Seize God's Mercy

When we talk about being ready to “seize the moment”, what will we need to know?  What will make us ready when that special opportunity or decision comes?  Well, for me and my life. I think the first thing is I have to seize my own forgiveness. 

It seems the hardest people we ever try to forgive are ourselves.  We find it so much easier to forgive someone else, but what about you?  Do you still hold a grudge with yourself about some mistake from years ago, a week ago, or even maybe yesterday?  Jesus knew we were all going to have trouble here, see He was human once, too.  He didn’t mess up like we do, but he lived and saw how we hurt and sometimes carry guilt around like a ball and chain.  Peter has the answer for us in 1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”  You see, if we will give our worries, cares and even mistakes over to God, then HE will handle them for us. 

When we finally give the mistakes and messes over to God, listen to what he does with them.  “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12)  That’s a very long way!  My daughter and I have a little symbol that we use to show how much we love each other.  We stole the idea from the movie, Letters To God.  I am sure millions use our symbol, but it reminded me of one way to also visualize how far the east is from the west.  It’s like making an “ok” sign with your fingers, and it symbolizes that I love her, and she loves me, all the way from that point our fingers make and all the way around the world back to that point.  That’s a lot, but the cool thing is that it also makes a big circle, thus never-ending.  THAT I believe is the point in Psalm 103.  It is removed so far, that it is like it never happened.  Our mistakes, messes and, yes sins, are so small that you can’t even see them anymore.   God doesn’t see or dwell on them, why should we?  Listen to Micah’s explanation of the Mighty and Merciful God we serve.  “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?  You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.  You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19-20)  The first thing we need to seize or realize in our quest to be ready to seize every opportunity God gives us, is our own self-given forgiveness.  I talk to so many who say God can’t use me, God doesn’t want someone like me, and look at all I have done.  And if that was the whole of your story, maybe he wouldn’t; but, today we write a whole new chapter of our lives.  We get to do that every morning.  “The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

 So let’s start today with Jesus.  You see, once we truly seek to follow Jesus and His commandments, God doesn’t see that old, worn-out and sick person anymore.  He sees his pure and beautiful Son Jesus covering us and saying, “this one is with Me now!”  WOW!  Now, I am going to start right now by seizing that opportunity.  Will you?

God Bless!

Seize the Moment

“If it is meant to be, then it will happen”.  Have you ever heard that?  Have you ever been told that?  I know I have.  But is that really true?  I want to talk about that for a minute, or maybe two, without getting too in-depth, because this can become a very deep subject.  The key words and phrases are “man’s free will”, “God’s foreknowledge” and even “destiny”.  We will not worry too much about those, but we will talk about choices.  That seems much simpler to me, how about you?

We all are faced with choices each day.  God gives us choices and allows us to choose.  He allowed Adam and Eve to eat from the tree in the Garden in Genesis one.  He still allows us to choose today, and sometimes that even means choosing the thing that is not best for us.  I am proof of that.  I have been down many paths and wasted a lot of time with bad decisions.  We probably all have.  So first, I believe God allows us to choose or make decisions in our lives.

I also am convinced that, yes, God still does work in this world.  He tells us to pray, and if He wasn’t planning on making His own decisions based on prayers, then He wouldn’t ask us to do that (James 5:16).  Now God doesn’t always say yes, sometimes it is no, maybe or wait.  We have examples of that all through the Old and New Testament.  This even includes a no to His own Son in the Garden of Gethsemane. So far, we see that we are allowed choices, and God listens to prayers and answers all prayers in some way. 

Thirdly, God’s will is always done.  You see, we sometimes forget that God doesn’t necessarily need us for His will to be done in this world.  He may choose to use us, but He doesn’t need us.  We need Him.  This is where it gets interesting.

God may give us a fork in the road, but we choose which way to go.  Joshua chose to follow God in Joshua 24:15, “But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

God gives us opportunities, but we decide to accept or decline.  God may open or close a door or window, but we decide whether to keep knocking or to climb or step through.  God will have His will be done.  But it doesn’t have to include us.  He wants it to include us and went as far as to send Jesus to tell us this. He died so that we can be a part of something great in this world and for all of eternity.

