What is God going to say to you when you die?

 Do we really think God is going to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?     

      Why are we so ready to leave this earth? Why are we so ready to stand before God and hear Him say well done, you let your country fall away from me, you wasted your talents looking at prophecy and waiting for me. Great job existing on this earth instead of going into the world and making disciples, you kept your life easy, comfortable, stayed in the church.
It’s not about us waiting for God to change people, it’s about the change getting into us and spreading across the world.

       God didn’t allow that guy to go into an elementary school in Connecticut and kill innocent people and children, we did.
Where was the church in all this? The social media and believers try to pick out every possible thing to keep the blame from ourselves saying, well he had mental problems, problems at home etc. Do we ever stop to wonder how he got to the point that he did? We’re quick to point out who he was, not how he got that way. Where were Christians? There are churches and believers in Connecticut, where were they. Why didn’t someone reach out to him? When someone is contemplating something so violent it’s easy to spot, people who are hurting are easy to spot even if they think they hide it well.

      Don’t blame God for something He told us to do, the way our world is, is nobody’s fault but ours.
Jesus told us to go into the world and preach the gospel. That goes for our cities as well! He didn’t just say be born again and sit in a church and feel good for the rest of our lives. We have other churches in other countries doing more and asking for our help. Other countries are looking to us for help when we aren’t even willing to help ourselves.
Are you really expecting God to say well done good and faithful servant when we’ve done nothing to serve or better out country, and nothing to further the kingdom of God?

      Come on! Take off your holy rolling glasses and realize that the church and our country, our world is headed for destruction! All of Gods children are headed to Hell. We as believers are saved from death, so why are we afraid to be persecuted? If we wanted a perfect, easy life we should have never asked Jesus into our hearts. The bible says as Christians we face trials and persecution. Grow a backbone, put on your grown up pants and lets get this thing done. Lets be the change this country, this world needs!

The Ultimate Fighter

Imagine this
              Your walking down an alley, a man approaches and you catch a glimpse of something in His hand. He pushes you against a brick wall. You’re disoriented, screaming at your attacker to stop. You try to look him in the eyes but his face is covered by a mask. He begins to beat you, you can feel your body start to give with every impact of his fist to your face, and knee to your side. You don’t know why this is happening, your scared as you realize his intent.. to kill you. You feel your legs give and your body crashes to the ground. You head hits the concrete and you black out.
             You start to wonder in the blackness if your dead, you start to visualize your attacker and try to focus on what he had in his hand, a gun, knife, baseball bat? If He had one of those he would've used it right? It suddenly becomes clear that it’s a piece of paper, on it is your name written in bold black letters. Underneath it reads the following “on this day, punishable by death these sins were committed. By the authority of God I hereby sentence you to life in Hell where you will forever be separated from me.” Underneath it is signed by God.
               You regain consciousness and notice the man who attacked you is arguing with another man. The attacker hits the man and knocks him down next to you, a bright light shines and you start to think of a policeman’s spotlight on his car, your saved. You look to the man next to you and realize that the light is coming from him. You look to your left and notice your attacker running away. The man that was the light now looks like a normal man again, he brushes himself off and offers his hand to help you. He hands you the piece of paper but instead of your name at the top it reads “Redeemed”, below you read “permission from God, to save the lost, heal the sick and the broken, and to make a way for freedom.” The man takes the paper back and signs it in blood. You look at the signature and it reads Jesus Christ.
                You look at this man and ask Him what it means, He looks at you and smiles. He says “It once was my fathers business to punish and judge, and to those who don’t accept my redemption still face the punishment for their sins. I came down to this earth as man, taking the punishment of sin and to bridge the gap so you could live free.” You ask Jesus who the attacker was, “It was satan, with an old worn out paper that he lives by, but is no longer valid. He wears a mask of my father lurking about devouring my followers, convincing them that it is my Father punishing them. Convincing strong believers that its my Fathers perfect will, as they die of sickness before their time.” Jesus puts His hand on your chin, you see a tear fall from His eyes as He tells you He loves you, as he askes one question. “Will you take my love and share it unconditionally? So many of my people are dying because of a lie being spread by parts of my bride the church, will you tell them the truth, tell them that I love them and that I want them to live a fulfilled life on this earth. That’s why I created you here on this earth, not to live and die but to thrive!
              Jesus sheds one final tear, pulls you close and hold onto you not wanting to let you go. Jesus finally turns and walks away as you stand in that alley, moments ago on the brink of death but now with a calling on your life.

