Welcome to Blogs of 2026

I will make my best attempt to write a midweek blog each week. Stay tuned!

Saturday, March 14, 2026

"...For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart". - 1 Samuel 16:7

Recently, my schedule has changed and I’ve been having to go to the gym late at night. At this time in the year it is Ramadan which means that those of Muslim faith are not able to eat until sundown and thus they have the strength to work out. I have come to make friends with people that are not of my faith. It has been a huge growth experience for me to learn about another religion and culture. That being said, on both sides, we have preconceived notions about each others faith. It has been very encouraging to have mature dialogue with those different than me. By having these dialogues, barriers and preconceived notions are broken down. This is a lost art in today’s society. Two things we are told we “can’t” talk about are religion and politics. Now, we’re at a point in our society where we don’t know how to talk to each other about deep subjects due to fear of being lashed out at, sidelined, ostracized or even how to disagree respectfully. Avoidance becomes the norm and preconceived notions take rise over getting to know a person. Here’s the issue— if we surround ourselves with people who only think like us, how will we know any different? How will we gain knowledge? How would see a different perspective? How will we grow socially, emotionally or spiritually? We stagnate and isolate when we put up these walls. I’ve been on the receiving end of this and I’ve been on the projecting end of it— we all have, but the truth is we can do a better job as humans. We don’t need to all agree, but that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss and learn. We don’t all need to agree, but that doesn’t mean that because I disagree with you, I don’t like you. God looks at our hearts and looks at the soul of each person. We should do the same.

Saturday, March 7, 2026

For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” - Hebrews 10:30

A myriad of events have occured in our world in recent years that have shaken us. It doesn’t take long to find out that there is a need for justice in our world. However, I recently came across a video on social media that spoke about our want for justice. The commentator said we are longing for earthly justice. I never heard it called this before. We long to see things being made right here on earth, but do we ever think about the hereafter? Sometimes the justice we want served won’t take place here on earth. There is another place in Heaven called the Judgement Seat of God and He will judge all according to their deeds (Romans 2:6). I’ve always heard of this and believed it, but I guess never considered the fact that if justice isn’t served on earth that it will be and must be served in the afterlife. Our longing for earthly justice is a good thing, but doesn’t always come to pass. We then bemoan the fact that things aren’t fair, but in Heaven, all will be made right— no one will be exempt. Perhaps this should give us relief, hope and encouragement. While we may not see it, God sees all and one day He will serve justice. In our pursuit for justice, we also shouldn’t forget that we too will be judged for our actions. God’s standard is quite high comparing anger for murder and a mere look at another for lust or adultery (Matthew 5:21:26). God will serve justice to all. As the Apostles’ Creed says, “He will come to judge the living and the dead.” It doesn’t say He might, it says He will. This is a promise.

Saturday, February 28, 2026

He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. - Luke 6:10

It was leg day at the gym for me and I was doing this awful exercise that I don’t particularly care for—Bulgarian Split Squats. A Bulgarian Split Squat is where you put one leg up on a bench and squat down with the opposite leg - working the glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves. It’s an exercise that is actually very good for you just not comfortable. One of my buddies came from across the gym and asked me, “Who taught you how to do Bulgarian Split Squats?” I said “Well, I just learned from watching online.” He gave me a profound tip, “If you move out a little further from the bench, you’ll get a better stretch.” When you’re able to have a better stretch when exercising the muscle, it will grow. How profound— the more your body stretches out and we “dive into the deep”, we grow. The more we exercise discipline, we’ll grow in consistency and self-control. The more we stretch out our hearts and forgive others, we’ll be more loving. Stretch out and see how your faith grows!

