Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You for creating me. Thank You for blessing me with so, so much. Thank You for the incredible world that You made. You really are amazing! You made this whole, insanely complex world in 6 days! That is almost unbelievable! But You are an awesome God, and I do believe. Thank You for the people that You have put in my life, especially the ones who really care about me, and help me through my challenges. Please help me to be like that to other people. Please help me to help them through those challenges. Please help me to lead them to You even when life is hard. Please help me to imitate Christ. Please help me to be selfless like Him. Thank You for sending Him to take away my sins. I love You.

Amen

Most of us have known the story of Daniel for as long as we can remember. I know that I have! Because of that I never really took a closer look at it, that is, until today. Daniel 6 has one of the most incredible stories of faith that the Bible contains, and I think we could all take something away from reading his story again.

Daniel is someone who was respected by the king, and the people of the nation.  The king planned to set him over the whole realm. However, his fellow supervisors didn’t want that, so they came together and did everything they could to find something that Daniel did that would disqualify him. They could find nothing though, for Daniel followed the commandments of his king. So they decided the only way to go was so find something that Daniel did for the Lord, and somehow make it where that was also against the king. They went to the king, suggesting a law that, for 30 days, nobody was to worship or bow down to any person or God but the king himself. The king signed the law. The two men then went to Daniels home, and saw him on his knees, praying, as he did 3 times a day, everyday. They then seized him, and took him before the king, who was very much distressed about what had come to pass. The king could not release Daniel from the law, so Daniel was thrown into the lions den, and a large stone was rolled in front of the den. The king fasted and prayed that night that no harm would come to Daniel. In the morning, the stone was rolled away, and Daniel was still alive!

What happened inside that cave is uncertain, but we know that Daniel had incredible faith. He believed that God would take care of him, that God knew what was best. He lived because of his faith.  We know that he prayed, and his prayer was very much answered.

When we don’t know why something is happening, or why God is letting it happen, it is so, so important to trust Him. To trust that He knows what He’s doing. It is equally important to pray. To ask God for wisdom in a situation, or to ask Him for courage. He really does care, and He will help you.

Dear LORD,

Thank You for listening to us when we pray. Thank You for being there for us and protecting us when we are in scary situations, or when our hearts our on the line. Thank You for sending Jesus so that we can come to You with our sins, and You will take them away. Thank You for giving us the blessing that is the ability to pray. I love You LORD.

Amen.

Hi guys.

I would ask how y’all are doing, but the automatic “I’m good, how are you?” and the faux smile have no place on this website. Everyone has problems, nobody is truly fine. We have so many people with such vast, different, challenging lives that it is so hard to comprehend that every single person has the emotions and thoughts that you do. Isn’t it? It’s really easy to think of the world that centers around us, what is hard is seeing it everyone else’s way.  That person that you walked past in Walmart the other day? They have a life, a faith, a home, those little everyday dramas that you have. Every single person that has ever lived, that has ever walked on this earth has faced challenges. Some of them the successfully defeat, some of them they don’t, some of them don’t because they need help. For you school kids what about that person that nobody really knows? Who everyone recognizes, but nobody is really close to? I’m sure that they could use a friend in their lives and you could use another in yours! But we have nothing in common! You may think, well, that could be true, but the chances are extremely low. You see as human beings we all have a lot in common, it just takes some time and some digging to see it. God values all of us, and wants us all to look at each other with value. Just a smile, or a kind word can make somebody’s day, or help them when they are down. Give everyone a chance, and value every person.

Whoever is reading this, I wish you well with your life. I pray for you, and the people around you. I know you are someone, and that makes you so, so valuable. God loves you!

-Aubrey

Please look up Matthew 21:12-13

I would like to start out with a reminder of the importance of this week. We all probably know that Easter is coming up soon. For a long time Easter, to me, was about eggs more than it was about Jesus. About the events, about the dinner, the people, Easter clothes, Easter Sunday, all of this other stuff that really is not that important. I wish that I could say otherwise, but I cannot. Honestly it’s so, so easy to get wrapped up in all the… Celebration, and planning that we forget why we are celebrating. Why we are doing all of these things. For me I’ve never thought of the week before Easter as anything special, or different. This year I’m going to try to make that different, and I would very much appreciate it if you would all attempt to do the same! This week I am going to try very hard to spend a lot of time in prayer, and reading my Bible. I know that this isn’t necessary, but I’m also going to try to listen to only Christian music this week. Another thing that you can do is set a time in the morning everyday this week where you write down the ten biggest things to thank God for, and then (after thanking God for those things) fold the piece of paper and put it in a box. Then, on Easter Sunday you can open that box and read all those things to yourself. I’m not saying that you have to spend every second praying and reading the Bible, but I would reccomend doing something to make this week different than every other week.

