After the earthquake in Haiti we saw many benefit concerts and songs sprout up all over the place. People also started texting donations to multiple organizations. If your life is anything like mine, I’m sure many local organizations also held collections to benefit Haiti.

These are all good and helpful things. I am confident that all of our contributions are needed and valued. However, we should not neglect our main priorities to support the people of Haiti or anyone else in need. I know this may sound harsh on the surface, but I believe that this is God’s will for our lives.

When I speak of priorities, I am referring to tithes and offerings. I know you may feel compelled to give, but I urge you to not take money out of your tithes and offerings to do so. That is God’s money. Yes, realistically, you are giving this money to the church. Please understand that God wants His money to go there. When we don’t give according to Gods’ purpose, we end up robbing God. (Malachi 3:8)

You may belong to a church with a million dollar budget. It is easy to tell yourself that the people in Haiti need the money more than your church does. I encourage you to ignore what your eyes see and stay faithful to God’s word.

If a church is functioning properly, it is using portions of the money you give to support outreach initiatives. You must have faith and believe that your church’s leaders are listening to the will of God and acting accordingly. If they are not, then God will deal with them.

If you are looking for money to donate, check your budgets for things like groceries and entertainment. Go to the concerts. Download the songs. Text until your heart is content. Give out of your heart and give generously. Leave God’s money alone!

Please share you thoughts on this. Is it OK to give less to your church in order to support those in need?

It is no secret that the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Los Angeles have left many people questioning God. Many people simply want to know why God allows disasters to happen. Is God angry? Is he trying to punish humanity?

I know that God is the creator and ruler of the universe. Absolutely nothing happens without him knowing about it. As for the topic of natural disasters, I don’t know why he causes or allows them to happen. He could have easily created a volcano, earthquake, hurricane and flood free world, but he didn’t.

As a believer, I have come to the realization that God does things that I will never understand. This is just something that I need to live with. If He did sit me down and try to explain his actions, it would probably be way too much for my simple mind to handle.

Every Christian needs to accept the fact that God does not need us to defend Him or his actions. He commanded us to love Him. He commanded us to love each other. We were never commanded to be His defender or lawyer. You can choose to enter into all kinds of debates as to why natural disasters happen, but I’m not going to do it.

Our faith is extremely important. It is one of the main things that separate the believer from the unbeliever. Even though disaster strikes, we must maintain our faith in knowing that God is sovereign, loving and merciful. We have to continue to believe that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.

You can continue to believe theories of anger and wrath. They may or may not be true. I am not going to concern myself with such thoughts. God does what he wants, when he wants. I can choose to deal with this fact and accept his love or I can choose to be angry and turn my back on him.

I choose to accept his love. I know that God is a rescuer, a deliverer, a healer, a protector and much more. The things that I do know about God, His love and His actions, far outweigh the things that I don’t know.

I was recently listening to a podcast from Creflo Dollar and he was talking about fear as it relates to the life of a Christian. Basically, he was talking about how it is not God’s intent for us to have ANY fear in our lives. As soon as I heard this, the following scripture immediately popped into my head:

“For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (ASV)

Pastor Dollar makes a good point. We often say that it is OK to have a little fear. Is it really? Why would we want anything in our lives that God did not intend for us to have? If we allow even a little fear in our lives what would stop us from being exposed to other things that God did not intend. If is OK to have a little fear, it it OK to have a little murder? Is it OK to have a little pre-marital sex? Is it OK to lie a little? Those things should not have any place in our lives and neither should fear.

Many of us tend to use fear for motivation. We fear failure, so we work harder to succeed. We fear that our children won’t be able to handle certain aspects of life, so we become overprotective and overload them with information.

As Christians, we don’t need to fear, because we have a relationship with a God who is faithful and dependable. Instead of using fear for motivation, we can use the promises of God. We can enter situations without fear knowing that God will protect us. It is good to know that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13)

Be strong and know that God can and will always be there for you. I’ll leave you with this: “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6 (ASV)

What strategies do you have for dealing with fear when it tries to arise in your life?

I’m sure you’ve been to a funeral or memorial service where you heard someone refer to the deceased and say something to the effect of “God must have wanted a ______ so he decided to call _______ home”. When you fill in the blanks it goes something like this: “God must have wanted a plumber in heaven, so he decided to call Uncle Jerry home.”

I really wish people would stop using phrases like this. It portrays God to be this selfish figure that causes death only for his personal gain. That is just not a true representation of who God is and what he is all about.

I’m not a theological scholar, so I can’t fully explain why God allows death to happen in our lives. All I know is that death is part of our lives here on Earth. However, I do know this. We do not die simply because we are so special that God can not stand us being on Earth for another day and he absolutely must bring us to heaven. We do not die just because God has some great desire to “hang” with us. He can “hang” and be with us while we are on Earth. All we need to do is let him in.

God gives us all free will. While he has intended plans for our lives, we sometimes do things to mess those plans up. So when we or other people make poor decisions, premature death is a possible occurrence. Overdosing on drugs, drunk driving, not eating healthy foods, smoking, and being at the wrong place with the wrong people are all things that could cause us to “go before our time.”

So, when someone takes a gun and goes on a killing spree, I don’t think it is because God had a couple of vacant positions in heaven that we wanted to fill. It is because someone made a horrendous decision.

Some things in our lives are God made while others are man made. We should all try to do a better job of making the distinction between the two. We want people to come to know and love God. When we misrepresent Him, we aren’t doing Him any favors.

These thoughts are just my opinion. Let me know what you think.

Sometimes we forget about the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on Calvary. We forget that some of us were drug users, murders and sex addicts, but God still gave his son to die so WE can live. That concept is amazing!

This video is a great illustration of that point.

Once again I find myself asking the age old question, “Why should I care about this?” As many of you know, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama were part of a faith forum that was held on Sunday. At this forum they were asked the questions about God and the bible.

I could be wrong about this whole thing. However, I am not concerned about whether either candidate knows why God allows people to suffer. Should any of us care about this? Lets remember, we are electing a President, not a pastor.

Is this really probing stuff that Americans definitely need to know? Before anyone gets on their high religious horse, just think for a moment. Think about your last job interview. Think back to the end when your interviewer said, “Do you have any questions for us?” Did you respond with something like “Do you believe that God intervenes in history and punishes nations?” I highly doubt it.

I don’t expect any presidential candidate to be a biblical scholar. I expect them to be well versed issues like healthcare, abortion, and foreign policy.