they will progress so much faster than all our nagging.

The other thing I noticed this week is an area in my personal life where I was not being very loving with someone because I wanted them to do something and they didn't do it.  I got agitated and rolled all sorts of things around in my mind to tell them but in the end, the Lord was telling me to be patient.  See, I was walking in selfishness which is many times the opposite of patience.  What I wanted the other person to do was a good and right thing but I was not giving them time to do it on their own.  I have decided to love them and be patient and wait.

Patience doesn't come across as an action verb.  When you give something to someone, they can see what you give them.  When you do something for someone or say something nice to someone, then they know it immediately.  But with patience, the person you are loving, may never know that you are loving them and waiting.  I think that's what makes it so strong.

How many times do you think the Lord has been patient with us.  How many times has he wanted us to make different choices and we make the same mistakes again and again.  But guess what.  He never walks out of love with us.  It's impossible for God to be anything but Love toward us so I know he is patient with me every day.

Let me leave you with this.  If you are struggling with patience, then ask the Lord to help you stand in faith and pray while you wait.  God is able to do much more that we can ask or think so dare to ask big and then wait.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

Love is Patient

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to start talking about what love is.  Our topic for today is patience.  Have you ever had an experience were you were not patient with someone?  I know I sure have.  If you have children, especially teenagers, it's easy to lose your patience with them.  On our streets today, you can see how impatient people are with one another.  Well, when we are acting impatiently with each other, we aren't walking in love.  That doesn't mean we don't love, it means in that particular instance, we aren't walking in love the way we should.  Also, there are opportunities for you to be patient whether you pray for them or not.

I have heard in Christian circles for years that you shouldn't pray for patience because God will cause something to come in your life that requires it.  But here's the problem.  God is not saying that if you are patient, then you are walking in love.  What He's saying is when His love is developed in you then you will be patience.  So what you need to pray for is that His love will so grow inside you that you will be a patient person.  You aren't doing work to prove love.  Love is working which causes results.

So what is patience?  One definition is - the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.  What does that mean?  Well for me personally, it mean's loving my children and being patient while I am waiting on things to develop in their lives.  One of the most interesting characteristics is waiting without getting angry or upset.  Let me say to my children, I apologize for the times that I am waiting on you to develop but being upset at the same time.

Now I want to say a thank you to my wife.  She has shown me love by being patient with me.  Overall, I'm a good dad and a good husband but there are a couple of things that I need to get straight.  My wife has known about them since we met and she's loved me and been patient with me for a long time.  Thank you Honey.  I love you.

So what does all this mean?  Start believing God to change you and out of His love, ask for him to grow the attribute of patience.  Then find an opportunity today to be patient.  Maybe you need to be patient while other people are ahead of you in line.  Maybe you need to be patient with someone while you are driving.  Maybe you need to be patient with one of your friends or your parents while they figure things out.  Regardless of what it is, find a place today to show someone else love by being patient.

Love Part 1

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to begin a several part blog on love.  This is one topic that I need to know much more about.  See, I love my wife and I love my children.  But what does that really mean?  Does it mean I feel warm inside when I'm with my wife?  Does it mean I really enjoy my children?  The answer to both of those questions is sometimes yes and sometimes no.  But it doesn't change the fact that I love them both.

But, before we get to what love is, I want to take the rest of this blog to talk about what love is not.  For those of you who read this blog inside the United State, we use this word entirely too much and we water down what it really means.  You might hear someone say, "I love my car" or "I love my school" or something else.  But that's not real love.  You can enjoy your car and you can really enjoy your school but real love is reserved for something else.

For all you young ladies let me tell you something else that is not love.  If a guy starts telling you he loves you and then starts pressuring you to have a physical relationship with him, that's not love.  That's lust and selfishness.  See anything someone uses to get something from you, is not love.  When you are dating, you might have heard if you love me, you will do this or that.  But that's not really love, most of the time it's someone trying to con you into getting something they want.