Saturday, February 21, 2026

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. - Hebrews 12:11

No one likes to be uncomfortable. No one likes to be in pain. No one likes to wait. No one likes to refuse something they want. What do these things have in common? Discipline. In our society, we have issues waiting 30 seconds in the microwave for something to heat up! Discipline is something I’m learning too. After years of eating everything I wanted I paid the price. I was overweight, out of breath and 4 sizes too big. This was the price to pay for lack of discipline. I had no desire to work out or cut out bad habits, but I learned before it was too late. Discipline hurts, but it teaches to avoid worse behaviors and outcomes later on. Discipline comes from the words disciple and learner. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we have to learn His way. His way is not always easy. His way will require us to feel uncomfortable. Maybe having that honest conversation that might be uncomfortable. Maybe giving up that bad habit. Maybe giving something away to someone who needs it more. Maybe it’s simply dealing with a little pain now for a bigger picture. Jesus saw the bigger picture of bringing many souls to Him and leading us to abundant lives so He died on the Cross and rose from the dead for us. This was not easy, why do we think our path will be?

Saturday, February 14, 2026

My mind is on a lot of different things lately—so I don’t have just one topic talk about—

Justice -

Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
    he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples in his faithfulness. - Psalm 96:13

We all want accountability for what’s right. We want all wrongs to be made right. We want everything that is unjust to be made right. We want everything that was ugly to be exposed and brought to justice. However, we need to remember that God eventually has the last word. Evil does not. “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. (Romans 12:19) God will make it happen, but in His timing and when He sees fit. There will be accountability in the Lord’s final judgment - “But I tell you, on the day of judgment people will have to give an accounting for every careless or useless word they speak.” (Matthew 12:36).

Keep scrolling for more content today

My Will <<< God’s Will -

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” - Luke 22:42

We all want to have a wonderful life. We all want to have wonderful things. We all want the best, but what does God want for us? What is the plan God has ordained for us? We want a certain profession. Does God want that? We want a certain lifestyle. Does God want that? We want to live in a certain place. Does God want that? While I do believe God gives us desires in our heart, I know sometimes our desires are driven by emotion or out of jealousy and those feelings aren’t from God. What does God have planned for us? Seek His voice and see where He is leading you.

Thursday, February 5, 2026

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ…” - 1 Timothy 6:6-14

It seems like everywhere we look lately there’s corruption. Or has this always been and we’re just now seeing it? Or we’re now told about it more? I think it’s both. I also think people like to dwell on the negative of others. But where does this corruption come from? We’ve made God into something other than Himself. We’ve turned to other things other than the One True God. We’ve turned our back on Jesus and this is the result. We’ve made a god out of money, pleasure, instant gratification and status. None of these things we can take with us when we go. We can only take our faith. We’ve all made a god out of something in our life at some point. Perhaps it’s other people, a sport, politics, the latest gadget or even our families! It’s tough to not turn to these things because they are tangible. But, the walk of faith tells us to hold onto what is not seen. Faith isn’t easy. In this world right now we want everything to be easy. Easy isn’t always bad, but it’s not always good either. Sometimes we learn our toughest lessons through hardship and when that is avoided, we don’t know how to handle adversity well. Doing things the hard way build character in us and helps us become godly. Jesus didn’t take the easy way out. Aren’t we supposed to become like Him? Anyway, in our world where we adore so many other things, let’s try adoring God. Paul’s letter to Timothy is not just some letter written thousands of years ago, it’s pertinent today because it is the Living Word of God. It will always speak to us if we listen. “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)

Wednesday, January 29, 2026

“…Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” - John 8:32

Truth— it’s one of the most distorted things in our world right now. We have many people eager to know the truth, but are unsure if what they’re being told is true. From AI, the news, the headlines or even word of mouth, no one knows if statements can be trusted. This distrust has led to violence, families torn apart, friendships ending and people’s health ruined. When lies permeate a society, destruction happens.

How do we find the truth? We seek it out. Most of us have been “spoon fed” the supposed truth, but how many of us have actually researched? How many of us have done our homework? Do we even care or do wee just want to be angry? Do we even care or do we just want to be oblivious?

The quest for truth doesn’t stop at the state of our world—how about faith? What do we believe? Why do we believe it? Because someone told us? Have we done our homework? Do we care?