So now to our original question, “if it is meant to be, it will happen”…yes and no.  God’s will is always going to happen, but God is not limited by our decisions.  We are allowed to mess up.  We can miss opportunities.  We have to keep ourselves ready to seize the moments we are given, because God will give them to us, but we have to grab on and go with Him for the ride. We will begin a series on Seizing the Moment next time.

God Bless!

WWJD

What do people see when they look at us?  Do they see someone who has it all together, or maybe someone who is a mess?  If you are like me they probably see some of both depending on the day or the time.  I can remember times that I was a real mess and had things in my life looking the same way, messed up.  But, on the other hand, I have at least seemed to have things together at times too.  When people look deep down into us what do they see?  Do they see Jesus when they look at me?  What about when they look at you?

Let’s look at Acts 4:13 and see what the Great Sanhedrin saw when they looked at Peter and John.  “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.” 

Let’s take notice of three things.  First of all they were amazed at their boldness.  If we look back just a few verses we would see that they have been arrested and are appearing before what would be like our Supreme Court.  They have no attorney, they are defending themselves, and they were speaking boldly. 

Secondly, and even more amazing was that they were just ordinary men, fishermen to be exact, with no special training to be defending themselves before this religious supreme court.  This sounds like one of my “messed up days”, that I would just be hoping to survive, but not Peter and John.  The Sanhedrin saw their boldness, and that leads me to point number three. 

They recognized that Peter and John had been with Jesus.  I wonder if people can see that we also have “been with Jesus”, or have we?  Have we been with Jesus through spending time learning of Him in God’s word?  Have we talked to Him lately?  Do we listen to Him and His commands?  Peter and John were recognized as having been with Jesus.  When people look at me and you do they see that same Jesus in us?  Maybe it would do us good to remember the old WWJD?  If we ask ourselves that question, “What Would Jesus Do” maybe more people would see that we have been with Jesus too.

God Bless!

When Jesus Says Come

What would we do?  Jesus says, “Come, follow me.”  What do we do next?  O.K, Jesus, just give me a couple of days.  I have to get my bags packed.  I have to give a notice at work.  I have to say goodbye to …..  What would we do?  What do we do?  I notice a couple of things about those I read about who were among the first to follow Jesus.  Let’s read Matthew 4 starting in verse 18. 

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.  Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” They left their nets at once and followed him.  A little farther up the shore He saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And He called them to come, too. They immediately followed Him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

Notice two things.  One, both sets of brothers followed a man they hardly knew… immediately.  Second, James and John left their father “holding the net” so to speak.  Now I admit that these men may have heard about Jesus from John the Baptist, but they didn’t know what we do today.  They didn’t know He was God’s Son.  They didn’t know what great works and words He possessed.  We know this and much more, but some still lag behind.  Why do we hesitate? We all know that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  We also know that no one has any greater love than to lay down His life for His friend.  Some of us still don’t have the love or devotion to simply follow.  Jesus just asks for our love, the rest will come naturally. 

This is verbalized so well in the lyrics of “You Can Have Me” by Sidewalk Prophets:

“If I saw You on the street, and You said come and follow Me; but, I had to give up everything… all I once held dear and all of my dreams.  Would I love You enough to let go, or would my love run dry when You asked for my life?

When did love become unmoving?  When did love become unconsuming?  Forgetting what the world has told me.  Father of love, You can have me, You can have me.”

Can God, through Jesus, have you today?  Are you willing to take the step and follow?  I am. Let’s all join together in one giant leap to really follow Jesus today!

God Bless!

Unbelief

Unbelief, now that’s a word we do not use too often.  What does unbelief really mean?  Is it a lack of belief?  The Merriam Webster Student Dictionary puts it like this, “the withholding or absence of belief: DOUBT”.  Withholding belief, why would we do that?  Don’t we all have just a little unbelief or doubt?  I know I do.  We all seem to want things done our way, on our timetable and at our convenience.  My question is: are we allowed unbelief?  Jesus met a man who needed help with this in Mark chapter 9. Here, yet another demon-possessed person is brought to Jesus.  This time it is a Son.  Let’s take a look starting in verse 19. 

“Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”  So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.  “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.  He replied, “Since he was a little boy.  The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”  “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”  The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”  When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!” Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.”  But Jesus took him by the hand, helped him to his feet, and he stood up.”

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?  Anything is possible if a person believes.”  That’s my favorite part.  The father had a little unbelief.  He had obviously heard about Jesus and had probably seen some of the amazing things Jesus had been doing among the people and he still had that slight doubt, “if you can”.  One thing that is always amazing to me is that the demons always know Jesus.  Never one time does a demon encounter Jesus that it is not fearful and believing. (James 2:19) 

The father realizes that he has unbelief and asks for help from Jesus.  That’s our lesson.  We all need help from Jesus to overcome our doubts and fears that Satan and his “demons” send our way.  What demon do you need Jesus to help you with?  What is your source of unbelief?  Jesus has told us that HE CAN. The problem is… do we believe? ANYTHING is possible if a person believes.

God Bless!

God Goggles

 Have you ever felt overwhelmed, felt like the odds were just stacked against you, and what you needed to do was just too much for you?  I have felt this way at times.  Life can be tough out there all alone.  Looking for a job, going through a divorce, fighting addiction, struggling with cancer, maybe just trying to make it through another day, all can be great battles in our lives.  Sometimes we feel as though we have it worse than the next guy, and maybe we do at times, but we might just need to change our outlook.  Let’s look at 2 Kings 6:14-17 to get a little insight.  And yes, I did say 2 Kings; it’s not all boring history. Let’s bring it to life and into our lives.

“Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.  When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.  “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”.

Looks pretty bad doesn’t it?  Elisha’s servant woke up to most of the Syrian army surrounding the city.  King Ben-Hadad wanted Elisha and had sent an army to capture him.  The servant frantically woke up Elisha and tells him that they are as good as dead.  Keep in mind that this servant had already seen first-hand what God could, and would do, for the people of God, but he was still terrified.  I love the calm and composed response from Elisha, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  The servant couldn’t really see the situation clearly; he saw with his regular eyes.  Elisha saw with his eyes of faith in God, or shall we say, his God goggles.  Elisha realized that one man plus God equals a majority.  When Elisha prayed for the young man to see through these same God goggles, he saw the angelic army surrounding the Syrians, “the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

There are too many times in our lives when we forget about God, even when we need him most.  His heavenly host is always around us just waiting for us to notice.  Psalm 34:7 reminds us of this.  “For the angel of the Lord is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear Him.”  So today, let’s all be looking for God’s power around us and notice how this is helping us through those tough times.  If we put on our God goggles, I am sure we would see that “those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

God Bless!

Melting Mountains

We serve and worship a powerful and Mighty God!  I think we sometimes forget this fact, at least I think I do.  We not only serve the God of our forefathers: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David, but also the God that was the God of all the mighty events that happened during their lives.  We love and worship the God who made the waters of Noah’s flood, gave Abraham a son at the ripe old age of 100, covered Egypt with locusts and parted the Red Sea for Moses.  God killed Goliath for David and kept him safe to become King of all of Israel.  We serve a Mighty God, but do we forget?

This same God is powerful and mighty today, right now.  We read the stories, or a better word might be history, of God striking down Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10) and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5).  Do we forget that we serve this same powerful and just God?

Listen to Psalm 97:

“The Lord is king!  Let the earth rejoice!  Let the farthest coastlands be glad.

 Dark clouds surround him.  Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

 Fire spreads ahead of Him and burns up all His foes.

 His lightning flashes out across the world.  The earth sees and trembles.

 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.

 The heavens proclaim His righteousness; every nation sees His glory.

 Those who worship idols are disgraced— all who brag about their worthless gods— for every god must bow to Him.

 Jerusalem has heard and rejoiced, and all the towns of Judah are glad because of your justice, O Lord!

 For you, O Lord, are supreme over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.

You  who love the Lord, hate evil!  He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked.

 Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right.

 May all who are godly rejoice in the Lord and praise his holy name!”

We serve THIS GOD!  But we also serve a loving God.  “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Romans 5:8)

This mighty God chooses to forgive us when we fail Him.  Wow!  Isn’t it nice to serve the God that can melt mountains, but protects us?