I've even heard Christians say that you are not walking in love if you don't give them the money they need or give them something else they want.  Again, that is not love.  Love does not seek to get it's own stuff.  Now let me ask you this, where are you upset with someone else because you aren't getting what you want from them?  It could be that you need rethink how you love are loving someone.

When we think about love, we often think of a feeling, but that is not love either.  Feelings are great and when I feel really close to my wife and get those warm, gooey feelings about her, I really enjoy them but that doesn't define my love for her.  In fact, I don't think feelings have anything to do with true love at all.

Well, I like to keep these fairly short so we will pick it up here next time with a little more about what love is not.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Time

Hello Everyone,

Tonight I want to talk about time.  Time is finite.  There are 24 hours in a day; 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute.  There's only so much of it and when we run out of time, we run out.  By that I mean when we die and go to heaven or hell, we are out of time.

I recently heard of someone who felt like they were out of time at a very young age.  The felt they had made mistakes that could not be overcome.  They felt like they were behind where they should be based on their peers.  What's so amazing about this person is that they are so young.

Maybe you feel like you are out of time.  Maybe you are 50 years old and have been through a failed marriage.  It could be you think you are too old to go back to school.  Time as run out.  It could be that you are really young and the devil has sold you a pack of lies telling you it is too late for you.  Maybe you feel that time has run out and your situation is now hopeless.  I don't know all the things that the devil uses to make us feel frustrated.  But I want you to know something.  It's not over!  You are not out of time!  God still has a plan for you.  You can accomplish that plan whether you are 15, 35, 55, or 85.  You are not out of time.

I want to tell you about a man named Abram.  He was 90 years old and his wife was almost that old.  They never had kids and wanted them.  Abram had a visitation from the Lord.  The Lord told Abram that he would be the father of so many descendants that they would be more numerous than the grains of sand on the seashore.  Can you believe that?  Well Abram did.  He believed it so much that he started calling himself Abraham which means "father of many nations."  Nine months later, they gave birth to a son and the promise was on.

Friend, God wants to do the same thing for you he did for Abraham.  If there is any area of your life where you feel that it's too late, I encourage you to take it to the Lord and see what He can do with it.  I guarantee you, it's not too late.

Well, I've blogged myself happy again.  That's another Opinion of the Minion. 

Who Should Be President

Hello Everyone,

     Today marks another changing of the guard in Washington, D.C.  We now have a new president and while there are many in this country that are excited about his arrival, there are many that are really upset about his arrival.  Which group are you?  Well regardless of which one, let me ask you this?  Why are you excited or upset.  The answer is that we all need a deeper revelation that God is our source.  If God is truly your source, then it won't matter who's in leadership because you put your trust in Him not in him (or almost her).

     See one of the problems with putting our trust in a man instead of God is we can be disappointed in them.  Where God has always performed what he said he would perform.  His record is perfect.  Do you need peace in your life?  Do you need prosperity?  Do you need healing?  Do you need forgiveness?  Do you need redemption?  No man can provide any of these but with God all things are possible.

     Another problem is that as we begin to look to these men and women of our government as our source, many times we loose sight of love.  Did you know that the Bible says God is love?  Let me put that in a mathematical equation for you.  God = Love.  To put it another way, Love = God.  You can't walk in true love without walking in true God and you can't walk in true love without walking in true God.  But many of the feelings I see and hear about politicians these days are fear, hate, concern, worry, and the list goes on.

     Guess what.  Those things aren't pure, lovely, just or of a good report and we shouldn't think on them. I'm not saying that we shouldn't pay attention to what our leaders are doing and have an opinion but when hate guides your actions, you have the violent protests we are seeing today.  We should pray for our leaders regardless of whether or not we voted for them.

     So take heart.  If you didn't vote for our president, remember that God loves you and He's still in control.  If you did vote for our president, remember that He's not God.  God is God and he loves you.

