Today’s blog was inspired by a song called “Remind Me Who I Am” by Jason Gray.  Make sure you watch this video clip first and then enjoy the AMAZING list of reminders from Scriptures telling you who you are in God’s eyes!!

When you are finished watching that, read through the list of ONE HUNDRED amazing truths from the Scriptures that reveal who you are IN CHRIST!!

Video Of The Day:

Remind Me Who I Am – Jason Gray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKyY8zfjBMQ

100 TRUTHS ABOUT YOU – I did not come with this list, I forget where I found it, but today is the day to be reminded who you are IN CHRIST!!  Today is PART 1 Of 2, so check back tomorrow for MORE good news!!

IN CHRIST: Continue reading →

What are you trying to escape from?  We are SO GOOD at self medicating our hurts and needs.  We know exactly how to ‘escape’ internal pain, sometimes even external pain.  In our need to be loved, valued and accepted, we are constantly searching for self worth and fulfilment.  The world offers so many distractions from ‘complete contentment’ and peace.  In fact, the substitutes work for short periods of time.  Stop and think for a moment, what are your ‘go to’ things you use to make yourself feel better:

1. working overtime, perfectionism
2. shopping, filling the void with eating out, coffee, chocolate…
3. smoking, drinking, porn
4. social media, YouTube, Instagram
5. movie escape, ear buds glued in your ears
6. out with friends partying, sleeping around
7. an over abundance of religious activities on your calendar
8. working out, overly concerned about health and fitness, addicted to ‘health and wellness’

ANYTHING to keep from facing the ’emotions, Continue reading →

Today my heart is heavy with the requests from friends to PRAY! Some requests come from sudden crisis, and some from long painful journeys taking yet another toll.  Today, I will be praying for every single thing the Holy Spirit put on my heart, whether He does it through people emailing me, text messages, through my thoughts, or a news story.  Some people have said that you must pray, that it is your ‘responsibility’, your duty.  What I have come to learn now is that my only responsibility to pray today is my ‘ability to respond’.  And I choose to respond to any and all of His promptings in me.  For me, that is the beauty of prayer.

I grew up being told what prayer was and wasn’t, and I was still confused.  Over the years, I’ve found that there is mystery in prayer, as well as adventure.  In order to experience the adventure, one does need to debunk the false understanding of what prayer is and is not.  To begin that journey, here is a list of what prayer is not.

PRAYER IS NOT….. Continue reading →

Have you ever been invited to a formal event where you are required to bring your ‘invitation’?  Have you ever purchased a movie ticket on-line, and then have to print it off and bring it with you to the theatre?  For each event, there is proof that you have a right to be at the ‘occasion’.  The ticket person takes your stub or invitation, and you are allowed to enter.

What would happen if you found out that you have a permanent invitation engraved right on your heart?  What if you realized that you have a permanent and continuous invitation to commune with, chat with, hang out with the living Christ who indwells you right now?

It is possible to forget about the invite, or to get distracted by other ‘good things’?  It happens to me ALL THE TIME. Continue reading →

“Life Is Pain, anyone who says otherwise, is selling something” (The Princess Bride Movie).

Some who are reading this today, woke up in pain.  Maybe not physical pain, but emotional agony for certain.  Circumstances don’t seem to make sense, life is not fair, and those in your life that should have been watching your back insert a knife into it instead.  I met with a family this morning who had just lost their two month old baby girl.  Everyone is devastated. Life truly is painful.  Is there any hope?

A good friend of mine who has been on a 4 year journey of painful experiences, introduced me to the A.S.S. Principle the first day I met him.  It stand for ‘Absolute Soul Surrender’.    When his painful journey began, he gave up the certainty of every single thing in his life, except the ‘fact that Jesus is Lord.”  (Even that fact, was not well understood, but he believed it anyway.)  He had to come to a place where he had to express Absolute Soul Surrender to Jesus and let Him work out the details.  He had to give up ‘trying to control’ all the outcomes for himself, his family, or job.  Each time the anxiety of the pain emotionally began pounding him, he cried out to the A.S.S. principle.  Do you know that Bible verse that says something like, ‘even when we don’t know what to pray, the Holy Spirit hears our groans of agony and interprets the groans and prays ‘for’ us”.  That kind of prayer was happening all the time in my friend’s life. (Still does today!)

