Troubled Heart

Troubled Heart

My heart is troubled

And I can’t seem to think

My mind is cloudy

Like I’ve had too much to drink

I’m drowning in my sorrows

But what does it mean?

I’ve sinned and I can’t get past it

At least that is how it seems

But is that the truth?

Can I really not get past my sin

Is there proof?

That God won’t let me in?

Has His voice grown quiet

Can I try and fight it?

Is it even something I can earn?

What have I learned?

Is it even based on what I do?

If it is, there is no way I can get through

So I look to the Word that was planted in me

When God’s Love poured out

Was it enough to set me free?

God’s Word says no condemnation

For those who believe

God’s word says new life

For those who receive

So what do I believe?

What have I been given?

I’m talking about Christ 

Who was dead, but is now risen

He conquered death

But that’s not all

He took sin and pain

When the world thought he’d fall

Jesus came back

And conquered it all

But what does it mean for me?

How does what Christ did 

Change the things I see?

In my life I see pain

Caused by the things I do

I’ve hurt so many people

Forgiveness can’t be true

Everywhere I look

Is another reminder

As I go through life

I could really use some blinders

But then there’s this story

Of a man who became a king

As I read on 

I discover a curious thing

He was said to be a man

After God’s own heart

But then he sinned

And his life fell apart

In his apathy

He took another man’s wife

Then on the verge of exposure

He took that poor man’s life

So what started as a thought

Ended in 5 broken laws

And God forgave Him

And now I have to pause

And reflect

What God did for him

He could also do for me

I see Ephesians 2 verses 1-10

How God truly set me free

Because I was dead 

In transgression and sin

Following the ways of this world

I could never win

But then

There was God

And what He did no one could change 

He gave His Son

So that I could be rearranged

It is by mercy

That I don’t get the death I deserve

And by grace

That I receive the place that is reserved

For me in heaven

That’s what I see in verse seven

Then in eight 

It breaks it down plain

It is by grace, through faith

Salvation is God’s gift I gain

Nothing I’ve done

Or will ever do

Could ever bring this gift

To me or to you

It is a free gift

That comes straight from our Savior

But once we get it

It should change our behavior

For we are God’s workmanship

It says in verse nine

To do works that were prepared

Before the beginning of time

Now created in Christ Jesus

We now begin to shine

So whoever you were

You are no longer

Whatever bound you before 

God has made you stronger

You’ve been saved and set free

Your sins thrown into a forgotten sea

Now to live a life 

That reflects His glory

From this day forth

Jesus is weaved into your story

So when you look at your life

You may see a mess

But God sees Jesus blood

And only your best

So stop looking back 

Look only to the Lord 

Looking to God

And your eternal reward

Cause today is a new chapter

A new page in your story

That will take you step by step 

Into His Eternal Glory!

This is Love. 1 Corinthians 13

This is Love
1 Corinthians 13


What is Love?
Some say Love is an emotion, like a potion
To cause a notion of devotion
To another.
Or maybe a feeling
On which you float up to the ceiling
Or to clouds up in the air
But is that really fair?
We all know that feelings fade
Could that really be how Love is made?
Does that mean the Love is gone
when the feeling go away?
Is that why Love doesn't last in this day and age?
There’s got to be another way, I pray.
Let’s see what God’s Word has to say
“And now I will show you the most excellent way”
If I speak in ways that everyone understands
In the tongues of angels and man
But don’t have Love,
It’s like I’m just banging on a can.
If I prophesy 
and there is is nothing I don’t understand,
and my faith can move mountains
or any other kind of land,
If I give all I have to the poor
and surrender my body to burn
But have not Love
It is nothing and that’s all I earn.
So now, here it is
a definition to learn:
Love is patient and it is kind.
With it envy, boasting and pride
you will not find.
It is not self-seeking.
There’s no anger or record-keeping.
Love hates evil and takes joy in what is true
Protecting, trusting hoping and persevering
are 4 more things that Love will always do.
What it comes down to 
is that in all the worlds ails.
No matter what may come, 
Love never fails
You want a perfect picture of Love? Picture this:
Jesus on the cross nails through His open fists
Blood flowing down His face
as He took all of our shame and disgrace
He took our place.
Jesus gave up everything,
if only to bring
Salvation to you and me.
When I think of Love
This is the picture I see.
And a God whose Love shows through this event.
Through Christ, His Son, who was heaven sent.
Love brings us back to our King
and gives us everything.
When all else is gone and fades away

 God’s Love will still remain.