     That's another Opinion of the Minion

Politics or People

Hello Everyone,

In light of the political elections that are coming up in American, I want to take a second to talk about politics but not in the way you might think.

I've noticed that everyone has an opinion about the current political landscape.  Some hate Trump; Some hate Clinton and some hate everyone.  But here's what really doesn't make sense to me.  I see a lot of my friends and family on my personal Facebook page and other places posting about politics.  They all have something to say about what should or shouldn't be done.  They all have something to say about this person's moral character or that person's.  They all have something to say about this person's truthfulness, etc.  Yet not one of the people I have ever talked with has the capability (other than casting 1 vote) to do anything about it.  Furthermore, neither one of the candidates cares about what any of them think on a personal level.  Whoever gets elected is going to do whatever they please regardless of what you and I think.

So I've been asking the Lord what to do about it.  Here's what the Lord showed me.

1.  Whatsoever things are lovely, just, pure and of a good report, mediate on these.  That doesn't mean that you ignore things but it does mean that you shouldn't focus on them.  Focus on God's word.  It will actually make a difference in your life.

2.  Find someone to bless today.  This one is huge.  I can't really influence who gets elected but I can influence the people around me.  Do you know someone who needs encouragement or maybe someone who needs a meal.  The list of needs goes on and on.  Did you know the Bible says that when you give to someone in need, you give to Jesus?  That's really big.

3.  Remove a critical spirit from you.  See I have noticed that before the Lord told me to quit giving the race so much attention that I was getting critical.  Not only was I critical of the people in the election but I started being critical of people around me.  That's no place to live.

So I ask again - Politics or People?  The choice is yours.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

A Time to Rest

Hello again everyone.  Today I want to talk about rest.  Before I go into this post, let me say I am not taking my own advice right now.  It seems to me that with the technological advances, we are busier now than ever before.  We might not work sun up to sun down behind a plow like they did 150 years ago but we are still very very busy.

I see it everywhere.  When I was a kid, we played little league baseball and it ran for a couple of months (probably April to June) and if you made the All-Star team it ran a little longer.  Now baseball is a year round sport.  There's fall ball, winter ball, select teams, little league, etc.  It's not just baseball, it's every sport.  In the interest of competition the schedules are much more demanding.  For the kids this is great but for parents it requires more and more running.  You can drive over a hundred miles a day in Texas just running kids back and forth to practices, etc.

Before I get any ugly responses, let me say that I am a sports fan and I enjoy watching our kids.  But you need to count the costs of all those activities.  No, I don't mean the monetary costs although those are important.  I am talking about the time costs.  You see, while every one of these events on their own is really great, we have to be careful that the sum of the events doesn't run us down.  What is the cost of time spent doing anything on the relationships that are important.

Last week, my wife and I were so busy running kids, working, taking care of the house, doing our gym work outs and the list goes on that I rarely saw her at all.  When I did we were rushing off to another event!  Now I am complaining about going, I just began to notice that I was getting tired.  How did I know?  Well, one night my wife and I were in the kitchen talking about the new toll road in Fort Worth.  We were discussing how we seldom see the police on the other major roads but that they were definitely handing out extra tolls on that road every day.  That turned into an argument and we were in agreement on the issue!  Fortunately it wasn't a major argument and we only argued for about a minute before my wife said, "Why are we arguing about this?" and it stopped but it let me see that I was really getting tired.

So let me ask you this.  Are you feeling yourself frustrated and tired a lot?  If so, what type of toll is it taking on your friends and family around you?  Are you short with people you love?  Have you found yourself so busy that you don't have time to read your bible and be alone with God?  If the answer is yes, then let me suggest that you take a minute and re-evaluate where you are spending your time.  It is important to get things done but at what cost?  Are there things you really need to cut out of your daily schedule?  Don't try to keep up with what everyone else is doing.  Run your race.  You'll be glad you did.