God Bless

Intimacy With Jesus

Intimacy with Jesus, if you are like me and most Christians, that is your goal.  We all, at least say we want intimacy and a close relationship with Him.  But what do we have to offer Jesus?  He is like the person at Christmas who already has everything, because He does.  What do we have that Jesus could need?  We all want to give and help those we love.  How can we “help” the One who “existed in the beginning with God.  God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him.” (John 1:2-3)  See, He created it all, so he has no need of anything we could offer.

Let’s look at a story Mark tells us about Jesus in Mark 7.  You see Jesus was once again in a crowd.  He was popular, not because people were seeking to help Him, but because He could help them.  This was another of those days.  We will pick up the story in verses 32-35.  “A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to Him, and the people begged Jesus to lay His hands on the man to heal him.  Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on His own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue.  Looking up to heaven, He sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!”  Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!”

When we look more deeply into this story, the man a deaf man hadn’t heard the teachings of Jesus.  He couldn’t have been telling others of Jesus as a mute.  This man had nothing to offer Jesus, and it was his friends who brought him there.  It seems if there was one Jesus might just skip over, this was the one, but He didn’t.  Look at what Jesus did.  He got totally intimate with the man.  He took him aside so they could be alone.  He put His hands around this man’s face and placed His fingers in his ears.  He got personal with him and healed him.  Jesus had just taken someone the world probably thought was useless and, through an intimate moment with him, turned him into someone He could use for His glory.

Jesus wants that with each one of us.  He already knows we aren’t worthy and can’t really give him anything He doesn’t already have.  What Jesus wants is just that intimate relationship with you and me.  Jesus knows our hurts and our problems and loves us anyway.  Don’t worry about what you have to offer Jesus.  He will find it and turn it into something He can use for His glory just like He did with the man in our story.

Do you want to give Jesus the ultimate gift, how about giving him yourself.  That’s what He’s been wanting all this time.  He wants to put His hands around your face and begin to have that intimate relationship that will transform your life into something oh so special.  Just get away from the crowd to a place you can be alone with Jesus.  He will take it from there.

God Bless!

The Key to Freedom

Freedom is something we always seek.  We have all been under something, or someone’s, control at some point in our lives. Whether it is our parents, our boss at work, addiction, or even sin of any kind, we have all lost, or given over control to something besides ourselves.  Sometimes we lose control out of necessity, as with parents or our boss, but sometimes our loss of control comes in a more subtle way and takes over gradually.  Don’t feel bad, because I am sure that, if we all were honest, we would admit that we all have had this happen to us.  Paul told in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.  So know that we ALL have messed up and been under sin’s control.  Different problems, different sins, but at some point we have all lost control.  That’s the bad news. 

Now for the part I love!  God loved us anyway, He always has.  “We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.” (Romans 6:6)  So while we were still sinners Christ died for us to set us free from that bondage, from that sin.  Sin has lost its power in our lives.  Jesus told us in John 3:16-17, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

Tired of the way your life is headed?  Are you ready to be set free?  Sometimes it’s so hard to see through the storms of life, but if we will just look closely, we might see that the key to unlock our bondage has been there all along.  The answer to our troubles might be closer than we imagine.  We may have missed it before, but let’s not miss it this time!  “For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)  Want freedom from those things that bind you?  The Lord offers freedom, but we must just ask and seek his will.

Want to be free?  Jesus is the answer, He holds the keys.  Let him open the doors to real freedom.

God Bless!

Mustard Faith

Sometimes, if you are like me, it seems you have so little faith.  I want things to happen when I want them to happen, in my time and on my terms.  Someone please say “amen”.  I hope I am not alone here.  Well, as it turns out, I know I am among good company, because even those closest to God lacked faith at times.

Listen to the story of Abram (Abraham) from Genesis 12.  “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”  So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him.”  So, as I emphasized, Yahweh Himself told Abram to go and leave his relatives and go to a new land.  Notice the last four words in the quote, “and Lot went with Him”.  So Abram said O.K., I will go, but you don’t really expect me to do this alone do you God?  Well I can only guess at what Abram thought, but he did take Lot.  Maybe a little lapse of faith from the one God called “righteous because of his faith” (Genesis 15:6). 

