Author: Scott

Here’s something for us to think about and ponder today. What are you faithful to? Your spouse? Your kids? Your job? Your country? What about your favorite sports team? And what are you not faithful to? Your health? Your finances? Other things? As you think about these questions, you might realize what exactly you are prioritizing in your life. 

Something else to think about is this, no matter how faithful or not you are, God is always faithful. He will remain faithful. No question. We can’t debate it. Because there is no debate. God will remain faithful because his faithfulness comes from who he is. It has nothing to do with who we are or what we do. His faithfulness is never in question. 

When you take God into your heart, when you begin to trust him and let him guide you, everything changes. Your life changes. Your eternity changes. These things change because of his faithfulness. His love, grace, wisdom, and hope will remain faithful. You can count on these. You can rely on these. You can rest assured that he has his arms of faithful love around you. You can rest assured knowing that he will not let you go. You can rest assured knowing that he can be trusted even when you are not. And you can rest assured that he will be faithful even when you are not. Because he loves us. He always has. He always will.

I often say, “Give me a long enough, I can mess things up pretty good. I can get into God’s way for sure.“ What I mean by that is without God directing the way, I have definitely messed up. And I’m sure I will continue messing things up trying to do them on my own. I bet many of you have felt, or feel, the same way too.

No matter what we are facing in life, no matter what we are going through, God will see us through. But believing is the key. Believing is the magic word here. We must believe in God. We must believe he has a plan. We must believe he is in control. And we must believe that we can’t do it alone. I know it’s hard to do that. Because we live in a world where we call the shots. We pave our paths.

In the Bible, we read that God tells us to “fear not” in our daily lives. This is to give us the strength to keep going. So remember this, no matter what we have done, no matter how bad we mess it up, God is there. Even if we think we are at the end. That there’s no turning back. God is there. So keep going. Keep pushing. Fight the good fight. Keep your eyes on God and you will feel his hope. You will experience his grace. Get out of your way long enough to let him show you. He will because he loves you. He always has. He always will.

Last year many people were waking up to hear the news about what happened to Damar Hamlin in the football game the night before. Many of us watched it live. It was really difficult to watch. He went into cardiac arrest after making a seemingly routine tackle. The medical personnel performed CPR on him for several minutes and were able to get his heart beating again. I think it’s fair to say that we watched him die and then be brought back to life. The NFL made the right choice and canceled the rest of the game.

As the medical team was doing their work, a majority of all the players and coaches went to their knees to pray. They didn’t know what else to do. So they prayed. Which was the right thing to do. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer. I have been on the receiving end of the power of prayer. My family has as well. Friends that I know too. When we find ourselves facing difficult times, we should turn to prayer. Why is that? My answer is this: I know that we serve an awesome God. A loving God. A God whose plan is beyond our understanding. But it is perfect.

I would also like to suggest something. Many of you are already doing this. Many of you are not. And I know that I need to be more consistent myself. Let’s begin making prayer a priority in our lives. And I don’t mean pray just pray. I mean let’s make prayer a real priority. Let’s be diligent about it. Let’s be focused on praying when we are praying. Maybe we should all begin each day going to our knees in prayer. Just as human fathers want to hear from their children, God wants to hear from us. His children. It’s a way that we can “bless” God. Let’s not just pray when times are tough. Instead, let’s pray for his guidance. Let’s ask him to lead us so we can serve him. Let’s say prayers of thanks. Rejoicing prayers. And after we pray, let’s believe and know that he will guide us. Because he loves us. He always has. He always will. 

There was an attack in New Orleans yesterday in the early morning. Leaving 10 people dead, and many others injured. The FBI is involved. They post pound the sugar bowl until today to make sure everything is safe. But can you imagine? Celebrating one moment. Fighting for your life the next. Can you imagine the fear? You are not alone. God has you. Years ago Hezekiah had to speak these words to his people. They were getting invaded. He knew that the people were fearful. He knew where that fear came from. He knew they would forget who God is. He knew they would forget His almighty power and glory. Hezekiah knew that he couldn’t just be a good king and a skilled general. He knew he must also be a wise pastor to his people. 

As they were preparing for the Assyrians, he didn’t want the people of Judah to think that they were left alone. He wanted them to know that they had been blessed. And not forget God was with them. He told his people: “Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side!”

