I’m on my third cup of coffee this morning. We have been really tired is an understatement. I can only imagine how tired Barbara is. Barbara is my mother-in-law, but when I can I like to give people respect by using their God given name. When I re-created my blog I did not use my name Daniel because I was trying to put distance between me and a foe. And I don’t just have one foe so stop trying to figure out who the hell it is. That’s not the point of this post.

Sunday there was an unguarded moment when my anger got the best of me. I was able to distance myself from it quickly which is always a positive, but I continue to “have” to deal with it. That’s ok because I’ve been here many times before. His strength sustains me. My LORD and my God don’t need coffee, he doesn’t need to blog and he never expresses inappropriate anger. He can’t sin.

The cross of Jesus Christ is not just my identity for eternity. It gives me hope in the resurrection that the darkness leads to light.

If we truly grasped the wonderfulness of it I don’t think we’d be able to contain the hope. It’s power unfolds in appropriate measure as we come to the places where we can contain it. Let’s look at John 3.16 for the trillionth time.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.

The abundance he brings to the table will never be exhausted. We’ve been known in history as some of the most damning people on the planet (The Crusades), but I’m aghast at why we didn’t become the most giving and tolerant people on earth. God’s mercy and grace are not license to sin, but when I read John 3.16 and a plethora of other passages I see an abundance of wealth, not connected to money although money can be included, he wants to give. It’s the greatest paradox ever to have existed. He sees every sin under the heavens, yet the good that reigns minute after minute does not stop. What has been will be again. Good and bad will be again, and when he puts a stop to it only good will remain. How merciful and kind he truly is. Perfection hardly describes it.

There’s a remnant I know about this very moment who are pausing to contemplate this wonderful message, and my prayer is that the remnant will come back to the city to multiply that pause for hundreds of thousands. I know it saddens my Father when his children are rushed and hurried to the point that they question his existence. “Oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

Sin is a sinister reality that convinces the best of us to believe that sin is right. I refuse to walk around on egg shells, but I’ll be damned if I kneel at the altars of this world. The Father is real dear ones. He loves us so much that he allows the Spirit and the Son to intercede for us by name in his presence. Spiritual beings are active in our lives. You don’t have to read a blog to know or learn that. Read the Bible. I am one among too many to count for humans who call upon the name of the LORD for love and mercy. I am one beggar showing other beggars where the bread is.

There is no human being righteous enough to create this kind of story. Our depravity and settling for second best has us mired in the things of this world to the point that generations are effected. Let’s change that. Let’s allow the Creator to change that through us. He’s been doing it since the beginning of time, and he isn’t finished. With mankind this is impossible, but when God decides to do something is mankind going to stop him?

Our hope is in the God who created each one of us. In his presence there are no mistakes, sins or failures. How many times in Scripture does he say not to fear or worry? And if all the books that could have been written about the Son how many more times would we have read not to fear or worry? “I can only imagine.”

We’ve made a mess of things, but I know someone who can clean it up.

Place your faith in him. I don’t care where you are, where you’ve been, what you’ve done or who you’re with. When God washes over you with his unadulterated love there is nothing that man can do to you to undo that. We have to believe that. Pray that our Father will give you that belief. You might be at rock bottom. You might be reading this on your phone on a big city street without a roof over your head. You might be starving to death, but know this, God loves every human being on the planet Earth. That doesn’t put a roof over your head or food in your stomach, but that’s why God gives us each other. He works through me to provide shelter for the homeless and food for the hungry.

He knows the number of hairs on your head, and he knows the day you’ll breath your last. Trust him for everything. He will not disappoint you.

I know people have failed you. They have failed me. But when I have put my trust in my Father never once have I been failed by him. If your angry at him right now you can express that. He will not strike you dead if you beat on his very strong chest. Life can hurt like hell, and it frequently does, but we have a Father who knows that pain personally. He has cried and died, but he rose to send us the Spirit to infuse us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Let’s strive to live a life not mired in fear and worry. Let’s go out each morning knowing that he is able, and that his angels surround us.

Because he is and they are.