And that's another Opinion of the Minion

Focus

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk about focus.  Where do you focus the majority of your thoughts?  Do you consider all the bad things going on in the world today?  Do you consider something bad that's going on at school or in your personal life?  Wherever you put your focus, there you will ultimately go.  Let me give you a few examples.

In the Bible, there was a guy named Job.  Now he was a really rich guy and had several sons and daughters.  Interestingly enough he was very afraid that they were saying awful things about God or sinning in some way.  So what did he do?  He offered sacrifices just in case they might have sinned for them everyday (I think it was every day but if not, it was very often.).  Guess what happened?  Ultimately the things that he was afraid of, the things where he put his focus, came upon his children.  Am I saying that Job caused this, nope.  The Bible said it.

Let's shift gears a little.  How many of you have every ridden a motorcycle?  Several years ago, I got my license with a friend of mine, JC.  Now he rode all his life so he was a natural.  Me?  I looked like someone who needed training wheels for his motorcycle and I still do.  I much prefer a four wheeled motorcycle with leather seats, a good air conditioning system and plenty of room.  I think those are called cars.  Anyway, when I was learning to ride, they taught us how to turn.  What we were told was to look where we wanted the bike to go, not where the bike was going.  So we would focus on where we wanted the bike to go and it would go that way.

Let me give you one more example and I will make my point.  The other day, I was thinking about my company and about being an employee.  I run my own company and we do a lot of Oil and Gas work.  As some of you may know, the price of oil has dropped a lot lately and that has caused some slowness in the industry.  I was worrying a little about my business and whether we would be able to sustain our growth even though I knew that the Lord started this business and I knew he was watching it and causing it to grow.  The problem was my focus was on the price of oil and how drastically it could impact my business.  I wasn't focused on where I wanted it to go or what the Lord said about it.

I started thinking about being an employee and how easy it must be to just go to work and do your job.  After that, an employee collects his or her paycheck and that's it.  I started feeling a little sorry for myself thinking about how they don't have to worry about whether or not the check will cash (most of the time) and how easy that must be.  Now my business is really fine but I wasn't focused there.  That's when the word of the Lord came to me.  He said something like, "You should be like those employees you are thinking about.  If you would just keep your eyes on Me and roll the care of it over on Me, things would be much better for you!"

That's what I did.  I put my focus back on my faith in God and what He is doing in our business.  Immediately, I could see where things were going and how good things really are for us!

That's another Opinion of the Minion

The Box Revisited

Hello Everyone,

This is one of the first posts I ever created and I think that every once in a while I should repost it because it was so profound to me.



I have given this a lot a of thought and I believe that the Lord showed me something that changed the way I view people.

You see, when God creates a person he gives them abilities, passions, desires, talents and all sorts of wonderful attributes that we seldom ever see.  Then he takes all these things and puts them in a box with silver wrapping paper and very pretty red ribbon tied in a bow around it.  He calls the box - You.  It is a present to the world.  When I saw this for the first time, I looked around at all the people walking by and said to myself, "Merry Christmas!" because all I could see were beautiful boxes waiting to be opened.

The problem is many people don't even know what is in their own box much less have taken the time to look in someone elses box.  This starts when we are in school.  As we grow up, we learn all kinds of new things about ourselves: what we like, what we don't, the changes that our bodies go through, we learn things in school about the world and we learn about social interaction.  But sometimes that social interaction teaches us that the stuff in our box isn't all that important.

Have you ever felt like the stuff inside you doesn't really matter?  Can you look back to a point in your life where you were doing something you really enjoyed and someone else called it or you stupid or worthless?

When you pull the most precious parts of your life out of the box and let other people see them, it is scary because you are definitely vulnerable at that point.  But know this, the Lord put all those wonderful things inside and they are of great price and value.  Don't let someone cheapen what is so precious by their comments.

Everyday, I see people who are alive but aren't living.  I think it is because they have told themselves that the treasures in their box aren't important or worth much so they don't do anything with them.  They may not have done this openly but below the surface it happens.  You have to know that if God took the time to create you and put all those treasures inside you, they are important both to him and to me.

