Values

This morning, my wife and I got a sitter and joined some friends downtown for brunch.  It was a very delicious and rich lunch, and I think my digestive system is still recovering from all the rich and delicious food that we ate over the span of 3.5 hours (Now that's some eating).  All this to state that one conversation that struck a chord with me was one in the car ride downtown with my best friend, my wife.As we were driving, we were talking about present day politics (or lack thereof) and craziness in this world.  If you and I were to watch the news religiously, let's be honest, it would leave us in a sad state of affairs:  This world is spinning out of control and in need of a Savior fast!  There have been impressionable moments in the memories of or children:  The Holocaust, World Wars (1 & 2), 9-11, The Black Plague, Military action that does not have the support (air, land and sea) for its soldiers, and so much more that can be lasting and in some instances devastating toll our the psyche and rearing of our children.  James 1:27 states, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

We were talking about everything from gun control, conspiracy theories to the core of the problem and my wife, being astute, stated that much of the bad comes from this world.  The world (media and entertainment) promotes Sensationalism and Desensitization.  That is, the two issues that really need to be addressed by society are these two things previously mentioned.  1 John 2:16 states it like this, "For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world."  When we understand that the world is broken and is sinful and prideful.  James 4  puts it this way, "1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

When we, as sinners, sensationalize violent and sinful acts, how can we expect others not to follow?  Not to have the desire to be noticed?  Not to have the outcasts of society and the evil promotes agenda?  When we, as sinners, promote violent and irrational entertainment (movies, violent video games, pornography (sex trafficking) and the like) how can we expect sinners not to be desensitized and to not look at our brother and sisters as children of God?  When we focus on 1 John and James 4 and so much more Scripture on this topic, we begin to understand that we have a responsibility to our generations to come.  We have a legacy that we need to leave for those that God gave us to steward over.

Every parent has and will continue to raise their children the way that God has equipped you.  As Lance has stated in previous posts, there is no clear-cut way to raise our children.  For each of us it is different because each of us has different backgrounds and children to raise.  But the bible does give us some guidelines when raising our children.  The Bible gives us clear ways to go with our spouses and family.

Some legacy values to instill in our lives and children's lives:

• Stay on the path of purity:  By living according to God's word (Ps 119:9)
• Hide God's word in our hearts (Ps 119:11)
• Teach them to be good citizens and to know where their citizenship rests (Ps 119:19)
• Give them healthy boundaries (Ps 119:33-40)
• Teach them gratitude (True gratitude of what God has done for us and what he asks us to do to our neighbor)
• Teach them generosity
• Teach them to forgive and to be compassionate
• Teach them perseverance
• Teach them humility
• Teach them responsibility
• Teach them courtesy and respect
• Train them in the way that they should go (by making your faith real and accountable to them)
• Give them discipline (how can you expect them to be disciples of Christ and they don't understand true discipline?)
• Love them unconditionally (I tell my children that I will always love them no matter what, but some times I may not like their choices)
• If they wander from the truth (bring them back)

Proverbs 3: New International Version (NIV)

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heartand lean not on your own understanding;6 in all your ways submit to him,and he will make your paths straight.

Blessings,

Dante

Completed Devoted

What if we trained for a marathon race at 25 percent?  What if we committed to our partner 30 percent?  What if we paid taxes on only 30 percent of our income?  What if we spent very little time investing in our family and our marriage?  In all of these questions what do you think the likely end result would be?  Would it be a happy ending?  Would it be edifying?  Would it be worth it to change these questions to what if I gave it my all?I don't think very many of us would even remotely try to argue that results would certainly be much different.  All this being said to ask our question of where does our devotion truly stand with the Creator of this Universe?

Some key verses for you to ponder:

• Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
• 1 Samuel 12:24  "Only fear the LORD and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.
• Proverbs 3:9 Honor the LORD from your wealth And from the first of all your produce;
• Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
• 1 Corinthians 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
• 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
• 2 Corinthians 5:15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
• 1 Thessalonians 2:12 so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
• 1 Peter 4:2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

If we were to honestly look at the daily journals of our lives (Our time:  How are we spending it?  Our Treasure: If we were to show everyone in our lives and our churches how God really matters, would our checkbooks show it?  Our Talent:  When we are saved, Scripture tells us that the Spirit gives us fruit, so how are we sharing that?)