I like to visualize things when they come to me, and as I sat in my class one day in school it was as if I entered a new world. I could feel the cold brick, the crisp fall air. I heard the street noises and saw the lights. I could feel the impacts from the hits on my body, I closed my eyes and saw the exact movements of the attacker, everything that happened in the story above I experienced as if I was there. As the visual was flowing through my mind, my pencil was furiously writing on my notepad. Such a passion rose up in me as I pictured strong Christians leave this earth, not fulfilling or even realizing what they were put on this earth to do. The inspiration for this blog is a visual picture of John 10:10 and a visual of Jesus coming and giving His life so we could live free from sin John 10:11.
Hope is Alive, Change the World, Impact futures!
John 3:16

Are We a Trustworthy Vessel for God to use?

As I continue now my 2^nd year at Charis Bible College I’m faced with the greatest task, being able to fit my testimony in 10min or less. How do I put all that God has done in my life since August of 2009 into just 10min?
Thats when God brought me on a journey, back to the basics of why I’m in Colorado Springs attending a Bible college. He brought me back to the simple yet terrifying 4 words, “Do you trust ME!” (God)

He brought me back to the message He gave me sitting in a cabin at a church camp where I had no intentions on actually “finding” God, truth is God found me. It’s not that I was lost, just not on the right path, the path that God wanted for me.

As I got ready to go to bed I was restless, didn't want to sleep even though the thoughts of me running a 5K race the next Saturday morning begged me to sleep. I began to talk to God, I wasn't sure what about so I just thanked Him for where He’s placed me. Thoughts of my testimony filled my mind as God posed a new question on me, a question that brings my whole message deeper.

Once we can say we trust God no matter what we face in this world, are we then able to ask God to trust us as we offer our bodies as empty vessels for God to possess and use.

Can God trust us with His love?
Will we use it for our gain or the gain of Christ?
Can God trust us with our minds?
Have our minds really been renewed?
When we’re alone, what does our imagination create?
Have we really offered up our bodies truly empty of self wants or habits?
Will God have to look through the junk that sin carries?
Will Jesus have to continue to carry the burden of our sins?

There is so much power inside of us when we have Christ inside but have we tapped into it?

Are we ready to tap Jesus into this fight and let Him take care of it or are we too busy trying to fight a battle alone?

What looks better, giving God the glory in everything or taking the podium as number 1.
Who gets the greater glory when we give God our all?
We get everything because through Jesus Christ we are made greater, but its only through Him

Are you willing to be an empty vessel for God, for Him to flow His power through.
Are you ready to tap into the I.V bag that’s full of Gods blessings?

Are you really able to trust God with everything?

Get ready for something that will go against the very doctrine of what you believe!

What fires you up?
What makes the gospel come alive in you?
What is it that ignites the fire and power of the Holy Spirit and causes it to burn ramped through your body?

What is the one thing that makes you feel safe, secure, and happy?

Through the struggles of life people of all ages look for that one thing that makes them feel whole.
Through the pains, the breakups, the heart ache people are searching for something that mends there broken lives.

Even in the church today there are people still searching for that fill.
They’re still searching for that thing that will make them truly happy, truly satisfied, still searching for the thing that fills the void and emptiness.

People go to church and are filled with nothing but condemnation, are told to reflect on their past sins and cry out to God to save them from their past.

Did God not send His only begotten son to this earth?
Not to condemn the world, but to save it.
Not to destroy or break the law, but to fulfill it.
Not to teach fire and brimstone, but to teach love, forgiveness, and the kingdom.

There are so many parts to the kingdom of heaven that we as a generation now, as well as generations past that can’t or don’t want to grasp the truth and let go of the lies.