When was the last time you looked in your box and pulled out something you truly enjoyed and used it?  When was the last time you opened the box?  When was the last time you were passionate about anything?  Are you so caught up in the rat race that your box isn't important any more?

Here is another interesting question - When was the last time you opened up someone else's box to see who they really are and celebrate the gifts inside them?  Do you always know what is wrong with your husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, kids, friends, parents, family, coworkers but never look inside the box for what is so awesome about them?

Husbands, what would happen if instead of criticizing your wife, the next time you saw her, you decided to look at something that was so precious to her, so beautiful, so tender, so amazing and something she loved about herself?  What would happen if you nurtured that gift and encouraged it to grow?  What would happen if, after you opened her box, she decided that your box was the most special one on earth and decided to touch the core of who you are?  What if you both decided to go deep in your relationship?

Boyfriends, what if you looked at her and decided that you wanted more than just what was inside her clothes, you wanted what was inside her heart.  Girlfriends, what if you decided that you wanted the same thing?  What if you wanted to explore who they are and make them the best person they could be while they did the same thing to you?  What if you looked at them and asked, "What can I give?" instead of "What can I get?"

Is this a little intense?  Yes.  Is it worth it if just one person decides to open their box or open someone elses?  Yes.  You see, I believe that I got to see a little glimpse of the creation through the creator's eyes when He showed me this.  It was truly an eye opening experience and I can definitely say I will never be the same.  I got to see how He looked at and longs for His creation to be all that we can be and how His love for us goes so deep His heart aches for us.

So I guess the real question is what is in your box?  I want to know.

That's the Opinion of His Minion

Making Mistakes

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk about an important subject - making mistakes.  We have all done it right?  For most of us when we make a mistake (if it's a big one) we feel pretty bad about it - especially when it hurts someone else.  Have you ever said something to someone that really hurt their feelings?  Even if you were provoked and they had it coming, it doesn't necessarily feel good after you do it right?

I know that I have laid in bed at night sometimes and couldn't sleep rethinking about some mistake I made and wishing I had done something differently.  Have you ever been in financial trouble or maybe your making a bad grade in school.  I know that as an adult I have had financial trouble before.  I sit and think things like what if I hadn't spent that money or what if I had saved that money.  I shouldn't have bought that TV or I shouldn't have gone on vacation.  Here's the interesting part though.  No matter how many hours and hours I thought about how I should have done things differently, the problem was still there.  I realized that I could not go back and unspend money.

The real question is what do I do now.  He might not have said this first but the words of Bob Nichols, the pastor of a great church here in Fort Worth, "If you find yourself in a hole, quit digging!"  If you are doing something that is causing you problems, quit doing it.  If you are in debt, quit spending money on stuff you don't need.  If you are making bad grades in school, quit waiting for your grades to go up on their own.  Start studying.

I heard a story about a mule that fell into a well.  He found himself in a deep hole.  The mule was very old and the well was dry.  The owner of the mule decided that he would just bury the mule and be done with it.  He got a shovel and a couple of his friends and they started filling in the well with dirt to cover up the mule.  After a little while, the owner looked over the lip of the well as his friends were still throwing dirt in the well.  To his amazement, the mule wasn't covered up.  Each time his friends threw a load of dirt on the mule's back, he would shake it off and then step up on it.  The mule was raised higher and higher until eventually he walked out of the well.

Friends, if you find yourself in a place where you've made mistakes and wish things were different, don't spend time worrying or feeling guilty about your past mistakes.  You can't change them. What you can change is your future. Stop feeling guilty about the past and through Jesus, start feeling great about your future.  God has a good plan for your life.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

You Gotta Be You

Hello Everyone,

It's been on my heart to start writing again so here goes.  Today I want to talk about being true to yourself.  Have you ever been in a place were someone says or does something that you don't agree with?  Maybe you see someone at school bullying someone or saying something bad about someone.  I have found myself listening to people with views that differ from what I truly believe.  I've tried to reconcile some of those opinions and beliefs and tried to "go along" with them in my spirit but it never felt right.