Are you a control freak?  Continue reading →

Today’s blog contribution comes from Colleen Watamaniuk, Colleen has been connected to Grace Walk Canada since it was launched over 8 years ago.

“What Not to Wear” was a TV series hosted by TLC for many years, featuring style experts “Stacy London” and “Clinton Kelly”. The premise of the show was to ambush “a style felon” and critique them on their style choices. Often the participants used clothing as a way to hide or bury who they thought they were. The hosts not only addressed the issue of clothing, but sought to get to a deeper place of why and help these women overcome some misconceptions they held about themselves. The transformation that often occurred in the participants was very touching, but I suspect often temporal.

I think many of us are like the unsuspecting participants in the What Not to Wear Show. We either dislike who we are, have been lied to about who we are and the value we have, or we simply do not know the truth of our identity.  Consequently, we go out and about, trying to cover up or bury ourselves in things that really do not look good on us.   Continue reading →

Thanks to my friend Ken North for today’s Blog submission:

Sometimes I feel like a broken record. I keep repeating the same thing over and over. Why? Because this is SO important… for me, for you… for all. In a nut shell what I am saying today is this … you are loved. But you know what?? Sure, sure … I am loved… loved by God … yadda yadda yadda… heard it before. I could have NEVER comprehended the immensity of this truth had I not gone through the most intensely painful journey, I have just come out of. God is not just some lofty impersonal spiritual being that ‘by chance’ created us, and we are left to flounder looking to Him for guidance. NO… He is all knowing, all loving, and intentionally made us …humans. But wait .. he intentionally made YOU. Yes you … He intentionally made you, and yearns for you to not only know that fact, but for you to know HIM.

Classic existentialism says this, … Continue reading →

I’m planning to do something I have never done before.  I’m taking my daughter to New York City for a fast paced, sightseeing adventure.  Daddy & daughter time is rare and I’m thrilled to be able spend some time with her.  Tickets are booked, and now there is much to do, plan the itinerary, figure out transportation, etc.  This advanced planning will save us a ton of headaches and potential travel glitches.  It will be fun trying to pick the key places we want to see, figure out how to get there easily.  Whatever we do end up doing, will be awesome, mostly because we are doing this together,  it will be a fun & meaningful time.

Imagine trying to plan out your journey of ‘maturing into Christ’, sorting out each potential step.  There will need to be some significant planning otherwise you could arrive at a place you didn’t plan on!!  Wait a minute now, the journey of maturing into Christ cannot be ‘self-planned,’ instead it is done by the Holy Spirit.  He is the one whispering directions and instructions deep into your heart & mind moment by moment.  As we learn to recognize his voice and learn to listen to him, the fruit of our ‘awesome obedience’ will cultivate more faith as we mature in life.

What does the map of maturing look like?  How do we move between ‘Child, Young Adult/Teen, and Mature Adult’?  From a Biblical foundation, here is the best picture/diagram of what each stage can look like.  The Holy Spirit will be your ‘GPS’ as you trek on this journey, listen for His voice.   I hope you find it helpful. Continue reading →

Growth.  It all begins with a seed.  My wife has already begun the preparations for our vegetable garden, and yet the entire backyard is still covered in a foot of snow.  She has this little ‘greenhouse’ type thing and all that I can see in it is a ‘green-box’ tray full of dirt.  Clearly nothing was going on … or so I thought.  A few days later I began to see little green sprouts penetrating the surface of each little dirt square.  Yesterday, my daughter noticed that the fast growing plants were all leaning towards the sunlight coming through window, and that the plants closest to the window were larger than the ones further back.  Wisely, my daughter took the big tray, and rotated it so that the small sized plants would now be closer to the window, giving them a chance to catch up to their larger species.  It will take a few more months for these little ‘baby plants’ to be ready for the big transplant into the outdoor garden.

Spiritual growth. Begins with a seed.  That seed is ‘The Light’ that shines in and through darkness.  When we recognize Continue reading →