Some of us need to take serious inventory of our lives:

• Ask your spouse to list the top 5 things that are important to you (Where does God line up with that?)
• Ask your children to list the top 5 things that are important to you (Is God even mentioned)
• Take a look at your time (Where is God on that list)
• Take a look at your treasure (What does our checkbook and spending tell us?)
• Take a look at your talent (Are you using it for God's kingdom?)

My next post will be on prioritizing...

Blessings,

Dante

Get your worship on...

Anthem Lights:[youtube id="4iEgs0WKR-c"]

Chris Tomlin:

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Matt Redman:

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Matthew West

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How about the rest of your day now that you have things put into perspective?

Psalm 150:1New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 150

¹ Praise the Lord.^[a]

Praise God in his sanctuary;    praise him in his mighty heavens

Blessings,

Dante

Speak Words...

This past Saturday, in men's group, we talked about our words and deeds in life. We never know who is watching and/or listening to our testimony.  The Book of James has a lot to say on this matter and really puts it out there for those of us who profess the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.   All of this, being said, relies solely on the fact that without Jesus nothing is possible for life.  Words also happens to be a sermon series in our church and has been very powerful on how it is speaking to the body of Christ.After the men's group, one of my fellow elder brothers texted 3 other brothers and myself, "Gents I have loved this song for a long time for many reasons and play it/bump it  often in the car with my kids.  This morning's discussion immediately made me think about this song and about how often, because of selfishness, I collapse into the evil one's trap (the snare of the fowler), and choose death talk. May we listen.  May we plead.  Holy Spirit come and convict me/us to do what is not natural for us (unselfishness) and choose to speak life.  Love you guys.  Pass along"

The song that he is referencing is from Toby Mac called Speak LIfe

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Some of the lyrics states:

Some days, life feels perfect.

Other days it just ain't workin.

The good, the bad, the right, the wrong

And everything in between.

Though it's crazy, amazing

We can turn a heart with the words we say.

Mountains crumble with every syllable.

Hope can live or die

So speak Life, speak Life.

To the deadest darkest night.

Speak life, speak Life.

When the sun won't shine and you don't know why.

Look into the eyes of the brokenhearted;

Watch them come alive as soon as you speak hope,

You speak love, you speak...

You speak Life, (oh oh oh oh oh oh) You speak Life. (oh oh oh oh oh oh)

---

The book of James puts it this way:

James 1:19-27 (NIV)

Listening and Doing

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

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As I have share one of my favorite poems called Watch Your Words, by Frank Outlaw:

“Watch your thoughts, they become words;

watch your words, they become actions;

watch your actions, they become habits;

watch your habits, they become character;

watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

The next time you engage life and speak into it:

• With your spouse
• With your children
• With your work
• With your church
• With your community
• With your neighbor
• Especially with God

Guard your tongue:

James 3 (NIV)

Taming the Tongue

3:  1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

---

This past Saturday morning's bible steady convicted me and encouraged me in the following ways with my wife, my kids and my Christian walk:

• Guard my heart, my mind, my soul, my spirit and my tongue
• Guard my thoughts
• Speak words of hope to those that I can influence
• Speak about Christ more often
• When the Holy Spirit puts a word, a thought, a person in my heart and mind - then call that person, text that person, love that person (you never know how much they may need it)
• Speak truth in love to my wife and kids and those in my influence
• Watch my character around those that come across my daily path
• Share the gospel always

As you read through this, think on the things written here and reflect on those things that you have to do, confess, give-up and grow.