Here's the thing.  I never felt peace until I finally decided that no matter who I am around or what they say, I'm going to be true to what I believe.  I'm going to stand up for what I believe is right regardless of whether it's popular or not.  It may seem cool if you are part of the in crowd at school and they want to make fun of someone but it's not.  It may seem cool to talk about someone behind their back but it's not.  It may seem cool to agree with the "new age" standards that many people in the world want to set but it's not.

What standards am I talking about?  Well that's a question that I will leave to you.  I will tell you this.  If you really don't know how you feel about any particular issue, pick up your Bible and get God's opinion on the subject.  While it may not be the most popular, it will definitely be the right one.

Before I finish, I want to say that it's not always OK to run around spouting your opinion to anyone and everyone.  If you feel inclined to tell every person you meet what you feel or your opinion, that isn't right either.  If someone has a different opinion that you, it's OK.  What's not OK is for you to change your opinion on any subject just to try to fit in with the crowd.

While it's a little short and sweet, that's the Opinion of the Minion.

To Your Parents

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk to all of you that are parents.  If you are a young person, ask your parents to read this.

Let me start by saying that I am a parent/stepparent to five very wonderful and very different children.  Our children are ages 15, 14, 13, 12 and 10 so we are just hitting the teenage years.  We are hitting the age where they become more and more independent.  But let me tell you this parents, we are also hitting the time of their lives where they begin to dream their own dreams and want to go their own paths.

For many parents this is a hard time.  See we think we have the plan for their lives.  We see them going to college and getting a good job out of school then preparing for a family and in many cases following the same track that we went down.  After all, if it was good enough for us, it's good enough for them right?  Wrong.  They have their own dreams and their own desires.

This past weekend, my wife and I had the opportunity to watch our oldest daughter perform in a theater camp in our town.  It was a wonderful experience for her and she truly enjoyed it.  In the second act, I was hit by part of the performance.  The musical is about kids going through school and it's "target audience" is teachers as they are in the classroom and their impact on the kids they teach.  At one point, four different young men and women describe a boy who writes a poem.  The first poem is named Skip after his dog because that's what it's about.  His teacher gives him an A and a gold star and his mom pins it to the wall.  His dad tucks him into bed and he's enjoying life.

The second poem is called Autumn because that's what it's about.  His teacher gave him an A and his mom told him not to pin it to the wall because the wall had just been painted.  That year he noticed that things weren't as rosy around him.  Then he tried another poem called Question (I think) because that what it was about.  His mom didn't say anything about it and his dad got mad at him when he tried to tuck him into bed.  He wrote his last poem on a matchbook and completely checked out of life.  His parents never knew he was unhappy.

The skit is followed by a song called, "I've Come Home."  It's about children coming home and the place of safety, love and warmth they find at home with their family.  This made me start to think about my own children and I began to wonder if my desire to see grow into the adults that I want them to was clouding my ability to see their dreams and desires.  What part of where they thought they wanted to go was I missing.  Since they are teenagers, their dreams are probably going to change several times over the next few years but that doesn't matter.  I started asking myself what was I doing to encourage them to stretch out and work for their dreams.  What was I doing to help them work hard to achieve the things that God put in their life, not the things that I was trying to put in their lives.  Now I am not saying that grades and their upbringing isn't important and as a parent it's definitely are job to make sure our kids work hard and do their best.  It is our job to help them grow into strong men and women.

Let me close with this.  What if Billy Graham's mom had forced him to be a dentist?  What if Albert Einstein's mom had forced him to be a lawyer?  What if Mother Theresa's mom had forced her to be an actress?  It would be like trying to put a size 8 foot in a size 6 shoe.  It just wouldn't fit.  So let me ask you this parents, what are you doing to help your children realize their dreams?

That's Another Opinion of the Minion