rich

I am very rich. I am rich because I have been blessed with great relationships. I have been pretty worthless lately, as a friend. I have been spending time on other things and processing how I feel about a few things, thinking that I am probably not much fun to be around anyway. I realize today that I have so much to be thankful for. Relationships are first
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I have an amazing relationship with my Wife. She is steady and loving even when I am weird and stressed. (which the weird part is practically everyday, but I am okay with being weird :) )

I have great friends, the best anywhere. I know that most of them would die for me if we were the last two on the earth and goblins had to take one of us.

I have a great job, great kids, and even a great ministry.

I have a lot of concerns that I usually let turn to fear, which leads to anger, and I assume things in my relationships and that for me is sin. I had a revelation the other day that the definition of sin is simple. It's disobedience to the Holy Spirit. I realized just today while talking to someone who has been pursuing relationship with me that I need people, I need relationship. I cried like a baby... and let out some hurts and junk that has been rooted deep within me. I feel incredibly light and easy now. I don't feel anger and road rage like I have for the past several weeks. I am Free and Rich, and I need relationship.

Guest Blog (click title for website)

Heart of Our Father

We as the body of Christ are called to stand. In the mist of defeat we stand. In victory we stand. In conflict we stand. We carry the standard for our nation. It is we who set the bar. We have been mandated to represent the father’s heart to the whole earth. So much of who Christ is to the world is manifest through our words and actions. We have an opportunity in every situation to demonstrate the love of God in everything that we do…

So often, we let the circumstances of life decide what we will represent to the world. I can’t tell you how many times in the last few days I have heard someone say “Obamma is the Antichrist” or “ things are going to be bad.” Every time I hear these words, pain shoots through my heart. It is the Church, the BODY of CHRIST who has been sent to BUILD up the WORLD. Romans 2:4 says “ the goodness of God LEADS us to REPENTANCE!!!” As ambassador’s of Christ, how can we tear down the leaders of our nation and expect the kindness of God to invade their life? When we curse the leaders of our nation with our words, we are destroying the very thing we have been charged to build up. If you truly believe that your words create, then every curse that is spoken out of your mouth has a destructive effect in the world we are working so hard to preserve.

Change happens when we represent the Father heart of God everywhere we go. In order to be in places of influence and power, we must put on the mind of Christ and let compassion rule our tongue and actions.

Take a look at Daniel in the Bible. When trapped in an evil empire, ruled by a wicked king, Daniel put on compassion like a cloak and served Nebuchadnezzar with the heart of Jesus. Nebuchadnezzar received a dream from the Lord telling him that he was going to be torn down to nothing. Nebuchadnezzar did not understand the meaning of the dream so he called Daniel in to interpret it for him. Upon hearing the dream, Daniel became terribly troubled and replied, “My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries! Daniel was heartbroken at the word of the Lord because of his deep love for Nebuchadnezzar (the wicked king). What troubles me is that most of the church would think this is the time for great rejoicing– God has judged Nebuchadnezzar! We would be saying, “This is what he deserves, he got what was coming”.

Have you ever had to discipline your children? Have you looked them in the eyes and let them know how their actions have torn deep into your heart? I can’t imagine their brothers and sisters saying, “This is what you deserve, that’s what you get”. This is what we are doing every time we rejoice in someone’s pain. God says to mourn with those who mourn, to weep with those who weep. It does not say to weep with those who did nothing wrong, He says to mourn with THOSE who mourn. Why? When we take time to mourn with those who mourn, we will also take the time to love them into health and restoration. When you love someone in their hardest season of life, you have now sewn seeds towards the prosperity of their soul.

Daniel’s heart for his king planted seeds of love into his life and because of this, Nebuchadnezzar surrendered himself over to the love of God. I will say it again, change happens when we represent the Father heart of God everywhere we go… If you believe that Obama needs God, then shine the love of God his way.

