#JESUS

Imagine you walked around with a #hashtag blinging in gold drapped at all times from your neck. Remember the old rope chains. The thick ones! Some had a word blinging in framed gold. PIMP, PLAYER, STAR, etc.

What would your HASHTAG read? #pissedoff? #tired? #angry?

Or are you someone who brightens a room when you walk in? #joy #childlikewonder #superetch

I know many people that people avoid. You know the one I'm talking about, they have a laundry list of problems and will talk about them in detail to anyone who would listen.

I listen, but most people stopped listening. I can’t blame them; it difficult listening to someone else's issue when you have your own to deal with.

Sometimes I can envision a hashtag for the brother with so many problems #stayaway!

Many of these #problembrothers met Jesus. And #joy took over. There are quite a few of us on this prayer line. Amen!

But guess what? The new hashtag wasn’t affixed with some magical Galaxy Glue. It was more like double-sided tape and brothers would sometimes forget to put on their new hashtags.

So even as a Christian, a born-again believer who’d been set free, once again wore #lifestinks as a slap-in-God’s-face testimony.

But check it out, that’s okay. Because we don’t STAY there.

Let’s face it fellas: life isn’t going to be all sunshine and roses. There are going to be times when we cloud our witness. Thankfully we have a merciful and forgiving Father who loves us and just wants to see us return to #blessed and #free.

What are you wearing today? #scared? #confused? #hopeful?

Whatever it is, there’s a verse for it. And that verse points UP. Trust Him. In EVERYTHING.

In the Navy, Chief Petty Officers often say "Anchored Up!" I like that, it's synonymous with being grounded and focused on the mission. As Christians we are Anchored Up too, only it not a bulk of heavy metal and chain, instead, it is deadwood, and nails of salvation.

We are saved! We are promised! We are Men of Christ!

#ARMOREDUP

Let us pray -

Father, we desire to remain faithful to You all the days of our life. We join with others of the Christian faith who hold unswervingly to the hope we profess even as we spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Disappointments, seemingly unanswered prayers, loved ones who oppose us, spiritual lethargy, temptations, and trials pull at our hearts and tempt us to look back just like the Israelites who were freed from slavery.

They who greatly rejoiced at their new found freedom found themselves longing to return to slavery after the going got tough. #CRAZY

Give us strength and firm resolve to plow through the hard soil and bumpy rocks of life all the while fixing our eyes on the Cross of Salvation and our eternal dwelling place as we hold fast to the hope we profess in Christ Jesus our Lord and Prince of Peace.

In His Name we pray.

Amen! Amen! Amen!

SCRIPTURE

"Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."

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