Author Archives: Matthew, Karen, and God

“Keep your eyes on the Lord! You will shine like the sun and never blush with shame. I was a nobody, but I prayed, and the Lord saved me from all my troubles.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭34:5-6‬ ‭CEV‬‬

My husband and I went to the Exploratorium in San Francisco this week. One of the exhibits that caught my attention was titled, All Eyes On Me 👀. It was a board with several circular mirrors and one right in the center. The instructions read, close one eye, and with your opened eye stare directly at the mirror in the middle. Wow! In just a few seconds all eyes are on you. I immediately thought, this is how our sinful nature works. When we are focused on ourselves, it produces selfish desires that separates us from God. The Bible says keep our eyes on the Lord and we will shine for him. Prayer and reading His Word is the glue that keeps our eyes fixed on Him.

Praise God for opening our eyes to see him everywhere we go.

I love listening to Christian music throughout my day. The only thing I love more than that is singing along to lift my spirits. When I do this a wave rushes over my body and my eyes start to fill with tears of happiness. Even though I am very strong, I am unable to carry a tune, but I still sing to my Father in Heaven to let Him know that I am grateful for all that He has done for me. Have you ever heard the saying, “God made crows and Canary’s and He want to hear from both of them?” I believe that He does and that He loves every minute of it. So sing aloud to God today letting Him know that you appreciate all of His good works and grace that has been bestowed upon you.

Working with the homeless day in and day out can be exhausting at times. There’s so much heart ache out there on any given day. So many people will come up to you and tell you all about their problems, and they expect an answer to those problems. Very rarely does it happen that I’m unable to help them due to having nothing to say, but it does happen. 99% of the time the Holy Spirit guides my lips on what to say and given an example throughout the Bible. This is totally awesome because the Bible is a cure ALL for our ailments. I say all because to this day I haven’t found any problem in my life that hasn’t already happen and been solved by God. I had a vanity problem and so did Samson in the book of judges. I was sexually promiscuous like Mary Magdalene found in Luke 7. I wrestled with God like Jacob in Genesis. I even struggle with sinning the same in Romans 7. Everything you need to know is written in Gods word and can be found if we just take a look. The devil uses the same tactics over the years to get us to follow him and it to is found in God’s word. Prepare yourself to receive it all and God bless your journey.

www.bible.com/111/psa.4.8.niv

Matthew 18:21-22 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive someone who sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy – seven times. My mind tends to fill itself with negativity. An arguement with another person or business deal gone bad will roll around in my head, going over what I should have said or done differently. I have to stop and take a knee, praying to the Holy Spirit to rebuke the devil and forgive that person. If we don’t forgive even for the tiniest of issues then the devil walks right into our minds and uses our brain as a punching bag. Forgive everyone multiple times every second of every day. Heavenly father thank you so much for yet another beautiful day, thank you for the chance to be better Christians than we were the day before. Help us to forgive and to forget Lord, helping us to have happiness in our hearts. In Jesus name, amen

The Oakdale Rescue Mission purchased a beautiful older craftsman style home. This home is absolutely perfect except for the fact that it needs repairs from normal wear and tear. Slowly but surely over this last year, we’ve been tearing things down or refreshing it for many more years of use. Yesterday I took a long look at an awning that is attached to the house that’s around 60 ft long and 9 feet high. Caulking and paint cover a lot of things but could not hide the large amount of holes made from wood rot. This was a safety risk so I placed it on top of my priority list. Grabbing a hammer and pry bar, along with a ladder I started to work tearing it down. I knew that all of this couldn’t be done in the small amount of time that I had so I opted to do it in small increments. As I started pulling nails and ripping thing off, the full extent of the damage was made clear to me. What looked bad from the outside was even worse on the inside and came down way to easy. I ended up tearing down 16 ft in 30 minutes. I had expected at least an hour. This is the same with our walk with God. We don’t come to God because we are perfect, we come to God because some things that are in us are rotten and in desperate need of rebuilding. This may not happen all at once and may seem like you have an “Under construction sign” around your neck for years. God knows what He doing in the demolition and rehabbing business. Hang in there and know that all of this rebuilding is meant for something so beautiful that right now we cannot fully comprehend it. Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

www.bible.com/105/jhn.16.33.ncv

www.bible.com/105/2co.12.9.ncv

www.bible.com/105/jer.

My wife and I love doing good things for others. The feelings that we have received are awesome to say the least. To see a person who is suffering turn into a sigh of relief is great. But we also need to do good in our own lives for God and that can be a bit harder. The devil is out there on the prowl every second of every day and is waiting for us to take a break or slip up. I’ll be honest, there’s times in our life where my wife and I are doing so much good stuff for others that we tend to take a break so we can focus on each other. These are the times in which our guard slips giving the foothold for the devil. We have found that there’s a happy medium between doing good for others and doing good for our marriage. This way we don’t wear ourselves out and fall short as a couple. My wife and I are a pretty good team when it comes to doing good. God gives us both creative ideas for one another in all aspects of our life. Praise God that God sent me the perfect woman. We push each other to do better and hold each other up in hard times, giving us the opportunity to do good for us and others! Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for yet another beautiful day. Thank you for the chance to go out and be better Christians than we were the day before. Help us to not grow weary from doing good. Help us to be stronger day by day coming closer to you. Thank you for being with us, in us, and around us. In Jesus name amen.