Let me first say that I am very excited about today’s blog. This marks the 100th blog here at Theonelesstraveled. I look back and can’t believe it! I have been blessed beyond belief to have had the opportunity to share what God is sharing with me. For those of you who read it, I say “Thank you!” Thank you for going down this road with me. You have allowed me the opportunity to do what I believe the Lord has called me to do. Over the past year, the blog has been an outlet for me to share what God reveals to me during my devotional times. It is an honor for me to be able to share that with you. I pray that you will continue to take this journey with me, and that the Lord will speak to you through the words He gives me to give to you!

This morning God gave me some powerful insight. If you are like me, you look at what is going on in the world and wonder how much longer we can last. Surely, Jesus has to be returning soon! The earthquakes are numerous; the situation in the Middle East is, well, dangerous. The unrest and wars and battles leave little to be at peace with in any situation. I look at all of it and wonder why He hasn’t come back already. Not that I’m particularly anxious; there’s a lot that I still want to see and do. While I want to see my kids get older and graduate and get married, and all that life can offer them, I shudder to think of what the world will be like when they get there. Are you there, too? Do you look at today’s happenings and wonder what God’s plan is? Where is He?

Peter addressed this in 2 Peter 3. This was as if Peter was reading my mind today. When you hear people say that we are living in the end times, what do you think? Well, the “end times” span the first and second coming of Christ. So, since He left this Earth to take His seat next to God, we immediately began the era of the “end times.” So, when Peter talks of this time, he, too, was living in the end times. Peter explains pretty well both the time frames and the reasoning of God.

In 2 Peter 3:8, Peter says, “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.” See, God’s time table isn’t anything like ours. He is patient, and He is constant. He is the beginning and then end. But, if you’re like me, you know that He sees the current condition of the world. He sees the state of even the US. How many different ways has the nation failed Him? Turned its back on Him? How perverted and twisted our society is has surely made Him angry. So what is He waiting for? Why not come now and make this right?

2 Peter 3:9 is where Peter gives us the answer.

“The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”

God isn’t late. God hasn’t forgotten. God isn’t leaving us. He is being patient. He is being merciful. He is giving everyone an opportunity. He sees what is going on around us. He sees the conflict in the world. He sees the way so many have turned their backs on Him and His ways. Because of that, He is waiting. It is not his desire that people should perish, should suffer, and should be doomed to an eternity separated from Him. That’s the last thing He wants. He gave His SON so that we would not be separated from Him. But, He also understands that there will come a time when everyone will have made a decision.

When that day comes, Peter says, it will be sudden with no second chances, and the world will be judged. In verse 10, Peter paints this picture.

“But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.”

No one ever expects a thief. No one ever walks into their home expecting to see that it was robbed and ransacked. It happens suddenly, while you are away doing whatever it is that you do. It happens while you are sleeping. It is never expected. That’s what it will be like. It will be unexpected, sudden, and final.
So what are we to do? What do we do while we wait? Do we get in our “holy huddles” and stockpile water and sardines? No. We go out there and live our lives in a way that brings others to Him. We live out our faith in a way that is light in the darkness, even if it seems weird to the world. Peter’s advice here is found is verse 14.

“And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.”

Make every effort. Live a life that is peaceful and pure. Be the difference. Christ could return today, tonight, or 20 years from now. If He is being patient and waiting to give everyone an opportunity, it could be that someone you know. It could be that child, your spouse, your neighbor, your coworker, and yes, it could be you.

Prayer: “Jesus, Lord, Savior, Abba, thank You for Your patience. Thank You for the opportunity we have because of Your patience. Father, there is someone out there I know who doesn’t know You. You have placed that person in my life somehow, and I pray that You would open that door to speak truth and love into their life and heart. Help me to have that opportunity to let You speak through me to them. Father, if it is me, then I ask now that You would forgive me for the time I have been away from You. I accept You as my Savior, my Lord, my God. Help me, Jesus, to live the life that makes a difference. Help me to be a light in the darkness, and to have the courage to stand up when the world bows to lesser things. I love You, Jesus, and I ask these things in Your powerful, Holy Name, Jesus…Amen!”

Category: Stand Up
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First, let me say it’s good to be here again. I pray you had a wonderful Christmas, and that the celebration of Jesus was an amazing one. I have missed this blog, and sending it out to you. For those of you who don’t know, I have been coaching, and it takes a lot of time away from, oh, well, life. We are currently on a Christmas break, and I knew this was an opportunity to say a few things that God has put on my heart.

Back in November, our Pastor (Steven Yoes) was teaching on the story of Abraham and Isaac. In Genesis 22, you find the entire text of what I am referring to here. A brief synopsis is that God told Abraham to take Isaac and to sacrifice him.  Isaac was the son that Abraham had been promised at a very old age, and finally was born to Abraham and Sarah. Abraham was faithful, and went through with all things that would have been required of him to actually sacrifice his son. If you haven’t read this story, or if it has been a while, I would encourage you to go back and reread it, or read it with fresh eyes.