Even those who were with Jesus lacked faith at times, and they saw all the miracles and amazing things He did.  Look with me at Matthew 17.  The apostles had tried to cast out a demon from a young boy and were not successful.  Let’s listen to Jesus beginning in verse 20, “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”  Those closest to Jesus even had faith issues at times.  That makes me feel much better.

Have you ever seen a mustard seed?  It is a tiny seed.  My Mom has one set into a necklace to remind her of what faith can do.  The amazing thing is that such a tiny seed grows into an amazing tree.  Just check out Google images and see if you don’t believe me.  So faith grows.  It’s like what Jesus what Jesus was telling us, If we have this tiny faith, it will grow into something I can use.  This kind of faith will be able to do anything!

Want to move a mountain today, or more realistically, trust that Jesus will get you through this day, or this problem or struggle you might face today?  Well, it all starts with this tiny faith.  Have that and let Jesus do the mountain moving in your life.

God Bless!

The Storm

The Storm is coming…there is no avoiding it.  Have you ever been in a storm that you thought was going to be your last?  We all have seen the videos of the storm chasers edging nearer and nearer the funnel cloud.  These few are the exceptions to the rule.  The storm chasers are not the average guys on the street.  The videos are amazing to watch, but most of us wouldn’t want to be in that place at that particular time.

Large cruise ships go around storms, as do airplanes, when possible.  We are no different in our lives.  We do all we can to avoid storms in nature, but, even more so, storms in our lives.  We all seem to fear storms.  Luke tells of one of those times in Luke 8:22-25. He tells us that as they were crossing the Sea of Galilee “a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger”, and Jesus was asleep.  All the disciples were scared to death and were afraid they were going to drown with Jesus in the boat.  Of course, Jesus calmed the storm and all was well, all except for their faith.

Jesus told us that there would be rain and that the waters would rise. You see it comes on us all, the just as well as the unjust.  The rains come and the waters rise, but the difference is in the foundation. (Matt 5:46, 7:24-27)  Can our foundation withstand the storm?  Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul, “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.  For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!  So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)  We focus on and build our foundation on Jesus, and His glory and the storms of this life won’t seem like such a big deal.  When the storms of life blow your way just remember, “I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there?  My help comes from the Lord,      who made heaven and earth!” (Psalm 121:1-2)  That will be your refuge in the storm.

God Bless!

The Fringe of Faith

Faith, we all have some degree of faith in certain areas.  For instance, we have blind faith.  We have faith that the person driving on the other side of the road is going to stay there.  Right?  Sometimes we have faith and trust that is earned and learned over time, perhaps with a good friend or someone we are close to.  They just have shown us that we can trust them. 

What kind of faith do we have in God, in Jesus? Do we have any REAL faith?  You see faith is easy when all is going well.  When life is good, so is God.  That should be some of our (I include me in this) mottos.  What about when things aren’t so cut and dried, how does our faith hold up then?  Do we doubt God or look to other things?  Maybe we say; “Ok God I gave You Your chance, now let me show You how it should be done?” Do we have real faith when it’s tested?

God has a lot to say about faith in His word.  When I looked it up, faith was mentioned a lot!  Let’s just look at one example for today. 

Mark tells us this story in Mark 5 beginning in verse 21.  This is the story about a woman who had been sick for 12 years and had spent all she had on different doctors, but none could help her.  Mark actually tells us she had gotten worse.  She had heard of Jesus and listen to her thought process as she neared Him in order to touch the fringe of his robe among the crowd of people. “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed.”  She had faith.  And she was right.  She was healed immediately.  Many were touching Jesus that day, but one had the faith to be healed, made whole.  Jesus notices this faith too, “Who touched my robe?”  When she told him it was her as she fell at the feet of Jesus, listen to His words in verse 34, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.”  Did you notice the two things?  One is faith in just the fringe of Jesus’ robe, the other is the suffering is over.  How many of us need to just get close enough to touch Jesus’ robe today to receive the end to suffering or maybe doubt?  All it takes is to be the one in the crowd of people to realize that Jesus is still the answer no matter what the problem.  “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

God Bless!