I ask these questions because when we seek the truth, we will eventually find it. When we seek the truth, then we own our findings. We’re able to then decipher through our intellect and ask if we want to choose to believe the truth or reject it. The game of telephone or being “spoon fed” has allowed us to become a society that reacts to emotion instead of fact or we become a society that jumps on the latest bandwagon because it’s trendy. Is this how we want our world to continue? Seek the truth with diligence.

The Ultimate Truth is Jesus who said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Him.” (John 14:6) Jesus didn’t mince words here. Jesus didn’t say when you find any truth or any way that you’ll get to the Father. Jesus didn’t say for us to do our own thing and we’ll arrive at the Father’s House. Jesus said He is the Way, He is the Truth and the Life that we should pattern our life by. The truth sets us free—the truth leads us to Jesus instead of continuous lies that permeate our culture. Which will you choose? Truth or falsehoods?

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

”…teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:20

Loneliness—it’s almost an epidemic nowadays. People are everso connected, but feel so apart. There are attempts to help keep us together, but they only work superficially— social media, texting or FaceTime. There’s even an app to meet friends! However, it doesn’t seem to be working. I have a few notions as to why—

1. There’s a deep longing to know we are loved. With a world where we treat people as objects, with a world where we dismiss ideas of someone who has an alternate opinion, with a world where we nix a person based on their appearance, it’s no wonder people wander around wondering if they’re loved. This deep longing to know we’re loved and okay results in us being anxious, socially awkward and unsure of how to relate or talk to people. We can rest assured that we are loved, we are okay— we are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27).

2. Uncomfortable with silence - I recently read that in silence we find the salvation of the soul (Henri Nouwen). It is there in silence where we meet Christ—the Ultimate Picture of Love—we don’t like to be silent because it’s there where we meet our fears and racing thoughts. But, it is there where they can be confronted and brought to the light of Christ.

3. Social Media is a bold attempt to bring us together, but through it we’re faced with possible jealousy, thoughts of others we don’t agree with and superficial attempts to connect rather than a genuine sit down over a cup of coffee relationship.

I could go on to further points, but have we drifted so far from God that we don’t count on His presence to satiate our longing for friendship? Have we begun to cling to much to the material things that we forgot that for everything visible there’s something invisible? There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother and His Name is Jesus (Proverbs 18:24).

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…” - John 6:35

It’s late at night and you have a hankering for something. You look in the fridge and nothing sparks your interest. You head to the pantry and nothing catches you eye. So, you settle for some random snack you find to fill the void. It doesn’t and then you’re left dissatisfied. How many times have we done this? How many times have we settled for something when it isn’t what fills the void? How many times do we feel stressed so we turn to a drink? How many times do we feel lonely so we fill it with endless hours of scrolling on our phones? How many times do we feel out of place so we turn into someone that we’re not just to fill the void of friendship or to fit in?

I know it sounds cliche, but Jesus literally fills all the voids. I’ve heard it before and I always dismissed it because it sounds trite. Jesus tells us that when we hang out with Him, we’ll never want anything else. Stressed? Jesus tells us to come to Him if you are weary and He will give us rest. (Matthew 11:28-30). Lonely? Jesus tells us we’re not call slaves, but friends.” (John 15:15). Overwhelmed? Jesus said He gives us peace (John 14:27). When we realize we don’t always have to control the situation and center our minds on the one who has already suffered and been through it all, we can be at peace.

I have worn a cross around my neck for several years, but recently I have switched to wearing a cross with Jesus on it—a crucifix. I wanted to be reminded that Christ knows what it’s like to suffer. I wanted to be reminded that Christ knows what it’s like to feel pain. Jesus knows what it’s like to be tempted. Jesus knows what it’s like to be hated. I wanted to be reminded that someone greater than me has been through it all and conquered it. Through believing in Jesus, I too can conquer these things with His strength. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives in us (Romans 8:11, Ephesians 1:19-20). It can be yours today too.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” - Romans 10:14