When Jesus was on the earth he went about healing all that were sick and oppressed of the devil. People put both things together to say that He didn’t teach on healing, which is correct but if you remember grammar class you know that when “and” is put into a sentence it’s essentially say “healing all that were sick as well as oppressed of the devil”
When Jesus was on the earth, when He taught on sin and condemnation He never said that we had to do what the religious leaders did and tear our clothes and fall on our faces crying out to God to save us. That is essentially what the church calls people to do, they call people to the alter so they can wail and plead for God to save and forgive us.

Every time I hear a pastor call people to the front of a church so they can plead and ask God to save us from our sins I imagine God in heaven looking over to Jesus who is shaking His head saying now haven’t you already taken their sins away? Haven’t you already taken away condemnation? Didn’t I send you to the earth so you could save the lost and the hurting?

I’m not saying that we don’t have to come to God and accept Him, but by going up to an alter or whatever and pleading to God and causing snot to run out of our nose just for Him to save our sins is actually putting Jesus on the cross again and again because we don’t believe He could’ve taken away every single sin we will ever commit, every single ounce of condemnation for past sins.

Jesus never said we had to rent our clothes and heap ashes on our head when we accept Him, it should be a joyful time. A time filled with His Love and compassion, a time for Jesus to come in and cleans us white as snow, tears of joy instead of looking like we’re crying because we enjoyed what we were doing before and now having to live a godly life.

As a believer in God if you believe that we have to come to God with our heads low and tails in between our legs because we did something wrong, then Jesus died for nothing. Jesus came so we could have our heads held high, come to the father and simply say God I’m sorry, help me, give me strength, help me renew my mind and change my attitude.
We know that when Jesus died on that cross it was for whatever we just brought to God, and that we no longer need to live in condemnation, we’re free!

Most people translate what I said into meaning we can do whatever we want without needing to come to God, they see no condemnation as no longer needing to worry about what we do or say. That’s mostly because we still want to do those things (sins), whether it’s words or actions. We want to have a fire insurance policy, yet break every clause in the manual (Gods word).

When I see people not living to their full potential, only doing what they want because it’s easy it bugs me. It’s much easier to blame God for things than to look at our own life and see the real cause, they rather say that God is causing them to suffer so we can soon triumph.

So if it’s Gods will for you to suffer how can it also be His will for you to triumph?
Would someone come up to you with the intent to kill you, knock you down and beat you until you could hardly breathe then tell you to stand up and take your best shot?

If it’s really Gods will for you to suffer on this earth then suffer! But don’t keep telling people that you just got back from the doctors and he or she said you only had a few more weeks to live and act depressed. If it’s truly Gods will that you only have a few weeks of life left then at least be happy about it.

If you knew that it’s not God killing you or causing you to suffer then you can change your destiny, cancer may run in your family, arthritis may be in your family, but when you accept Jesus into your life as your personal Lord and Savior you get a new family tree and I can say with much belief that there is absolutely no sickness on Gods family tree, there’s no suffering, no condemnation. I was always wondering if there was more to God than what I was taught, I couldn’t understand the belief that God gives and takes away. When Job said that, it was because He was hurting. Job wasn’t a prophet, he was just a man that praised God all the time and satan said he could change that, in the end of the book he apologized for the wrongs that he said or did.

I could get more in depth with a lot of things, if you have any more questions or comments just hit me up on facebook or even on here. I’ll be happy to help you and if I don’t personally know can direct you to someone who I’ve learned from. A lot of what I’ve learned hasn’t come from teachings, most of it came from reading Gods word for how it is, not for how religions or theology teaches it. Thank you all for reading my blog and hope that in some way it can peak your interest to learn who the God of the universe really is!

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A years start to a lifetime of greater things.

What a year!

       Its crazy to thing something that feels like just yesterday was actually six months ago. Its crazy to think that six months ago everything was uncertain. Six months ago loading up my dads diesel dually, and figuring out how to get my car on the tow dolly correctly, Six months ago looking at my empty room while memories flooded my mind of all the good times I’d had at that house since we moved in there. From first grade to March of 2011 a lot has happened, both emotionally and physically. I remember when I was in first grade thinking about how far finishing school and getting my drivers license seemed.