Good morning!!

I just thought I’d take a moment to write about different ways to pray. I know that it is hard to focus, especially when you are praying in your head. This is why I think it’s a good idea to keep a prayer journal:

• A place to write down your thoughts.
• Keeps you focused on God.
• A place to copy memory verses.
• A place to write down prayer requests so that you don’t just forget them.

If you are the creative type there are so many fun ways to do this. You can turn your prayer journal into this colorful, beautiful creation, where you can write your own songs of praise, some drawings, beautifully designed Bible verse pages, a place to write down Bible study ideas and so much more. Along with talking to God prayer journaling can be a Christ-focused activity that you look forward to every day. So on those days when you are busy, it might help you make prayer a higher priority.

Another way that really helps me to focus on God, and helps me to really have a good, heartfelt conversation with Him is to go outside, and walk around praying out loud. Just talk, say what’s on your mind. It can help you to really focus on Him, and for me I really know that He’s listening.  A lot of times I’ll just start out like “Good morning God,” and literally just say whatever has been on my mind recently. I’ll get up early and wander around watching the world wake up.

Whatever you do, prayer is so, so important. It’s a way to really connect with God, and get a personal relationship with Him. I hope you guys have a wonderful day- I’ll be praying for you!

-Aubrey Carr

Hi guys,

I know that it has been a while since I posted anything and I am sorry. You know when life gets crazy, and there is just so much that needs doing? Where yes, you want to read your Bible and you want to write devotionals and do all of this stuff, but then life happens, and there’s this all of this other stuff that needs to get done. Well, for a long time I didn’t know what that was like, I couldn’t understand how these people were so busy, or what that was like. Guess what, now I kind of understand. I’m getting older, life is getting busier, and, for the first time, I don’t always have time to do all the things I want to do. I will honestly say that prayer time and Bible study time sort of got pushed back and used instead for other things, a lot of the time simply for sleep. I would read my Bible every day, but I never really got into a deep conversation with God, or spent a good amount of time on it. I broke a habit that took a long time to build. Now I am working on starting my good prayer times again. My morning walks where I can just talk to God while watching the world wake up, I’m trying to do them no matter how much I have that needs to get done. It’s hard, it is, but starting my days with a conversation with God can only make the day better. It has benefited me in ways that I never realized before.  Taking the time to slow down, to just talk to God- and to listen, fills you with peace and joy that make your day easier. It is hard sometimes, trust me, I know. But I think all of us, from every religion, culture, and of every age could use a time of peace before our crazy lives begin every day. God can help you through every day, through every situation, if only you let Him.  So try tomorrow to start your day with some prayer. If that means getting up earlier than you normally would then so be it, it’s probably worth it. At one point in my life I was  getting up at 4:30 am on a daily basis so that I would have time to spend with God, and it helps. If you do it enough you’ll get to the point where you can’t wait to get up and have that time, as hard as that may seem to believe. I encourage you to take that time. You won’t regret it.

His Humble Servant,

Aubrey Carr

Dear LORD,

Thank you so much for this wonderful day! The sunset was incredible- You did a really good job! I continue to be amazed with the extreme complexity of this world and it’s surroundings, and You managed to create all of it in 6 days! It is yet another testimony to Your greatness and perfection, as I think of how when humans invent things they take time to plan it, and yet more time to build it, if you count the time for fixing unexpected problems; it could take months to finish a simple well. You created an amazing world and a system that keeps it watered and fed and even to the point where organisms have the ability to heal themselves. Something as common as rain; it could take a lifetime to even learn, and so much longer to fully understand, and yet You created it- in a day! I am fully in awe of Your wisdom, and Your creativity. So many, even those who do not believe in You are amazed at Your creation; the beauty of Your sunsets, the brilliance of Your sun, the complexity of of Your plants, the incredible functions of a single cell! I am so in awe of Your greatness, and pray that I always will be, that I will always appreciate the amazing, beautiful, everyday things in life that are such a simple thing, yet at the same time they are so incredibly complex and are a testimony of Your intelligence, Your wisdom. Grass, it gets trampled underfoot everyday, we cut it, we pull at it when we’re bored, it takes so many amazing things to put that grass there, things that could only be designed by Someone so much greater than us.  The sun, keeping us warm, bringing us day and leaving us with night over and over and over, never ceasing never pausing because You made it to be like that. You made it all. All the good things in this world, all the incredible things discovered we honor the people who discovered them, that’s all well and good, but too often we forget to honor their Creator. I love You God.

Amen

Please open your Bible to 1 John and read chapter 1.