Being fearful is a human experience. Chances are, everyone of us is going to experience it at one point or another. I know I have. Especially when the lives of my bride or my children were at risk. But I would also like to say this…even though fear is something that we’re going to face, experiencing God can get us past it. Hezekiah knew his people needed to hear that. I think we all need to hear that. I think we all need to know that God is present today. And he will be present in the future. So when you experience fear, or experience times of uncertainty, remember that God is here for you. And as the Bible tells us, “Be strong and courageous.” He will see you through. But it’s up to us to turn to him. It’s up to us to ask him. It’s up to us to let him take control.

Here we are beginning a whole new year. As we age, it’s interesting to me how we view New Year’s Eve. How we celebrate it. Or how we don’t celebrate it. Some of us stay up to watch the ball drop in our time zones. Others of us watch the ball drop in New York City, and then call it a night where we are. Some of us are sleeping long before midnight. So many different emotions that people feel as a new year begins. Excitement about it. Doubt about it. Determined about it. Or fear about it. These emotions are natural.

Sometimes we look at our lives and we wonder why they don’t like those around us. Because we envy them. It can be natural to do so since we are human. Sometimes we try to manipulate our circumstances to get what we want or desire. That’s natural as well. Wishing we had more things. Or more opportunities. More of this. More of that. Also natural because we are human. There are even moments that we will lower our standards because of disappointment that we are trying to avoid. Expecting less of ourselves to do so. And as we stated earlier, this is natural because we are human. 

But you want to know what we have in our arsenal. We have grace. We have grace from God. Which gives us the ability to have faith. Grace and faith. Incredible! These are gifts from God. Therefore, they are not natural. They are not human. Because they are of God. So as we will begin this new year, let’s realize that God gives us the power to believe. He gives us grace in what we are facing. He gives us hope and peace. He gives us the ability to look at this new year, this new beginning, as a new opportunity to grow stronger in him. And to serve others. Let’s build our lives on belief in him. Let’s boldly seek him. And let’s see where he takes us.

Today is the last day of the year 2024. Wow! Yes, I know. And I agree. This year has flown by. It was full of highs and lows. Joy and sorrow. Triumphs and tragedies. We have struggled at times. And we have celebrated as well. But, we made it. We’re moving on into 2025. For some it might be a fresh start. A time to begin anew. For others it might be more of the same. A year of building on from where you are now. Regardless of where you are now, or where you are headed, know that “purpose” is in the plan. 

There are 3 points to this I think we need to remember. First, our purpose is to know God. Not just know who he is. We should strive to “know” him. strive to develop a relationship with him. He’s waiting. Second, our purpose is to make disciples. We should strive to help others get to “know” God too. Think of the ripple effect. Who else can they witness to? Finally, God has a purpose for us. Unique to each of us. He’s paved the path for us. Even in times of despair, there’s a purpose for us. We should strive to find it and follow it. No matter how hard it might be, we should work to fulfill the plan. If we do this, I promise you it will be glorious. Maybe not the way we think it will. But it will be.

Here’s what is cool about these points. If we let him in, God will work in us. We will accomplish all three of these through him. He’ll give us the strength to do it. He’ll see us through. The Bible tells us that we have the tools. We can work “with everything good for doing his will” in our daily lives. So as we finish 2024, and move into 2025, let’s remember where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. Let’s learn from our struggles. Let’s build on our successes. And let’s strive to find and fulfill our purpose for God. As we do so, let’s be thankful and praise him for the opportunity to do so. And let’s celebrate knowing that the victory has already been declared. All the while, let’s be mindful that God loves us. Always has. He always will.

“The Chosen” is a series you can stream. I’m not sure how accurate is. It may or may not be. But it has been interesting how they make it understandable by using modern dialogue. There was a line in it that resonated with me. Mary Magdalene was talking to Nicodemus. He had noticed a change in her and commented about that. Her response was, “I was one way and now I am completely different. And the thing that happened in between was Him.”

The ”Him“ she was referring to was Jesus. And she is spot on. She had had an “experience” with our Lord and Savior. We talked about this very thing yesterday at church. How your life should change if you’ve had an experience with him. When we come to know Jesus, really know Jesus, we should be made new. Our lives should be changed. We should be one way before knowing him, and become completely different after coming to know him. And I would like to suggest that people should see this. They should see the change in us. They should question it. They should want to know more. The light should be so bright, that they should be unable to NOT see it.