Here are a couple of things that jumped out at me.

In verse 7, we see that Isaac is beginning to wonder exactly what is happening. He, at this point, has no clue that he is the sacrifice. So, in verse 7, he asks his father about the plans.

Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” 

 “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

   “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

I’m sure Isaac was expecting his father to have a reasonable answer at this point. He must have known that his father was very wise, and would not just show up to sacrifice a non-existent animal. Abraham did not give him the satisfaction of a “reasonable” explanation. Instead, his answer was, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.” The amazing part here is what you don’t read. What isn’t said sounded so strongly in my soul I knew I had to share it here. Look in between Abraham’s quote and the next line that says what they did. What do you see? A period.

Abraham offered his explanation of faith to his son, and Isaac did what? Argue? Tell his dad that it was a stupid idea? Question his father’s wisdom? No. The very next thing you read is that …”the two of them went on together.” Catch this: Isaac’s faith in his father and in his God told him that this was the answer. At some point, Isaac’s faith had to have been influenced by Abraham, his dad, and he had been raised with a strong belief in God’s provision and miracles. Isaac didn’t question Abraham, he didn’t question God; instead he accepted that God would provide because he knew that God does provide as he had been taught and (I believe) had seen in his life. His faith was like his father’s.

My “bring it home” part of this? Given the same situation in our life, when the world looks dark, and the situation seems impossible, what would the reaction of my kids be? What would your children’s reaction be? If they have been taught from our lives, and from what they have seen, and what they have heard and taught, would their reaction be on faith or on false security? If my sons or my daughter were standing with me, and we had to face something head on, would they know that my God, our God, provides, or would there be more in between the period and climb up the mountain?  My prayer is that it would read as simply as Isaac made it. His father had faith. His father lived his faith and gave that to his son. His son had faith. Together, with the faith and faith of father and son, one of the greatest stories of the Bible still lives on. When your faith and your children’s faith is tested, what will be your story? What will last a lifetime on which you can build a lasting foundation of faith?

Begin now. Strengthen it now. Faith, and Faith.

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This past Saturday was my birthday. As much as I don’t look forward to birthdays anymore (because it reminds me of my own immortality!), I found myself amazed at this birthday. I have never seen one person go to the lengths of ability as my wife, Mandie, did this weekend. If you look up “love” in the dictionary, her picture is right there. Ironically, she is also right next to “beautiful” as well.

Mandie spent two weeks getting ready for a garage sale we had on Saturday. This wasn’t just any garage sale, this was an Altar’d Garage Sale. For those of you who don’t know about us, Altar’d is the furniture company we own. It’s shabby chic, but we prefer to call it funky chic. Mandie is the creative genius. We take old, antique furniture, refinish and repaint it. We use a verse from Isaiah 61:3 to help remind us that God has given us “beauty for ashes.” He takes us, old, ugly, and broken, and He fixes us, refinishes us, and makes us new, bold, and beautiful.

So, not only was she painting furniture for two weeks, but she did it with the flu. I don’t mean she had a cold, or a runny nose, or a little cough. Mandie was sick. Yet, she still knocked out countless pieces of furniture for the garage sale and for our clients. It was absolutely amazing. She never really missed a beat. Though she couldn’t sleep much at night, and didn’t have much energy during the day, still found it in her somewhere to create an amazing sale. And did she need my help? Yes. Did she get much of it? No. I tried when I got home from work, but on Wednesday, it hit. The flu. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I don’t get sick. But this one made sure it had my attention. It kicked me in the gut and kept me down. I was, well, useless as a man who gets sick. You women know what I mean.

Saturday rolled around and we met a lot of our clients, new clients, and followers of the Altar’d Blog. The sale was incredible, and she was even more so. She then left soon after that to go grocery shopping for the weekend’s events; i.e. my birthday party parties. Yep. She threw two of them. The second one, she cooked. A lot. A WHOLE LOT. She made enough food for a small kingdom. She bought me the best birthday present, and showed me what true love was. Not in the gift she bought, but in the immense effort she displayed. It is true, love is a verb. This week, we was many verbs. She was many adjectives. They all mean incredible.

Other surprises? My brother, Nathan, came home from Colorado. It was great to see him and his girlfriend! We met my other brother’s (Hunter) new girlfriend, and we laughed a lot! I got to see a lot of family, a lot of football, and my wife made German-chocolate cake balls! Whoa…if you haven’t had those.

And then there’s this. My wife showed me God’s love. She put herself and her sickness and her desires behind my birthday. She didn’t just tell me she loved me, she showed me. My God showed me He loved me. He gave me another year, another day, to make a difference. He showed me the gift of my wife and how much I got that I didn’t deserve. He made my three-year old, Crewe, fall asleep on me on the couch for about an hour and a half. There’s something so sweet and innocent about that little life sleeping on my arm. Then, God had my friends and family all remind me of some special friendships and moments, whether it was a voicemail or a Facebook, or an email.