     I started looking for a job when I was 15 but didn’t get one until I was 16, I also got my license two months before my job in 2009. From 2009-2011 I took a building trades course at Penn High school, it was during my junior and senior year in high school. I had a life changing experience at a church camp in August of 2010 where God showed me a vision of what I was going to be doing and audibly heard what He wanted me to share.

      I began to search for college’s and asked my pastor if he had any great ideas. I didn’t want to go to just any Bible college, I wanted to go to one that used the Bible as their main text book and believed in the power of prayer and the importance of grace and faith. The moment I went on the web site for Charis Bible College I knew that’s where God was leading me. I saw they were having an event called campus days and got my parents to agree to going on a vacation to check it out. When I left campus days in March of 2011 I was graduated from college and had an application submitted to attend the following September.

        In June of 2011 I quit my job at Chick-fil-A and got a job that worked me 10-12 hours a day or more, pay was better but was tougher than I had expected. Went by faith and found a temporary place to stay in Colorado, and in August of 2011 quit my job at Meijer Central warehouse and spend the rest of my 3 weeks in Indiana with family and friends.
      

         Now I’m back where I started this blog, I’m here in Colorado and have been for six months. These past six months cant even come close to comparing what all I have done in a year. The physical doesn’t compare to the spiritual and the struggles don’t compare to the blessings. In six months I have accomplished more than ever, I’m so blessed to have the friends I’ve made here, the places I’ve lived but none of that compares to what God has done in me spiritually. I’m planning on being here for 3 more years and if God tells me then I’ll be here for a total of 5 years. I’m excited to see what all God is going to do while I’m here and what He has for after college. I pray that your lives will be blessed more than mine, and that you too will find who God really is. It takes a trust in God to have faith, and a faith in what God is doing to trust Him. God Bless and thanks for reading!

Tyler Showers

Will you get in the Limo? Gods holding the door.

Getting in the Limo
       I’ve had my times of doubt, wondering what I’m doing thinking I was crazy for moving here. I could be back home working at a job that paid the best out of all the jobs I’ve had, plenty of hours, and was permanent. Sometimes I think how I’m going to provide tuition and rent, buy food and gas. I don’t have all the answers. There are questions in this life that I wish I had the answers too, questions that seem like if I had the answers life would be so much more care free.

    I began my journey back in august of 2010, I was lost and hurting but God kept calling out to me. They say here at the college that you may think you found God but really He found us. That reigns so true in my life. Even though every time something went wrong and I blamed God He still kept calling me. I would constantly hear “Do you trust me.” I never understood why, why would a perfect God want someone like me. Someone who by law has led a perfect life, by Gods standard should be rejected. I was never perfect, always leading a double life, living with one foot in the world and one foot on Gods side. I was sitting on the fence not wanting to go all in either way.  I didn’t realize until I got here that the fence satan owns. The fence is where the devil laughs, because we think we aren’t on his side but we are. We think that since we aren’t in the world we’re okay. We need to decide whether or not we’re going to live for God or not at all. With God there is no gray area only black or white. The good news is that God sent His only son Jesus to die on a cross to save us from destruction and eternal horror. When Jesus died on a cross He took all our sins past or present with Him to hell and left them there. We no longer need to feel condemnation for what we’ve done. Condemnation is from the devil, it drags us down and makes us feel unworthy to be called Gods children. I was living there for so long, I felt condemned for my actions, words, and habits.

     I grew up in a great home, I grew up in the church and was taught from the beginning the difference between right and wrong. But because we are all born with a sinful nature my flesh would always go for the wrong, always lusting after the things of this world. Lust isn’t always wanting or looking at a person of the opposite sex, its anything that our flesh desires. A lot of our lust does come from the eyes but its also a lust for money, power, and possessions. Lust is anything that our hearts desire, it can be alcohol, pornography, drugs, and people.