I know you kind of want to just skim through verses 1-4, but please don’t! It’s pretty important; it’s summing up all of these things that were written down before this book, and how they are not just a story, but our history. They cover more history, more accurately than any other document that claims to date back to right after creation.  It also states that eternal life that has always been God’s, has now been offered up to any who except Christ. We should have fellowship, and be thankful to the Ones that made that possible, not just God, not just Jesus, but both of them.

Verses 5-6 are an analogy that is often used, so much to the point that few know of it’s origin. God is the light, if we are true Christians, then we also walk in the light, in the things that are good and righteous. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we are lying, and not practicing the truth.” (1 John 1:6 HCS Version)

Verse 7 is an amazing verse “and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” Wow. If we walk as Jesus walked, being as selfless, kind, just, honest and brave as He was, as much as we can, then we are walking in the light. I don’t know about you, but that is something that I would want to do my very best on. It never says that life will be easier on us if we do these things, but when life gets rough, we have the ability, and support that we need to stand strong in our faith, and in life.

I was once in a youth group, as a guest, and a girl said that the Church was not full of sinners because we were cleansed of our sins. Verse 8 makes it pretty clear that this is not true. Yes Christ takes away our sins when we confess, but that doesn’t mean that they were never there. You can be forgiven for something but that doesn’t mean that you never did it.

Verse 9; confessing your sins is so, so important. Every night when I say my prayer I do this thing called A.C.T.S. which stands for Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and I pray a little bit about each of these things. Confession is the hardest one, because it forces me to look back over the day and recognize the sins that I have committed that day. But, after I have looked over them, and admitted to God that what I did was wrong, I felt more free than I had ever since I had committed that sin- even If I didn’t realize that my sins were burdening me, the really did have a negative impact on my day. God takes that away when we confess.

Verse 10: Ouch. I mean, it’s true, if you don’t recognize the fact that you have sinned multiple times in your life you need to look more carefully, and stop bragging about the so called “perfectness” you think you have.

God is good and right, and has thought out an amazing way to take the weight of our sin away from us, but we need to accept that privilege, and forgive ourselves once we know that God has forgiven us. And we also need to do our best not to sin, when it’s an obvious matter of “choose this, no sin, choose this, sin. Maybe just this once…” Admit it, it’s gone through your head at least once.

Dear LORD,

We are not perfect people, and you know that, and provided us away to get away from our mistakes, we need to confess, and get that weight off our back. Thank You so much for everything that You have given us. I love you LORD,

Amen.

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Please open your Bibles to 1 John chapter 2.

Verse 1 reminds us that we need to try not to sin, and that when we do sin there’s someone up there who is willing to plead our case with our Heavenly Father.

Verse 2 in my Bible says that  He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, then in the notes at the bottom it says the word propitiation has to do with the removal of divine wrath.  Jesus removes God’s wrath from us, if we turn to Him. Not just the Church, but the Muslims, the ones without faith,  anyone who will turn away from the hatred and mess that this world has become… and turn to Jesus. This invitation has been extended to anyone. We definitely do not have the right to pick and choose, so why do we act like we do? All the time we are hateful, and purposely hurt the feeling of the people that Jesus loves, and have been invited to join us in our amazing faith.

Verse 3-4 God has given us lot’s and lots of guidance in the book that is in my lap right now. There are so many examples of the instructions that He has given us.  When we say that we have become a Christian, we have accepted the calling to obey those instructions as closely as we possible can. I have seen so many people who go to Church and pray, and then turn into somebody else as soon as they step outside those doors. They don’t follow those commands, and it says right in verse 4 that they are liars. Does it say that that gives us a right to be hateful to them, or say mean things to or about them? No!

Verses 5-6 But whoever keeps His word, truly in him (or her!) the love of God has been perfected.  This is how we know that we are in Him; if we walk as He walked. Taking the phrase WWJD straight to heart, and thinking about it in every decision and situation. Going towards everything with courage and love and kindness, or as much of it as we can muster up anyway. We, as Christians are called to treat people the way that Jesus would treat them, and though we have not perfected that yet, we really do need to try as much as we can to do so. Oh, and another thing that Jesus was- Selfless. So, completely, utterly selfless.

Verses 7-8 This isn’t some new thing, we have always been called to have these characteristics, even before Jesus. And yet, it is kind of a new thing, simply because we have an example to follow. Jesus defeated darkness, not quite yet, but in the long run. He defeated death as well.

Verses 9-11 You cannot claim to be a Christian and then go on and on about this person you hate. If you are in the light you do whatever it takes to help your brother or sister, like them or not.

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have made a wonderful book, in which is everything we’ll ever need to live as you lived. There are so many instructions, I know that I can’t stick to all of them perfectly, but I will try really hard. Please write those words on my heart, the ones about loving my brother, and please help me to seek You, with everything that I am. I love You.

Amen.