Thank you to all of you who took a moment to say Happy Birthday. Thank you, Mandie, for loving me the way you do. Thank you for being the wife I don’t deserve. Thank you for being so selfless. Thank you for being the wife of my youth…

Thank you, Jesus, for your blessings; for Mandie, for Michaela, Caeden, and Crewe. For my family, my friends, my church, my life. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to blog, to write, to love, to live.

There is a lot of birthday love.

Category: Stand Up
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I want to do some self discovery today. The question that so many of us ask ourselves through life is a question of identity. For men, we tend to identify ourselves by what we do–our jobs. Women tend to identify themselves by their family or role in the family. Yes, it’s a generalization with exceptions, but go with me here.

We tend to place ourselves in categories: Manager, banker, teacher, mechanic, homemaker, mom, agent, and more. The negative side of that is that those categories only tell what we do, not who we are created to be. It cheapens the answer. We look at the answer as if it’s a challenge. We have to have the “right” answer to make sure we solidify who we are. That’s not it at all.

Me? I’m the son of a king. I’m a child of the King. I’m claimed by the Lord of lords. The Creator of the Universe knows my name, my goals, my heart. I’m His.

Do I always feel that way? Absolutely not. There are times that struggle to remember who I am, I have to make myself recall those very things I just said.

What about you? Ever have those days that you just don’t know who you are, what you’re worth, or where you’re going? We have days like that. There are days that we feel worthless. Here’s something that we have got to get hardwired deep inside: God doesn’t make mistakes. He doesn’t make junk. We were intentionally made. We have a purpose. We have an inheritance. We have a promise.

I wanted to use a few verses from David Crowder’s song  Everything Glorious.

The day is brighter here with You
The night is lighter than its hue
Would lead me to believe
Which leads me to believe

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?

We should all be able to agree that God has made everything glorious. If He did, and He also made us, then as Crowder asks, what does that make us?

It makes us His. Forever. Romans 8:38-39 tells us that. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There is NOTHING that can separate us from God except one thing; our refusal of Him.

My prayer is that you have come to a place in your life where you have accepted Christ as your savior. If you haven’t, I pray that you do that today, this day, now. If I can help you in that, let me. In fact, if you are at that point today, pray this prayer. “God, I know I have been living apart from You. I just want You in my life. I want You in my heart. Forgive me for the sins and the wrongs I have committed. I love you, Jesus. Amen”

If you have ever prayed that prayer, or if you just did, you now know who you are. You are His.

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Ever seen a grown man cry? It doesn’t take much when he realizes just how much his kids have grown and in such a short amount of time. This guy had a harsh reality check today when he realized how much time has absolutely flown by, and that his kids are growing up much, much too fast.

I hate to sound cliché, but honestly, it seems like yesterday. It seems like it was just yesterday my little Mica was this little girl who said the craziest things and was so small and cuddly. She captured my heart so quickly, I didn’t realize it had happened. Today, she started fourth grade. She is so tall and pretty, I am not looking forward to high school!

It seems like yesterday that I had to walk Caeden in the living room all night because he wouldn’t sleep (we later found out it was because he couldn’t sleep because of ear infections). He was just this little guy that I would sing to and pace the floor, and who would I would cry about thinking I had a son. Today, he started kindergarten. How did that happen? Where did that time go?

We have one other son, Crewe. He will start kindergarten in two years, and he was not happy about not starting it today. It hit me hard when I realized how close we are to having all of our kids in school. This little guy, our daredevil, gives hugs like you wouldn’t believe.

Where did the time go? Where did all those opportunities go that I had to prepare them for what was about to come their way? Where did all the time go to enjoy them in their most innocent days? I’m not saying that they are all gone, but honestly, the time has passed much, much too quickly.

The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7:29, “What I mean, brothers, is that time is short.” Indeed it is.

I can’t help but wonder, what else am I missing? What am I missing because time is passing by too quickly? What is it that God really wishes I were doing right now? What am I going to regret and look back at it wishing I had the time back?

Is it that friend that I haven’t tried to tell about Christ? Is it the time I wish I had spent with Mandie? Is it the date nights I wish we had? Or is it the time that I am currently getting to spend with the kids? One of my favorite things right now is story time at night. I love making up the stories about the kids. Of course, there’s the random book choice for the night occasionally, but hey, I’ll take that too.

We take time for granted. Life can be snuffed out at any moment, and it is so fleeting. What is it that you would change today? What is it you are going to regret looking back? What is it you’re going to wish you had done? Done more of? Who is it that you will regret not spending more time with or telling them that you love them? It happens quickly. Too quickly. Time is too short.

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