April 18, 2006
Raising my kids in Hawaii has been great for my family, but I don't let myself think that all is well and nothing bad will ever happen in Paradise.
I lived my life in a state of denial before I began to look at reality. I then began a long search for truth. Trusting God and believing in His ability to protect and direct my life was not what I was looking for, but was what I found.
Some of my best friends still laugh at the fact that I am a solid Christian and don't live my life the way I used to. If there is something funny it is that I wasn't ever really honest with myself and the mess I was making of my life. I worked hard, I loved the things I did and I was happy with all the challenges that life presented me, but I was not honest with my own inner turmoil. If I made mistakes I just didn't look back and think about it. I thought everyone has problems and who is perfect anyway.
If I was to die in a car accident I would fare as well as the next person if there was a time of accounting to God for my life. After all I was doing my best and I wasn't doing many of the awful things others were destroying their lives with. After all most of all the bad things in this world don't involve me. If you listen carefully you will see that it was really just my way of saying I really don't believe in God.
Who really knows the truth about God?
But something inside of me did want to know if God was really real. If he was real I really didn't know who to listen to. Then someone told me to listen to what Jesus said about God. What an amazing statement. Listen to what Jesus said. I could do that. I couldn't trust churches, people who claimed that they had the answer, or even famous preachers, gurus, saints, but Jesus - that was different,
I had a place in my heart for Him. I had always thought I could trust Jesus with my life. I had never listened to him speak. But just how accurate is the Bible about recording what Jesus said. I should read it. I knew I would not listen to mere religion but I would listen and decide for myself if what I read was really inspired.
I love listening and tearing apart all the self righteous politicians and news broadcasters. I like to read in between the lines and see if I can pick out their little lies. I tried it with the Bible and I now have my own feelings about Jesus and what he says about God.
Now just how hard was that.
I can quote verses but that would not help anyone. But I can point to the Bible and let you make up your own mind. After all it is easy to say I have already read the book and I still don't believe in anything other than myself.
It takes a fresh look with a mind that is not already made up. It might take a while deciding if knowing God is really worth the trouble doing a little daily reading for a couple of weeks.
I know that the person that died this morning in that crash wouldn't have hesitated if he or she had known that today was the last day of their life. I also want to keep praying for the young 22 year old girl that was driving drunk.
Aloha and I will write again in a few days.
Check out www.wetcanvas.com I am offering a free class on Dolphins in Acrylic for kids.
I have two grand-kids and they will be returning from Brazil tomorrow April 19th. They are the greatest. I will give them some more painting lessons as they are loving art. I was directly influenced by my mother at a very young age. She was an impressionistic pallet knife painter. I didn't think much of impressionism at all. I am loving it now.
I lived my life in a state of denial before I began to look at reality. I then began a long search for truth. Trusting God and believing in His ability to protect and direct my life was not what I was looking for, but was what I found.
Some of my best friends still laugh at the fact that I am a solid Christian and don't live my life the way I used to. If there is something funny it is that I wasn't ever really honest with myself and the mess I was making of my life. I worked hard, I loved the things I did and I was happy with all the challenges that life presented me, but I was not honest with my own inner turmoil. If I made mistakes I just didn't look back and think about it. I thought everyone has problems and who is perfect anyway.
If I was to die in a car accident I would fare as well as the next person if there was a time of accounting to God for my life. After all I was doing my best and I wasn't doing many of the awful things others were destroying their lives with. After all most of all the bad things in this world don't involve me. If you listen carefully you will see that it was really just my way of saying I really don't believe in God.
Who really knows the truth about God?
But something inside of me did want to know if God was really real. If he was real I really didn't know who to listen to. Then someone told me to listen to what Jesus said about God. What an amazing statement. Listen to what Jesus said. I could do that. I couldn't trust churches, people who claimed that they had the answer, or even famous preachers, gurus, saints, but Jesus - that was different,
I had a place in my heart for Him. I had always thought I could trust Jesus with my life. I had never listened to him speak. But just how accurate is the Bible about recording what Jesus said. I should read it. I knew I would not listen to mere religion but I would listen and decide for myself if what I read was really inspired.
I love listening and tearing apart all the self righteous politicians and news broadcasters. I like to read in between the lines and see if I can pick out their little lies. I tried it with the Bible and I now have my own feelings about Jesus and what he says about God.
Now just how hard was that.
I can quote verses but that would not help anyone. But I can point to the Bible and let you make up your own mind. After all it is easy to say I have already read the book and I still don't believe in anything other than myself.
It takes a fresh look with a mind that is not already made up. It might take a while deciding if knowing God is really worth the trouble doing a little daily reading for a couple of weeks.
I know that the person that died this morning in that crash wouldn't have hesitated if he or she had known that today was the last day of their life. I also want to keep praying for the young 22 year old girl that was driving drunk.
Aloha and I will write again in a few days.
Check out www.wetcanvas.com I am offering a free class on Dolphins in Acrylic for kids.
I have two grand-kids and they will be returning from Brazil tomorrow April 19th. They are the greatest. I will give them some more painting lessons as they are loving art. I was directly influenced by my mother at a very young age. She was an impressionistic pallet knife painter. I didn't think much of impressionism at all. I am loving it now.
