God has a way of getting us through even the most enduring times. On Thursday at 7:45 am I got pulled over for not coming to a complete stop in our parking garage. I looked both ways and am always very cautious but today I received a $100.00 ticket for it. My day continued to get worse. I left my ATM card in the machine and the security personnel called a few of my coworkers. Everyone was laughing about it. I have to admit it was funny but still seemed like one thing after another was happening. I remember stopping at that moment and praying, Jesus help me, I am not taking ownership over this bad day I'm having. After that, my day started turning around. God's annointed started to flow over me. All of these creative ideas were coming out at work. After work I got home and sleep for awhile. After having a great rest of the day another incident happened. I ended up pulling back and scraping my neighbor's car that was parked at an angle. What a test that was put before me. Do I put the insurance information on the car or not? As Christians we are suppose to walk with integrity. God would not allow me to walk away without doing it. Anyways I couldn't believe another bad thing happened. I started thinking how could I use this situation to be a blessing to someone. God always seems to turn bad situations into good! I decided to write a note, at the end I put "God Bless". What was interesting is a few days later the owner of the car calls me very suprised that someone took the time to write her. The owner stated that this has happened before and no one has ever left message. She also said that she may not have to file a claim after all as the scratch was very minor. I'm totally behind the owner whatever the outcome is. I guess the moral of this story is this:



How do you respond when trials come our way? I remember the first thing I did when I received that ticket was say, "I'm not going to let this ticket have ownership over me." I immediately sent in a check and let go of it. There are so many things in life that try to take ownership over us, debt, addictions, material things etc. Remember that God can make a bad situation and turn it around for good. God can free us and is bigger than these trials that come our way. At church they prayed a powerful word. Lord put hedges of protection around us. That is definately my prayer tonight. That his protection would be on each and everyone of us.

It is so powerful what God is doing in Washington. What a blessing Veritas has been. What a great alternative from the bar scene. Coffee and worship, how cool is that!! It was an honor getting to play there again with our family band. It was just an incredible night. We also had the previlge to play a song with Brenda Fysh. This multi talented musician is also the owner of an incredible web site that promotes local artist called. Track10.com . The amazing thing is as a Christian God will make everyday new. When we welcome Him into our lives he will take us places we could have never dreamed of.

In my daily walk with Christ, there is something I ask myself daily. I came up with this diagram to illustrate this point. Everyday I have a choice, there are many cups that I can drink from.

• Cup #1 is living for everything this world has to offer.
  
• Cup #2 is living my life for material gain and possession.
  
• Cup #3 is how I treat the temple God has given me.
  
• Cup #4 is living for the purpose of being entertained.
  
• Cup #5 is drinking daily of the living water of Jesus.
  

God wants to use each and everyone of us. If I spend all of time drinking from the wrong cup, how much fruit will I be able to produce. Jesus said,

John 15
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me."

Today was an excellent example, I love coffee, it's aroma lured me in, I decided to get a 16 oz latte. Then later on in the day I decided. Wow, that latte was so good this morning. I decided to drink another 16oz latte later that day. I definately had an overdose of Cup #3. My body was feeling shaky. An amazing thing happened to me. I started drinking pure water. What an amazing feeling, the clean pure water started flowing through my veins. I started feeling new and refreshed.

John 4:10
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

What happens when we start living for the drink that Cup #4 has to offer. For the longest time it was so easy for me to come into my own world on Friday nights. "I worked hard this week, I deserve to have time to myself." Then I started asking myself, how can I use more of my time to be a blessing to other people. Now that we are turning more and more away from that cup, God is bringing so many amazing people into our lives now.

John 12:25
Anyone who tries to keep his life will lose it. Anyone who gives up his life in this world will live for ever in the next world.

When we drink this cup #5 Jesus transforms us. We had such an amazing night of worship tonight. God really spoke to me about not anticipating my parts but to embrace and cherish ever beat that is played. He really brought it all together tonight. Just as God spoke to me, this carries into so many aspects of my life. Embrace everyone moment of our lives.

In closing I was reading an article today in the National Graphic about the JetBlue incident. A lady said, God if I make it out of hear alive I will commit my life to serving you! WOW!!! And sure enough God brought her to safety as the plane landed. We're only here for a short time. Make every minute count.

God Bless.

What a great season for the Seahawks! Listening to the radio shows after the game, it's easy for them to critize the Seahawks. What I saw was a team every bit as good as the 49ers that dominated the 80's. The Seahawks in my book did not lose the game tonight. They were just as much champions as the Steelers. Something I've learned at Capital Christian Center is something so true, "Approach everything you do with excellence." Seattle did approach the game with excellence. Strucken with injured players they still played an incredible game! Seattle has something to be very proud of!! Every year they've gotten closer and closer to the goal. Just as in our Christian walk. we stumble and fall but continue to strive to reach our goal of being with Jesus. People will critize us, put us down, make us feel lowly. There was so much publicity about the Seahawks proving themselves to the world. If we give our best to God how can we lose, what more do we have to prove to man?

Stay encouraged! Be blessed and encourage someone this week who maybe feeling depressed about the game. I'm guilty of getting upset with some of the calls during the game. But we all need to be happy in knowing that they gave us a great season reguardless of the outcome. It's going to be an awesome year!! Go Seahawks!