     One side of my double life was the worlds, every day from Monday to Saturday. Wednesday was a break because of church but besides Sunday I really wasn’t living for God. And even on Sunday I was just going through the motions. I wasn’t out partying, smoking or drinking. I wasn’t out committing sexual intercourse but the further I went away from my walk with Christ the more my flesh desired that closeness. I thought that those things would fill a void in my soul. I would always have big long conversations with my mom and dad where it would end in me breaking down and crying and I would try for a while but always come up short. My junior year in high school was a downward spiral, I started taking a Building Trades course at the local high school. I was never actually exposed to drugs and so much talk about alcohol and perversion, I was aware but never around it. I started swearing more than I ever did, the anger that I always had a tough time controlling magnified to a dangerous level. I was hurting, searching in places that could maybe help because church and God didn’t seem to cut it.

    
           This is my situation, I’m empty and feel lost. I try to get back to God but because of condemnation I keep falling. I’m currently not caring about the way I talk or act, and I didn’t care if I died. Church was giving me no fulfillment, it was just a place to go to feel even more rejected and unwanted. The way I talked slowly perverted my mind and actions, I felt dirty inside because of the way I thought and felt. The military looked like a better way to end it all, I couldn’t commit suicide. I didn’t know what to believe, I asked Jesus into my heart after watching the first left behind movie November of 2001 and water baptized in 2006 so I believed I could still go to heaven but deep down I was scared to die. I had my friends that got my mind off of the dirt and junk I felt, all this in my junior year in high school.

     Most of my senior year went the same way, except it changed for the better towards the end. Because I didn’t care I was severely behind in my school, I wasn’t going to be done until the start of when normal seniors head to college. There wasn’t anyone to blame but myself and I was reaping my actions. Through everything God still kept calling out to me saying “do you trust me,” it became even more audible and frequent.  I started to wonder if maybe it wasn’t God causing my problems, maybe it was me that was destroying my life because of my flesh. We started going to a different church where I am greatly joyed to actually be able to call it a home, and the pastor Rodger Cook a friend and a mentor, someone I could look up too and learn from. A pastor that wasn’t untouchable like all the pastors from the past, everything He said made sense and made me long for more. My life suddenly had meaning and purpose, even though I was still wondering what God really had for me. I started reading my bible and things made sense, things came together instead of looking like a bunch of words. I finally realized that God wanted me to trust Him and that everything was going to be okay. If I actually gave Him all things and laid everything I had 100% at His feet, He would be there for me no matter what.  That started my search and desire for what God placed in my heart, a dream that now felt reachable. I looked into several colleges, my pastor gave me some ideas for colleges and gave me some names. I looked up Charis Bible College and it stood out among the rest. I found out about their event they call campus days where you come and experience it firsthand. I left Colorado with an application turned in and a future that excited me.

     This is where I currently am, sitting in an amazing house almost in the mountains and loving every minute I’m here. It’s not always easy and there is always a new level of trust that is added to my faith every day, but I know provision is here. I can’t keep my focus on where I would be right now back in Indiana, this is my home right now. As I try to figure out what I’m doing over the summer I’m excited either way, if I have to go back home then I know a job will be provided that I can pay my tuition in full next year, that will provide me a stable foundation for the following year. It will give me a chance to be back with my family and reconnect with my friends that I haven’t seen in a while. If I get to stay here over the summer it’ll be the same way. I’ll have a new place to stay and a job that will provide full tuition and a stable foundation to live on. I’m excited to see where God is going to lead me and I cant wait to earn my full inheritance here on earth. Every day is new revelation, every day is a new depth of focus, a new outlook, a new chance to let God help me out of a wreak of lost focus on the drive of my life and open the door to a brand new limo headed towards greater things.

   
           I want to thank you all for the prayers and support through my journey. I want to thank all of my friends who have been there for me in in the past and my family for sticking by my side. I want to let you know that God is there in front of you holding the door open to your own limo to take you on your most amazing journey you could ever ask for. He gave us a free will, He won’t make you get in it’s your choice. If you choose to climb in you won’t regret it, even when it’s hard and you feel like giving up Gods always there. Do you trust God enough to leave all the junk and hurt to get in and start living? My prayer is that all who read this are somehow impacted, and if you read it and don’t get anything out of it that’s okay because it blesses me to write it. Thanks again and God Bless!

