Let God Bring Justice into Your Life

God will pay us back double for all our trouble according to Isaiah 61:7. Hebrews 10:30 says, "God is a just God and He will settle and solve the cases of His people". If we place our faith in God, chapter 19 of Joel Osteen's book Your Best Life Now says, "sooner or later God will bring justice into your life. Sometimes when we don't see anything happening month after month, maybe even year after year, it's tempting to become manipulative, to attempt to make things happen on our own. When we do that, we risk interfering with God's plans and purposes, creating another mess for Him to clean up, and possibly even keeping God from doing what He really wants to do in that situation." Wow! I think God is smarter than me...lol...so I believe I will just let him deal with any perceived injustice I may have incurred. Romans 12:19 says, "Never avenge yourselves, but leave the way open for [God's] wrath." Alrighty then, I'll do that, Lord.

I'm so enjoying the teaching in this book. It started with enlarging my vision and then moved on to helping me build my self-esteem. I loved the part about the power of our thoughts and words and now we are being taught to let go of our past. It's so healing, and I feel blessed to be a part of this teaching. Kim, Holly, Mark, & I had the privilege of attending "A Night of Hope" with Joel Osteen's family leading an awesome service in KC Friday night. It was such a positive, uplifting night and Joel poured out those blessings from God on us that we studied in any earlier chapter. I claim a blessing daily. Today I'm remembering that God has blessed me with fulfillment, and I feel satisfied. May God richly bless you this week as you study and blog on this chapter.

Don't Let Bitterness Take Root

We are never angry for the reason I think. What is happening outside us is not the cause of our distress even though that appears to be the case. In actuality, our anger has nothing to do with our present circumstances; it is instead a reminder, something from our unhealed past. By asking ourselves these questions--when, where, and with whom have we experienced these feelings before, we will uncover the experience from our pasts that we now need to forgive, heal, and release. Joel says in chapter 18, "When we don't forgive, we're not hurting the other person......We're only hurting ourselves."

Letting Go of Emotional Wounds

It's Valentine's Day in two days. Maybe this is a good time to let go of emotional wounds so we can be more loving to others and ourselves. Guilt and blame are the chief inhibitors to feeling peaceful and loved. When we find value in guilt and blame, it is impossible to experience love and inner peace. The good news is that we don't have to remain that way. We can forgive others and let go of the past. That's what we will study in chapter 17. We are starting a new section today that will help us learn how to let go and heal from the past so we can enjoy life in the present moment. Praise God!

Speaking a Blessing

I loved this chapter (I know, I say that about all these chapters but this book is great!). I have always done pretty well with this topic and I have always tried to speak blessings to people especially to my children. You know what I have found as well? - When you speak positively to other people it raises the mood of everybody! Just like negativity - positivity is contagious! We need to hear good things from our loved ones - we need it just like air, water and food. Without it, our self esteem never gains traction. Want to hear an inspiration on this? Joel has a short sermon on this at the link below. While I am the only man on this blog I really liked the message that Joel speaks out to the men that as men we do have a leadership role to play in our families and with our children. Thanks Joel! Just like Joel stated in this chapter we all want blessings from our parents - lets not let our children down. Without it they will have to carry all of that excess baggage throughout life! Lets give them the good positive start that all people deserve in life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXVNmF5dBfk

Speaking Life-Changing Words

Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

As Joel states in Chapter 15, it is not enough just avoiding negative talk....you must get on the offense in order to score points and win!

Torrance "Tank" Daniels is my hero of the week. He is living the All American dream of playing in the Super Bowl this Sunday. How Blessed! Of course, as Paul Harvey would say, now is the rest of the story!

He was an undrafted player in the spring of 2006, meaning nobody thought enough of him to draft him because he played for a small college in Northern Arkansas. Didn't matter to Tank; he was going to play professional football anyway! He tried out for several teams and went to the NFL combine where he performed quite well and was able to attract the attention of the Philadelphia Eagles who invited him to training camp. Tank was now playing professional football, but he still had a long ways to go to make the team. He performed admirably in training camp and survived until the final cuts where he was cut by the team for the active roster. However, living in God's favor, Tank was picked up by the Eagles on their practice squad, meaning he could practice with the team but he was not officially a member of the team's roster. That meant getting the heck beat out of him during the week by the veterans as they prepared for the week's game. He did that for about 10 weeks playing his tail off in hopes of someday making the team. His time came when the QB for the team got hurt opening up a roster position for Tank! He had made it to the big time. He was now playing in the NFL and not just in the exhibition season. He had his chance and on his very first play against the Indianapolis Colts he made a tackle that was noticeable enough to be mentioned by John Madden, TV commentator. He continued to play well for the remainder of the season which consisted of five more games.

You would have thought the rest of the story is history, but Tank was cut by the Eagles the following season at the final cuts of the training camp, and this time he wasn't picked up on the practice squad. His short lived NFL career appeared to be over. However, God wasn't done working his miracles for Tank. Steve Spagnuolo, linebacker coach for the Eagles, was named defensive coordinator for the New York Giants in 2007. Coach Spags knew about Tank's heart and abilities, and Tank hooked on with the NY Giants on their practice squad in the fall of 2007 after being cut by the Eagles. He was again assigned to the practice squad until about 10 weeks into the season when he was called up on the active roster. Tank was again playing special teams in the NFL. Most players would have given up multiple times by now, but Tank is a man of God and faith. The Giants are having one of those miracle years in their own right, but in the first playoff game against Tampa Bay, where the Giants were the wildcard team, it looked like the Giants were not going to advance and that would have been pretty much expected. However, Tank forced a fumble on a punt return, and the Giants recovered and scored a TD. It turned the team around and they won the game. Definitely, a turning point in their season. They turned around and won games at heavily favored Dallas and Green Baby to advance to the Super Bowl. That player from that small college in Arkansas will tomorrow be playing in the biggest football game known to man.

Tank verbalized all the while that he was going to play NFL football! He went on the offense and is living his dream. We all need to use words to go on the offense and word toward our Super Bowl. God wants us to succeed, but we have to use the tools he gives us and words are a big part of our tool box.

Thanks for the memories, Tank, and good luck tomorrow. I have a good feeling!!!