It is not our job to send destruction with our words, to hate those in leadership, or to curse Gods children. We do not overcome hate with hate. There is no fear in love and no peace in accusation. We have been hand selected, placed here to shine our light into the darkness, making it whole. The love of God is the only thing that breaks down the walls of death and destruction; it is the only tool that wins over the heart of a wicked king…

We are salt and light. We must learn how to guard our hearts and mind, for we know that salt and light belong in the dark and hard places of the world. The power that we draw from in these trying times comes out of our love, compassion, and honor for those we are preserving. When we fail to love, respect, and honor those who God has called us to, we violate our authority and misrepresent the Father, ultimately tearing down the very thing we are called to preserve. Put on the full armor of God. Guard your heart and mind with his truth. Wrap yourself in pure love and shine to the world the heart of our Father…

Jason Vallotton

testimony of testimony

I was thinking this morning of a friend of mine who is facing death, and will defeat it. I was reading my bill Johnson devotional book and he was talking about how Satan wants to inflict his diseases in Heaven but can't, so he does on earth, only when we are in agreement with him. Cancer, the oh so feared disease.... I was thinking that I know more people who have been healed from cancer than I know that have died from it. I remember when I was a kid, I knew several people who died from it. I can name at least a dozen people that have been healed from it and only one or 2 that have died. I think this is incredible! I found my mindset changing... I even thought this about my friend. I hope that they have cancer and not something I have never seen healed before, because I have seen so many victories over cancer. Is this a testament to the power of testimony (no pun intended)? I think maybe it is.

thank you

To all who pray for me and my issue with my shoulder, Thank you. It really helps. I have not had much pain for the last several days.

directions needed

Last night was amazing. I had some great prophecies spoken over me, so a couple of them got me to thinking about what to do. As many of you know my shoulder is in really bad shape, Dr says it will be totally deteriorated in 10 years, He says that I should only lift 10 pounds or less. That is impossible in my line of work. So the prophecies got me to thinking more seriously about a "career change" I got a letter a month ago from a gentlemen that specializes in selling businesses like mine. The letter has been sitting here staring at me for that amount of time, and so today I thought I would call the lad just to see if selling the business is even an option. After about 10 minutes my dream of selling the business came crashing down. I wanted to puke when he told me how much it was worth ( very little). The fact that the business is in Abilene, Tx completely devalues it by thousands and thousands of dollars. So I guess I have to keep plugging along in pain and misery until I am healed or delivered. I love my job and am completely frustrated that I am in pain so much. I hired a part time retiree to lighten my load a bit, but there is no way to go through a day and be productive and not lift any boxes. I need a normal miracle in my shoulder ASAP! I really need some direction.

definition

Let me boil this all down in one sentence what the media has been harping on for weeks now. "sluggish economy"- You and I, the consumer, are not spending our hard earned money, but saving it instead. Yikes! that is bad... according to the media. Look, There are ups and downs all the time in the economy. There is just nothing else to report on right now. Sure some people will loose their jobs, but there are other ones to be had, just check the Sunday paper. Let not your heart be troubled by the negative reporting on the "sluggish economy" If you want it to get better, go spend more money. :)

the beauty of freedom

The beauty of freedom is that I can believe what I want to believe and I can support who I want to support. I can disagree, I can agree, and I can vote for whoever I want to vote for. I can write in a candidate if I so choose. I can lobby for things I believe in, I can make phone calls and sign petitions I can hold up dumb signs at different venues. I have never told anyone to vote for or against anyone in judgment. for instance, "You should never vote for X or your an idiot".

I can put out the truth in every way possible.... then we all vote. Then we have an outcome.

and then.... democrats start telling me to get on board, support our new president, Honor him, trust him, support his "change" You have to cause the Bible says to. (me throwing up, here). If I have to, then why did we just have an election. We should just have a dictator if everyone has to agree with him all the time. What's the point of having two political parties. You see this point of view is incredibly liberal.

I have to respect the office of anyone in authority, I don't have to respect their policy, their beliefs, their agenda. If the president were in the same room as me, I would show respect. I will never support or compromise what I believe in for the sake of "getting along" or "unifying the country" That is hog wash. If we all were forced to do that, then we have lost our freedom... by telling me to "support" our new president, you are telling me to give up my freedom and by beliefs, and to me this is why liberals in power are so dangerous. They want everyone to agree... with them. You see, agreeing is not unity it's agreeing. I disagree with my wife on occasion, but we are still married (unified), I disagree with my pastor and my church occasionally, and that is okay, If we all agreed and you had to agree to be a part, that would be a cult. I certainly disagree with my elected officials on every level, yet I still live in my city, in my state and my country. Unity has nothing to do with agreeing. We have one thing in common, We are all citizens of the greatest nation on the planet and I plan to keep it that way.