Blessings,

Dante

Top 10 ways to build up your child

Whether in church or in your neighborhood or at any social gathering, all of us like to watch how other people live.  We are people who are built for community, just like our Creator is in community as the Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).  That being said, no matter the socioeconomic status that a parent may be in, one thing is constant in parenting - there are good and intentional parents, there are mediocre parents, and than there are parents who are self-absorbed, and if we are honest, are not really good parents.Before you dismiss me on this, think about the Christian walk - there are Christians who abide in God's word and walk in step with His Spirit and yield to biblical truths;  there are Christians who try to serve two masters:  1) the world and 2) God, and then realize that they are divided and conflicted in which way to go; there are Christians that have a lot of head knowledge of God, but have never connected  the heart (the question then becomes did they ever surrender to self and truly repent to God as Savior?  That is not for us to decide but that is between them and God.) Scripture gives us a way to know them by their fruit (Galatians 5.)  All of this is to make the point that there is no clear-cut way to parent.  Many of us, if we are honest, can look at any set of parents and realize that even with different parenting methods, there are those 3 types of parents.  Today, however, I would like us to focus on the good parenting and give us 10 ways that are good and healthy ways to build up our child.

Deuteronomy 6:5-7 (ESV) 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Here are 10 healthy ways to build up your child

1. Give them your time - it is not just about quality, your child also needs your quantity of time.  Dad's (and Mom's) when you give your child time, please put your phones down, turn off the television, hide the Ipads and give them your 110% devotion of time.  Let them know and feel like there is nothing else that matters when you are in that moment with them.  Love on them, hug them, reassure them and do life with them.  Get involved in their likes (not your likes for them).
2. Show them your faith - Revolutionary Parenting is a book by George Barna that gives a good study on what it is like to raise be a Revolutionary Parent and I highly recommend this read.  Your child (children) are watching you and looking to see if there is a higher authority that you submit to.  Meaning:  Is God real in your life?  Is your faith real?  Do you practice what you preach?  When you sin, do you repent?  When you are wrong, do you apologize and ask for forgiveness and make it right?  Is your faith something that is caught or just taught?  If it is just taught and not giving them the desire to own your faith for themselves, then they will likely reject your faith.
3. Encourage, Comfort and Urge - 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12a (NIV) 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God.  Giving your child real confidence and truth in love is a sure-fire way for this child to be confident in who they are and when Jesus calls them to be His, they can find their identity in Christ, which is even healthier for them and their life.
4. Discipline them - Proverbs 19:8 (ESV) 8 Whoever gets sense loves his own soul;  he who keeps understanding will discover good.   Proverbs 13:24 (ESV) 24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.  Your child needs boundaries and they are constantly testing those boundaries to see how far they can go.  Be consistent with the crime, do not waver and do everything in love (not anger).  For if God shows us mercy, we should be quicker to show those who we have been given stewardship over more mercy.  Give them a safe home and comfortable boundaries to thrive and to be secure.
5. Disciple them - Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV) 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
6. Point them in healthy directions - Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) 6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.   The older I get, the more this verse makes complete sense to me.  A lot of people, I believe, take this verse as if the child will never sin or depart from God's will...this is not a true conclusion (in my opinion) because we are all sinners and we are all broken, therefore, why wouldn't our children sin and depart from God's will?  The key to this verse, for us parents, is to make our faith real to them and show them that we will always yield to Scripture in our lives and that our faith is real.  When we guide them in the direction and facilitate life with them (we cannot always protect them from making mistakes or failing or falling) because that what life is.  We can guide them like a Sensei does in martial arts, for Sensei means:  "One who has gone before".
7. Tell the truth - Let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no (be consistent) and do not teach them to lie by lying to them.  This doesn't mean that you don't protect their innocence as adolescents because we have to shelter them and their innocence while we can.  But as we discern their maturity in handling such matters in life, then be consistent in their lives by showing them character and integrity.
8. Look for the teachable moments - whether you are at the breakfast, lunch or dinner table (or wherever opportunity thrives) share life with them in your experience and in giving them ethical dilemmas.  Give them a place to express themselves and to open up to you in order to see how faith in Scripture gives us the answers in every situation.
9. Love your spouse - if you truly want to be a good parent to your child, then love your spouse.  Read 1 Peter 3 and Ephesians 5.
10. Love them - tell them, hold them, kiss them and share God's word with them.  Do not withhold love from them.