John 3:16

John 3:16 - For God so Loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

This scripture pretty much sums up the entire story of the bible. All of the Old Testament led up to this and all of the New Testament revolves around it. From the moment man fell for the first time God put this plan into motion. His Love kept it in motion and brought it to fulfillment.

Imagine for a moment how much Love it would take to follow through with this plan. We see Abraham willing to sacrifice his son out of Love and obedience to God, but with God it is different.

Jesus was with God in heaven and man had fallen away. When God looked at man He would see that as a whole we rejected and turned away from Him. God was able to look past all of that and past all of our sin and still Love us.

The bible says that, “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” He didn’t wait until we turned our hearts to Him. God Loves us so much that He sent His only Son when our hearts were deceitful.

Now we have a hope and a possibility for a future. All we have to do is accept it. Christ died so we can live. Believe in Him; receive Him into your heart and you will be saved. Then you will have eternal life with Him.

God’s Love for you is greater than you could possibly imagine. Believe in Christ and let God show you how much He truly Loves you.

1 John 3:1

1 John 3:1 - How great is the Love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

I am a child of God! Every time I say it I receive a new level of revelation to what it means. Think about how much God Loves us to call us His children.

I remember when I had my first son, Tristen. Before he was born I knew I would Love him, but I had no idea how much. Once I had him in my arms I was overwhelmed with how much I truly Loved him. 

I Loved him so much that when we were getting ready to have our second baby it scared me. In my mind I couldn't see how I could Love another child as much as I Loved Tristen.

That, however, is part of the awesomeness of the Love of God. Once Logan was in my arms I knew I Loved him just as much as Tristen. And it wasn’t even that my Love was divided between the two. All of my Love was for Tristen and all of my Love was for Logan. I could truly say that I Loved both of them fully and equally.

It’s hard to understand just how it works and even harder to explain, but that is how God’s Love is for us. He Loves each of us fully and unconditionally.

God doesn't have to split His Love because that is how His Love works. It is greater than we can comprehend. Just know this: when you are in God and God is in you, you do not have to share Him. He is your Father, your Daddy and He Loves you as His child.

2 Thessalonians 3:5

2 Thessalonians 3:5 – May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s Love and Christ’s perseverance.

           Our heart is our core; our center. In essence it is who we are. Proverbs says, “As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.”  And again, we are told, “Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Our heart is the spring from which our life comes from.  

We also see in scripture that, “Out of his heart a man speaks.” From this we understand that whatever is in our hearts is going to come out. That is why it is important for us to guard it. If we let bad in, bad will come out; if we let good in, good will come out.

Our heart is a reflection of who we are as a person. It is also with the heart that we believe in Christ and are justified. As we trust God and surrender our heart to Him, He will fill us up with Love and give us what we need to persevere.

God’s Love and Christ’s perseverance work together. Think about when Christ came. He came to save us because of God’s Love for us. He is a perfect reflection of that Love. And it was God’s Love in Him that gave Him the strength to persevere through the cross and the grave. Jesus persevered through losing everything so that He could gain us.

Now we are given that same Love to walk in and the same charge to persevere. Because of our Love for God we have the strength to persevere through all the world has for us, knowing that one day we will be with Him forever.

1 Thessalonians 3:12

1 Thessalonians 3:12 – May the Lord make your Love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

         In this passage we see Paul praying for believers; that our Love may increase and overflow, first for each other and then to everyone else. We, as Christians, need to walk in Love. Too many of us fight over trivial things and hold onto past experiences. We try to go to the world to show them Jesus, and in the end all we show them is that we cannot get along with each other.

         Jesus told us that the world will know that we are His followers by the Love we have for each other. How is that going to work if we aren’t showing that Love? People are looking for a place to feel accepted and Loved. That place should be in the body of Christ.

         In Paul’s prayer he first prays for us to Love each other, then continues by adding, “And for everyone else.” That is not by accident. We must make the house of God look appealing and inviting. It should be a place that welcomes anyone who comes in. I’m not talking here about coming in to a building either. You take the body of Christ with you wherever you go, as you are part of it. I’m speaking to you as an individual inasmuch as I am talking to the body as a whole.