And if you want to go quoting scripture to me, like some have recently, in Romans about honoring authority, then we can do that all day long. You can try to guilt me into changing what I believe, but it won't work...becuase what I believe comes from scripture. My Christianity is obviously a different Christianity than Mr. Obama, I can disagree and still be unified. There is no way I will not be praying for this man, He needs an encounter with the Holy Spirit! and I too need an encouter by the Holy Spirit, their great! ( this post not directed at anyone person in particular that reads this blog)

Pray for Change

It's finally over, and I slept really good last night. No one knows what is in store for us. We have elected a president with no leadership experience, no foreign policy experience, no business experience, a ultra liberal voting record in the Illinois senate.

So what got him here... he is a big spender, just look at what it cost him to buy the presidency. 650 million dollars, more than any two candidates have spent on an election in history, Yet last night in his acceptance speech he claimed that they had little in the way of fund raising, just starting off at $5 or $10 here and there.

He is a rock star. He made a brand of his name and people didn't care what he stood for. it's like Arnold or any number of other celebrities that have won public office seats. People who wouldn't normally care about voting went to vote for there superstar celebrity. Aligning himself with Operah, and other Hollywood elitists created a rock star, that was evident last night. I thought I was watching a concert before he came out. The sad thing about that is no one will stick with him when crisis hits, his charisma and "rock star" status will wear off eventually, just like the new restaurant hype does around here.

I remember when Rosa's opened, people were lined up out the door for weeks and weeks, and now at lunch time there are just a handful of people there. The new is gone, the excitement will fade, crisis will hit, Joe Bidden said it himself.

Obama was elected because he is a great orator, smooth,bold, good looking black man. Not because of his policy, his affiliations, his past, his religion or his voting record. If voters really looked at the issues, he wouldn't even be the democrat nomination.

And he won because McCain is none of those things. He is not a good fundraiser, not a good communicator, he is old, he is spent, he is not attractive, and he is not bold and just seemed to not really want it bad enough. Courageous, yes. A hero, yes. But being a hero is not popular in America unless you are a nonfiction character in hollywood.

The Good:
the positives are that the coming economic crises, which has just begun, will be pinned on a democrat president, the coming terrorist and international crisis will have to be dealt with too. Bill Johnson said that this election will have 50 years of consequences, he is right.

The bad: Efforts to make Fairness Doctrine law (removal of religous freedom), remove our right to bear arms, higher taxes on businesses, persecution of christians, indoctrination of our children...teaching them about sex, and gay marriage at insanely young ages, nationalized healthcare... which means the government will say what you can and can't have, rise in terrorist activity on our own soil, international war, appointing of judges who will rule with ultraliberal agenda, government funded abortions, Obama has said quite explicitly that judges should look at the social impact of their rulings, not just the law as written. He has said he would appoint judges who, beyond objective legal expertise, would have empathy in their rulings for an unwed pregnant teenager, or a gay man suffering from AIDS, or a homeless woman with nowhere else to turn. You see, I would imagine that 75% of obama voters really took the policy into consideration. The new media gave this victory to Obama. It's a sad day for me. But God is my provider and my sustainer, and my protector. I didn't vote for him, so I can sleep good at night when the dodo hits the fan. Oh, and pray for change.... in Obama, I pray for an encouter with the holy spirit. He claims many different faiths, and christianity is one of them. I pray that He would be visited by Jesus himself and real change will take place. Maybe he is prophecying change in his own life. Could it be?

????

On the subject of abortion and the subject of terrorism. I have been thinking about how these are two very similar subjects.

Abortion kills innocent life.

Terrorism kills innocent life.

Could it be that abortion is terrorism towards babies. There are numerous ways in which each act is carried out.

Could it be that we as a nation are just as wicked hearted as the terrorist that we seek to kill before they kill us?

It seems strange that we can kill our own, and it's okay, but when someone else wants to kill our own, we seek to kill them first, which is okay. This makes zero sense to me.
(it's sorta like I can make fun of myself and it's funny and ok, but if you make fun of me it's not okay)

If babies could defend themselves would they have the same stance as we do towards terrorists?

I wonder how long before we kill ourselves off, 1 entire generation has already been murdered in cold blood, as christians have stood on the sidelines and watched.

I am extremely grieved for our nation!

Could it be that when we vote for someone in favor of unborn baby homicide that the innocent blood is on our hands too? What if we voted for someone that was for terrorism, and welcomed them to our country and stood by while they performed terrorist acts, and made laws so that they could more easily do what they do successfully.

I don't know the answers for sure, but it scares me to think of what they could be.