I don’t know where you are in your walk with Christ. I don’t even know if you are walking with Christ. But I do know this, come to know him and he will change you. Come to know him, and you should want to serve him. Come to know him, and you will feel a peace and hope that only comes from his love and grace. Come to know Jesus, and know that you have eternity waiting for you with him. How awesome is that! We are so undeserving. But he is still delivering. And he always will. So maybe today is the day for you to ask him into your heart. Maybe today is the day for you to allow him to change you. Maybe today is the day for you to begin serving him like never before. Maybe today is the day for you to be the light for others to see. And then watch their lives be changed by Jesus to. So incredible.

I say all the time that it takes a family to do what we do. It takes a family to battle veteran suicide. I say that we all have our roles. Whether we are volunteering, praying, contributing financially, etc. We all have our roles. Each one is important. Sometimes I hear people question what it is that they have to offer. Or I hear them say that they don’t have much to offer. What a person contributes, or how much they contribute, is not what is important. What is important is that we get involved serving others with God in our hearts.

We have been blessed with tremendous support. Landowners have graciously opened up their properties to us to bring veterans to hunt. Sometimes passing up their own hunts to allow us to do this. Pretty amazing. Volunteers giving up their time to serve at our events. Whether we are at expos, hunting or fishing, or preparing meals. Doesn’t matter. They have given their time to serve. Also pretty amazing. Donors have sent financial contributions. What we do costs money. We have received everything from a few dollars to several thousand dollars. And as before, also pretty amazing. 

We have already mentioned, it’s not the amount you give. It’s not how much you serve. And it’s not the capacity in which you serve. Yes they’re all important. But none of them matter if you do not do these with God in your heart. God knows our hearts. And he will bless our efforts if we are serving him. A couple years ago a woman gave us $8.00. She was actually kind of embarrassed. I told her that she just gave 75 people a bottle of water at one of our events. She just blessed 75 people. Pretty amazing. A few years ago we did our first event at Roaring River State Park. A veteran that was there understood that showing God‘s grace is the purpose. He understood the mission. That led to several more events. Multiple events in Colorado. Monthly horse therapy sessions. And volunteers making items for fundraising. Several hundred veterans have been served out of what took place years ago. Pretty, pretty, pretty amazing. So remember, it’s not what you give. But you must give, because you have God in your heart. And be ready. He will take what you have to offer to places you never dreamed.

Yesterday, I was talking to a Vietnam Veteran friend of mine. During our conversation, he mentioned to me this weather put him in a rut. The dreariness. The dampness. Getting dark early. All things that make him feel down. Ever feel like you got into a rut? Feel like you are just stuck and can’t move forward? Nothing you do is enough? You try, try, and try, and seem to be going nowhere? Sure you have. We all go through times like this. Moments where we feel like nothing we do is good enough. No matter how hard we work, or try, nothing is good enough. Well let me tell you this, you are not alone. Everyone struggles at different times. And let me tell you this too, you are not alone in the fact that God has placed a gift in you. And his gift is enough.

Recently, I have had several conversations with friends of mine. Veterans that I know. People that we come in contact with. All with the same theme: “What is my purpose? I feel useless.” I tell them the same thing. Satan is after them. He is the great deceiver who uses the storm of self-doubt. He finds ways to bring you down to the depths that seem too deep to recover from. And he piles it on. The kids aren’t behaving. You can’t find your keys or your phone. Your car breaks down. The pipes in your house freeze. Stuff is piling up at work. Etc. Etc. Etc. Satan takes times like these and pokes at you. Making it hard to breathe. You can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

It’s during times like these that we must remember this, you have the ultimate weapon to fight against these times. You have what it takes. You have Jesus in you. The Bible tells us to call him, and he will answer. He will show you the way. He will provide you the strength. And if we do it correctly, going through times like these strengthens us. Builds us. Helps us be better servants for God. People can see the light through us as we go through the storms. And how powerful is that! God‘s blessings and grace are enough. So what are you waiting for? Maybe today is the day that you go to your knees and you ask him to get you through. Maybe today is the day that you call on him. He is gracious. He is loving. He will answer. His answer may not be as clear as we hoped it would be. But his answer is enough. Because he loves you. Always has. Always will.