Are You Lucky or Blessed?

Are you blessed or lucky? Am I blessed or lucky? My family returned from Germany, March 20th, after visiting my wife’s family and celebrating her 40th birthday with her twin sister. We arrived on March 10th and planned on staying until March 25th, but our plans were changed by the Pandemic, Corona Virus.

First, we were told all American’s had to be back with in the U.S. by Friday, March 13th, but we just got there three days earlier and ignored the warning. And, the 4 0 celebration was planned for the following day. However, our return flight kept getting cancelled. My wife spent hours on the phone trying to book our return flights. We finally got a flight that didn’t get cancelled, however, we had to fly from Frankfurt, Germany with a layover in London, England and then to Dallas, Texas, five days early, as opposed to or our original flight from Frankfurt, Germany, straight to Dallas, Texas.

On the way over to Germany, I sat two seats away from someone that coughed the entire flight and didn’t bother to cover their mouth. We walked through Dallas Fort Worth Airport, and Frankfurt Am Main Airport and I don’t think we practiced social distancing lining up, to check in on the way over. On the way back, they did ensure we spread out when we exited the plane in Dallas, before we checked in with the CDC that was waiting for us there.

We arrived in Dallas and were screened for the Corona Virus, passed our screening and were told to self-quarantine for 14 days at home. We did and never developed any serious symptoms, yes, we had a sniffle or a cough, but nothing to get too worried about.

I said all that to say this, am I lucky or am I blessed that we flew all the way to Germany to visit with family, celebrate my wife and sister-in-law’s 40th birthday and to visit with some old friends and made it home safe. God was definitely with us when we drove back from Dallas to Arkansas, because we were exhausted. We took turns driving, but somehow made it home. Are we lucky or blessed? I believe we are blessed, God was definitely with us.

I’m blessed! I have a beautiful family that loves me, and we are healthy. I have a job right now, when according to CNBC ‘Another 6.6 million file for unemployment’ (9 March, 2020). I have a roof over my head. I have a loving Church family, and have many more things to be thankful for.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/another-66m-americans-file-for-unemployment-benefits-as-layoffs-show-no-letup/ar-BB12nLmw?ocid=spartanntp

I’m sure all of you have stories to share about your Corona Virus experiences, are you lucky or blessed? I’m blessed!

Strengthening Your Walk With Jesus

First of all, I am a sinner just like you! But, in my opinion, surrendering to Jesus Christ and accepting him as your personal savior is the easy part. It’s strengthening your relationship with Jesus, improving your walk with him is the hard part, and I wouldn’t really say it’s difficult, but it takes time.

First, you need to pray to strengthen you relationship with him, secondly, to be able to hear what God wants from you or which path you should travel, you need to read your Bible and finally attend Church. It may be hard to find the right Church for you, maybe it’s not the first Church you visit, but keep looking for a Church that fills your spiritual needs. It should be a place where you feel loved and a place where you feel overcome by the Holy Spirit and when you accept Jesus into your life (with faith), ask him to forgive you of ALL your sins (with faith), pray to Jesus, read your Bible and attend a loving Church with the Holy Spirit, God will certainly bless you and your cup will runneth over.

In Psalms 23 it says “¹The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. ²He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. ⁴Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. ⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ⁶Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. ” New International Version (NIV).

Also after accepting Jesus into your life you’re going to be faced with choices everyday. It could be anything from to drink alcohol, try or do drugs, gossip, go to work or stay home, who you associate yourself with, to how you treat your neighbors. There are many choices we are faced with on a daily basis that either strengthens or weakens our relationship with God, and as Christians we need to make good decisions.

We must also love one another. John 13:34 says “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another”, New International Version (NIV). To love like Jesus loved us might just be the hardest commandment to live by because Jesus loved us so much he died for our sins, but we have to try to love one another as much as we possibly can. God Bless You and I look forward to writing more.

My Cup Runneth Over

I have been strengthening my walk with Jesus and spending more time building a relationship with him (my wife and I have joined the Church, my wife and I have been reading our Bibles, daily, and I have been praying more) and I can see small miracles being performed everyday.

I commute 1 hour and 45 minutes one way to work and the road I travel is heavily populated with deer. I pray that the deer stay on their side of the road and they have. I have passed deer right on the shoulder of the road. I try to slow down and move over to the other lane, if it is possible. I pray for my safety when I travel to and from work and the last few months have seen a lot of rain and thunderstorms to include hail, strong winds and sometimes tornadoes. And God is looking out for me, whether that means my boss sending me a message to work from home, or the storms along my way dissipating and weakening, missing me, or me being allowed to adjust my time to travel to and from work, whatever the case may be God is taking care of me.

Our Pastor at Church is also leaving and we’ll be looking for a new one. God put it on my heart to be a part of the committee to search for a new Pastor and I didn’t tell anyone about this feeling to be a part of this committee, but one of the Deacons unexpectedly asked if I wanted to be on the pulpit committee. It was such a welcomed surprise and an honor to be nominated, God certainly works in mysterious ways. While I don’t want to lose the current Pastor we have, I certainly don’t want to stand in the way of God’s will and I look forward to helping find a Pastor to fill the void of losing the current one.

I feel blessed beyond measure, my cup is definitely running over and I believe the more time you spend getting to know Jesus, reading your Bible, spending time at Church, attending Church events, helping when you can, and praying the more you will be blessed. And I feel Blessed!