What are some of your ways to build up your children?

Blessings,

Dante

Healthy ways to a healthy marriage

Genesis 2:  NIV 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.Ephesians 5:22-33 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Mark 10:6-9 NIV  6 "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

Have you ever mentored an engaged couple and/or a single person who tells you what they want in a spouse and what they are looking for and how things are going to be?  The expectations are the funnest things to watch because there is excitement and there are dreams and some are even good enough to have shared values and goals to help each other along the way.  My favorite part in marriage mentoring is when we get to go over his expectations and her expectations.  There are times when these expectations are not equally yoked - Controversy?  What to do?  How to solve it? How to walk through with them from our own experiences to what God has planned for them.

One thing that my pastors like to say (and I truly believe) are that when a man and a woman come together into Holy matrimony, you have to realize that there are two sinners with their own baggage that they are bringing to "until death do us part".  That being said, we have to align ourselves with God's purpose for our lives and what he desires for us in marriage between one man and one woman.

My wife and I have been married for over 14 years now and it is my belief that we are and have grown stronger.  Do we always get it right?  Of course not!  Do we exemplify the perfect marriage? No way!  So how do I say what I am saying and tell you that I have a great marriage:

Ways to build a healthy and vibrant marriage:

• Be humble
• (if you are single, purse holiness and avoid sexual immorality)
• Die to self and serve the other
• Treat your spouse with the utmost respect
• Do not talk down to your spouse or talk bad about them to others
• Protect your spouse and your marriage
• Stay connected in community (both intimately, physically and emotionally with your spouse)
• Stay connected to church community (to hold you both accountable)
• Set healthy boundaries (flee temptation and loose individuals that are not God-centered)
• Stay rooted in the word of God (read the Bible daily)
• Pray often (and more often)
• Pursue your spouse (date them, study them, love them, accept them for who God made them to be)
• Treat them and life as a gift (not as a burden)
• In all that you do, pursue God to have a Christ-centered, Holy Spirit filled marriage!!!

If you are in a place where you are just getting married, please study this.  If you are newly weds, then stay focused on this.  If you are like my wife and I, please re-visit this and commit it to your daily lives.  If you marriage is not any of this, then start with prayer, repentance (if you are the man, own it!  You are the spiritual leader and your wife is supposed to follow you - don't blame her - take some responsibility and plead for God's guidance in your marriage).

If you marriage is dead, then pray that God will bring it back to life. Lean on God and not on your own knowledge (where has that knowledge gotten you this far in your marriage?) and ask for the Holy Spirit to change in you a new heart to love your wife and to see her as God sees her - a treasure.

In all that you do, draw nearer to God and He will draw nearer to you.

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In case you are wondering on ways to destroy your marriage and the intimacy that God has planned for both you and your wife, then this would be the list that can easily achieve that:

• Be abusive to your spouse (both mentally, verbally and physically)
• Withhold love
• Treat your spouse often and openly with contempt and disrespect
• Often compare them to others and put them down constantly
• Serve yourself and not your spouse
• Have no boundaries (with the internet, social media, television, movies, or other individuals)
• Do not read the Bible
• Do not pray often
• Do not read Proverbs (or even Proverbs 6) because if you do these things on this list and read God's word, then you realize the person that does these things instead of ways to build your marriage is considered a fool!

If you have any to add to either lists, then please email me at dante@legacydad.comBlessings,

Dante

Of hope...

Mark 5:21-43New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman

²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

³⁶ Overhearing^[a] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

³⁷ He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.”⁴⁰ But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. ⁴³ He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

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Hope can be a funny thing.  Hope can be a last resort.  Hope can be all sorts of things for different people.  The one common theme in Hope is for the looking forward of something.  Have you ever gone to a funeral?  There is a great likelihood that you have if you have been reading this blog for quite some time.  Funerals can be very sad or in some cases (where there is Hope) can be a celebration and a mourning.  The mourning, is common in all funerals, in that we miss the loved ones that have left this earthly realm and have moved on to another.  It is common for us to mourn that which we once had have and now no longer do.  There are some funerals, however, where there is no hope and more like a statement of "if", that is, "if" there is an afterlife, "then" maybe this person will be in Heaven.  And then there are funerals where you go to and there is mourning, but there is also a celebration because you and I, who profess the Lord Jesus as Savior and have repented of our sins and our transformed into His new creation, have this hope.  For those of us that have the Lord, as Savior, no longer have to say goodbye to our loved ones.  Rather, we should be saying:  See you later!