Another New Year, another year to change and to make changes.

“A New Year, a time to change and to make changes”        

           As I write this it’s almost the end of the first day of a new year. A time where people make resolutions for weight loss, better relationships, better attitudes. But all through the past year how many have kept it? Not many.  So why keep making a promise to yourself when you know you won’t be able to keep it?

            Over the past couple of weeks or months I’ve seen nothing but a lot of drama towards fellow brothers or sisters in Christ. Why do we have so much resentment towards others when we are supposed to love one another as Christ loved us? Does anyone think that Jesus went around the earth holding grudges to those who offended him? No, He went around loving and healing all that were oppressed. So what is the heart of all the drama? What continues to fuel the very thing that rips friendships apart? There are many things like maybe your friend has a friend that you hate, and because you don’t like their friends than you’ll hold back. Or another one like relationships, now this is a big one and I’ll take some time with it. I’m currently reading a book called “I kissed dating goodbye” by Joshua Harris, and everything in that book so far has changed the way I look at a relationship.
           The book isn’t about never dating, it’s about changing the way you look at relationships to where its God centered and focused on a God kind of love. Instead of looking at a girl with the intent of dating and having physical relations with, it talks about centering a relationship off of friendship. I hear people say that it would be weird to marry your best friend, but isn’t it better to marry you best friend than a total stranger? When dating its mostly fast paced, no time to get to know each other. No time to learn each other’s likes or dislikes passions or desires. There’s no time to learn about the person and to study who you’re with. Dating and relationships are like a big test. If you don’t study for them you’ll fail. Just like if you don’t take time to get to know someone before you’re with them you’ll fail. There will just be two people trying to pick up pieces and starting over. Or in a relationship you may be studying but more on the physical side. The book talks a lot about physical purity and how high God holds it. You may have not ran all the bases as people say but the Bible says that even if you look at a woman with lust, you’ve already committed adultery in your heart. |

    So through what you’ve read so far, how many of you have resentment or drama towards someone else because of a relationship? There is way too much of this going on in the body of Christ, and even at my college. I came here with a focus of God and only God, but it’s so easy to get sucked into this guy is with this girl, and this girl wants the same guy. Or there’s five guys wanting one girl. It’s ridiculous really how people can bring up judgment and drama towards another when they are jealous. I don’t mean to say that I’m perfect because I’ve done the same thing. But honestly I got tired of it, I got so caught up in that that I lost my main focus on coming to Charis. I told everyone that I didn’t know what my problem was but inside I knew. I got to the point where I was driving home one night crying out to God and telling Him that I rather be in His will and single for the rest of my life than be in a relationship and be out of His will. That’s a little extreme and I know that that’s not what God has in mind for me but I know I needed to give all of that to God and let Him know once again that I want to be sold out for Him, I want to earn my full inheritance here on earth. I needed to admit my wrong and give my passion to Him. God gave us all a free will to do whatever we want, but we need to set that aside and say God lead me, I’ll follow. You are the driver and I’ll sit in the back and do what I need to do to get to where you want me to go. We will stumble, we will reach forward and grab the wheel and crash. But God is there waiting for us to climb out of the rubble no matter how serious, get into a brand new car and keep going. I told someone the other day that I rather have a bunch of sisters in Christ than a bunch of memories I’d wished I could forget. I rather have the good out way the bad. I wonder what most people’s reason for going to Charis is. Is it to have relationships with the opposite sex, or is it to truly have a relationship with Christ? I rather look back at my time at Charis and see good things, not a bunch of bad feelings and memories. I’m not making a resolution for the right relationship with a girl, I’m going to leave that up to God. I’m not making any resolution this year, I’m only shifting my focus towards God over a relationship. I know that once I’m ready for a relationship the right one will come, but until I can keep my focus on God while being with a girl it won’t ever work. 

        

            Thanks again for reading what I have to say. I hope that people can take some stuff to heart. You don’t have to agree with everything I say, but I hope it changes the way you look at how things can affect everyone. And that if a relationship takes your focus off God, then it’s either too early or just not Gods plan. Hope you all have a great new year! God Bless!