Growing up a Christian, I never really had to ponder the question, “Why do I need Jesus?” This is not something that ever entered the equation. I grew up with it and so it must be true and I must need it. I always had a draw to Jesus. I’ve always had a draw to faith. I’ve always been drawn to religiosity. Lately, the thought has been on my mind—
Yes, I love Jesus. I’ve done the research. I’ve done the homework. I know I need Jesus, but I bet others wonder why do they even need Jesus. I bet there are some that wonder, “What’s the point?”, “It sounds nice, but what’s the purpose in this guy?”, “How does this nice man who died on a cross benefit me?”, “So what, Jesus rose from the dead—why should it matter to me?”, “This man forgives me of my sin? Why does affect me? I’m a good person. Why do I need this?”

These are all questions, I’ve been thinking in my head if I wasn’t a Christian. Of course, I know the answers to these questions because I’ve spent a great deal of time pondering them, studying them, praying, reading the Bible, etc. and I’ve come to the conclusion it is true.

So, in my brief way, I want to just write about these thoughts—

1. “What’s the point?”
   None of us are perfect. None of us do everything right. None of us do everything well. Some of us are downright hurtful to others. Some of us are judgmental. Some have addictions. Some people have had affairs. Some people have gotten into some serious messes. All are a result in some way, shape or form of a bad decision, a bad thought, a bad upbringing, you name it… When we’re looking into the Christian life, we find that when we seek to follow the steps of Jesus, we are free from those things. I’m not saying that we won’t have issues, but we have a path to follow. Jesus lived a perfect life. The Bible lays out a perfect flawless plan for our lives.

2. “Why do I need this man? It’s nice, but what purpose does Jesus have for me?”
   Jesus offers His way of thinking. Jesus offers His way of going about life. We’re going to mess up. We’re going to end up flicking someone off in traffic. We’re going to end up being tempted to do something that will end in destruction. For every single issue, Jesus offers an answer. Trust me, The Bible offers every answer you need. When we do mess up, we turn to Jesus, we ask Him to guide us in a new way—a new way of thinking, a clean slate, a fresh path. He urges us to learn from what we did and follow His way of thinking.

3. “But, what what is the point of Jesus’ dying on the Cross and rising from the dead?”
   Preacher, Tony Evans said, “For every thing that is visible, there is something invisible.” Read that again. Jesus’ took upon Him the result of mockery, hatred, ego, pleasure, status, power and pride. He was mocked as a result of people not believing the truth. He was hated for telling the truth and especially when it caused people to be uncomfortable. People’s ego got in the way of choosing to believe. People’s pleasure and pride got in the way for wanting status thus resulting in His death. He took all those invisible destructive behaviors upon Him—it led Him to the Cross to be nailed, pierced, beaten and spat on. He died, but that wasn’t the end of the story. Jesus didn’t let all of that leave Him in a state of darkness. Jesus rose from the dead. All of the mockery, hatred, ego, pleasure, status, power and pride was conquered. It didn’t defeat Him. It didn’t keep Him in darkness.

4. “Great, but how does this affect me?”
   The Bible says that the same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us (Romans 8:11, Ephesians 1:19-20). If this same power lives in us, then we too don’t have to let the destructive forces of this world conquer us. If we believe in Jesus, trust in Jesus, follow His way then that power lives in us. We can live in joy because the anguish all around us doesn’t have power over us just as it didn’t over Jesus. We can live in peace because the discord all around us doesn’t have power over us just as it didn’t for Jesus. We can live in hope because we know this world isn’t our final home and that there is a place where destruction doesn’t have a home.

Do you want this? Then, may I present Jesus to you? He doesn’t care where you’ve been, He just doesn’t want you to keep going that way. He wants you to turn around and look at Him and start a new path. I’m not promising you that it is all sunshine and rainbows. It’s hard work, but a work that promises authentic joy, peace and hope while experiencing true love knowing that Jesus always will help you, never abandon you, never turn His back on you. He wants you to come as you are—not staying that way—but promising He will make you even better. Will you let Him do that for you?