Hope can be seen throughout history.  In war, in peace and even in movies we see the thread of hope intertwined in all of these events.  Hope is looking forward to.  Hope, as Christians, comes with a promise:

• It is all about Jesus
• The Word was with God and the Word is God
• Jesus was raised from the dead and now sits on the throne at the right hand of God
• Jesus will return
• We have the Holy Spirit in each of us who are saved

Faith without works is dead.  Without hope what is there to look forward to?

I am not sure about you, or where have come from, but I am sure in the Bible.  I am sure in my salvation.  I am sure that Jesus will return and I have faith and hope in my future with Him.

What about your hope?

Blessings,

Dante

Why do bad things happen....?

So I was sending this work email this morning, after men's group, and fell upon this video of a woman who has sadly lost her battle (on earth) to cancer.    This video struck me in so many different ways that I do not have enough time in the day to post on this topic.  That being said, I have shared before that I have had malignant melanoma and there was a time when I almost lost my wife (two years in a row).  I understand pain and loss and the fear of death.  Let's just say that I have spent a lot of time in the book of Job and in prayer during these trials and tribulations.I have been hurt and I have been angry and I have asked why do these things:

• Why is there cancer?
• Why is there evil in the world?
• Why do bad things happen to good people?
• Why is there so much pain?
• Why do we face trials and tribulations?
• Why, Lord, Why?

I cannot pretend to sit here and tell you, the readers, why do bad things happen.  Nor will I ever try to explain your life situation to you without walking through it with you, without being in the trenches with you and/or sharing life with you.  Here is the video that struck me today:

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Two of the most hardest things that I had to endure in my life were:

1)  When I received a phone call from the doctor that said I had malignant melanoma.  I just about dropped the phone on the floor of the vehicle and thought to myself, why God?  My wife and I had our son, who at the time was 10 months old and my wife was pregnant with our 2nd child while this was happening.  The concern from the doctor was my age and the fact that I had malignant cancer at my age.  By the grace of God, my cancer was detected early and I have been cancer free now for over 9 years

2) When our three kids were 1, 3 and 4 years of age, my wife almost went into renal failure and was losing muscle tissue daily.  The doctors knew the effect, but to this day we still do not know the cause.  We went to a top tier hospital the second year of the two years that this happened and even they could not diagnose the cause.  We did learn to be cautious around fevers and so on, but to this day she has been healthy since those days.  The first year that this happened, my wife was in the hospital for 6 days.  That was the most sobering and scariest time in my life.  I wrestled, I prayed and I argued with God (all through this process he was patient and kind and waited for me to trust, obey and surrender to his will).  The idea that I was going to be a widower with three kids 5 and under was almost too much for my soul to bear.  This too passed and God is faithful!

What have I learned through these two heart-wrenching trials (tribulation) was to trust God no matter what.  The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, BUT Blessed be His name.  He is faithful and just and he does have plans for each and everyone of our lives.

I hate evil.  I hate cancer.  I hate what is contrary to the will of God.

I love God, I love the Son and I love the Holy Spirit.  I love those who even persecute me!  Is it hard to forgive and forget (at times)?  Yes, of course, I am human and broken and sinful.  Is it possible to love who God calls us to love?  Through His Spirit and trusting His will - it is!

I believe that God gives each and everyone of us a story for us to go unto the world and tell the good news.  Does He promise us peace and tranquility throughout this journey?  Of course not!  Does he promise us an abundant life through Him?  Yes He does!

For the joy of the Lord is our strength!

Where is your joy?  In good season, in trial and through tribulation?

To God be the glory forever and ever, Amen!

Blessings,

Dante