In order to welcome and Love those whom we come in contact with, we must put aside our differences and Love each other. If we Love each other, then when we Love others it will mean something, because it will be evident that you are not putting on a show. We are all rooted and established in God’s Love and it is time that we started walking in it every day.

So, as Paul prayed this prayer I also pray it for you: “May the Lord make your Love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” Love like Jesus Loves; not based on action, but on people!!

Ephesians 3:16-19

Ephesians 3:16-19 – I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in Love, may have power together with all the Saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the Love of Christ, and to know this Love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to a measure of all the fullness of God.

Paul prays for the Ephesian church that they would come to know God’s Love more.  There are a couple of things that we need to understand about God’s Love. First, His Love goes beyond all knowledge. Before the world began God’s Love was there, and when everything comes to an end His Love will still be there. It is the most important thing.

We also need to understand that we are already in God’s Love. Paul prays that we are able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep that Love is, but before that He tells us that we are rooted and establish in God’s Love. God created us in Love and we are already engulfed in it, we just don’t always realize it. That is why Paul is praying for us to have a deeper understanding. He does not pray that we receive the Love, because we already have.

God’s Love is already in us and around us; we just need to learn to walk in a greater awareness of it. Jesus tells us to Love God and to Love people, but first we have to realize and recognize that we have God’s Love through Christ. He is in our heart and mind and with Him comes the Love of God. It is this Love that gives the ability to fulfill the command that Jesus has given us.

It begins with God’s Love and in the end all things will be made complete in His Love. As we become God’s children it is our responsibility to Receive, Return and Reciprocate the Love of God. First let His Love come to you (Receive). Second, Love Him in the same way (Return). Third, Love others as He Loves us (Reciprocate). 

Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 - But God demonstrates His own Love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.

It is not enough to just say you Love someone. Love is powerful, but as mere words it is empty. It must be shown. James talks of faith without works as being dead; Love is the same. Without action or demonstration the words, “I Love you” are hollow and meaningless.

All through scripture we see people talking of the Love of God. God’s Love is the most powerful thing we know and we know this because He has shown us. It started in creation. All creation was based out of Love. God created the world as a place for us, His most Loved creation. Then we messed up and fell out of fellowship with Him, but He didn't give up on us. He setup a rescue plan through Jesus to bring us back to Him. This, too, was because He Loves us.

Jesus gave His life due to the Love He has for us. When the disciple John wrote his gospel he referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus Loved.” He did this because he had a revelation of how God saw him. Later he writes, “We Love, because He first Loved us”(1 John 4:19) and “God is Love” (1 John 4:8).

In Ephesians Paul talks about how as believers we are “rooted and established in Love” (Romans 3:17). Then in Romans says he is convinced that “nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:38-39). These men all wrote about God’s Love from experience. They knew that God Love them, because they had seen it.

God doesn't just tell us that He Loves us and then leave it at that. He demonstrates His Love. While we had our backs turned on Him and were living for ourselves God sent Jesus to die for us. Not because He had to or we deserved it, but because He Loves us. God Loves you and the proof is all around you. Make a point to recognize God’s Love in your life.

John 3:16

John 3:16 - For God so Loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

          This passage of scripture is probably the most known and most quoted out of any other passage in the Bible. Because of this we often forget the power this statement represents. In this passage we see a summary of the entire Gospel message, just like “Love God and Love people” sums up the law and the commandments. “For God so Loved the world.”

          We need to understand how powerful this statement is and what it means to us. As we begin to look at God’s Love we see that everything that was created was through Love. And it is this same Love that makes the foundation on which we stand to reach God.

          Paul reminds us in Ephesians that we are “rooted and established in Love” (Ephesians 3:17) Then in John’s letter first letter to the church He tells us that “God is Love” (1 John 4:8). And again in Paul’s letter to the saints in Rome we see that he is convinced that “nothing else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

          So we see that God is Love and Love is God. To Love is to be like God and God’s Love made a way for us to come to Him. Because He Loves us and did not want us to perish (because we were sinners and the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23)), He sent His Son to die for us.

          Jesus was righteous and sin free, so He was able to pay the penalty of death for us all. Now that work is done and completed. The penalty for our sin has now been paid and our position with God is now up to us. We must make a decision to believe in Jesus, because it is only through Him that we can receive the Love of God.