HeartTOHeart

Joy! That first Christmas Day there was exceeding, great JOY! Jesus came to us, sacrificed His kingly rights in a crazy, wonderful way! Mary and Joseph, sacrificed so much, changed up their lives radically to bring Jesus into this world. The wiseman made huge sacrifices to bring gifts to the Christmas Savior. The Shepherds, people who worked so hard, daily sacrificed much to care for their sheep, were led from their fields to Jesus by the beautiful glorious angels and the heavenly star. Do you notice how self-sacrifice was so connected to JOY? We all seek purpose, joy, peace, friendship and sadly the pursuit of these things over God, tend to twist up our human nature, and some of us, we sometimes stress out so much to get them, kindling our own fires, walking by the light of a man-made fire, that it leaves us with a temporary happiness that fades out into total darkness. Happiness is fleeting externally, where JOY lasts and comes from deep within our inner spiritual core. The Christmas Story models true JOY and the way to it is by serving others and serving with others. Isn’t that an ironic oxymoron? The way to JOY and peace is through serving! The way to purpose is by giving. The way to lasting friendships is by servant leading together. My best friend in this world came from a season of us serving people together. When you serve with others, you develop the deepest friendships. Isn’t that amazing how God does that?! A common goal, a vision worked towards, and deep friendships are made though sacrifices of serving. The Christmas Story was intermingled with sacrificial service to people. People serving people. Jesus serving us all. Out of this serving came the blessing of life, friendship, purpose, joy, peace and everything people had waited for. It is the same today, the more you serve others, with others, the better life is. Serving brings JOY deep within your inner spiritual core, it brings purpose, which we all are seeking, it brings amazing friendships, as we serve together. The best gift of serving is the inner peace being a person who gives receives, it is more than you could hope for or imagine. Giving, self-sacrificing, is the way to JOY, purpose, friendship and peace. The very things we seek in life are found in giving away our life to others, just like we see in the Christmas Story. The way to a Merry Christmas, is a miraculous-merrily-so oxymoron. The more you give of yourself, the more joy you have. JOY= Jesus-Others-You. Got JOY? Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/missionary-prayer-journey-7/

Oh, the hustle and bustle of this season… simply exhausting! We human beings put way too much on our plates~ Then we crash and burn emotionally! YES for sure… exhausted people are “stressy and messy”… and conflict happens a lot more during seasons of “hustle and bustle”! People are emotionally edgy when they are stressed and relationships can get messy really, really quickly. Tempers flare, things are said which should never have been said as self-control can’t hold a “stressy-messy” tongue back. Strife happens and you got a beginning of a friendship feud, which the enemy of our soul just loves. At times such as these, our mouths work overtime with exaggeration, speculations, assumptions, presuppositions, all the enemies delights of deceit, which we partake in when we are tired and our self-control is pressed hard by our human condition. How do we avoid these “stressy-messy” conflicts? Sometimes, they are unavoidable and sometimes, oh yes, sometimes, God puts us right in the middle of the relational whirlwinds. Really! Would God do that? Yes, and can’t you see Him smile right about now? God has a sense of humor, especially when He is trying to stretch our faith, so we grow in His character through “stressy-messy” experiences. Grinch like groaning and growing. How can that be? Well, in the middle of a “stressy-messy” situation, we usually look at everyone else in the situation, very rarely are we the problem. God says: “I will use this conflict to teach you to “eat the meat and spit out the bones!” We think the enemy is at the center of all the mess, well, He is in it, but so is God. God is in the “stressy messy” situation to teach us something good. God turns our enemies evil intention to good character growth. So, in the midst of the “stressy-messy” situation, He wants us to eat the meat of truth we find in the situation, about ourselves. What can I learn from this situation about me? How can I change to better my character? Eat the meat! Spit out the bones of assumption, speculation, about others and focus on God and Your personal growth. This makes stress less messy, as we ask ourselves, how can I grow through this with God? Then, it becomes less “stressy-messy” and more miraculously-merrily-so. Eat the meat, spit out the bones! Make “stressy-messy” less about fixing others and more about growing through with God. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/narrow-way/

Are you comfortable? God’s faithful love ❤️ is redeeming in the all of my everything, I trust Him with my life, even in the uncomfortable things that come my way, I know He is in the midst of them with His Redeeming Power at work in me. In the Light of the reality of truth about the Christmas Child, our Redeemer, I know I am becoming wholly-holy His. I don’t need to be comfortable as much as I need to be connected ❤️ heart to heart ❤️ with Jesus and others. Jesus made it personal, He came here! Sometimes we seek comfort more than we do Christ~ Have you been there? I have. Creature comfort distracts us from the Christmas reality of Jesus setting aside His comfort to come here to us. It wasn’t about Him, His comfort, it was all about us, and our Redemption. I find that God works on me a lot in this area my Comfort Zone… it is a place God likes to shake me up and out of, because I miss so much of His doing and my becoming when I never step out of my personal comfort. Usually, He pushes me out and (way above my pay grade) and I courageously so, in Followship of Him and with Great God Adventure tap into His navigational rhythms and His strengths, and I GO! Especially this time of year, I stretch my faith to experience that “miraculously merrily so” God moment in each advent day, YES, when we embrace the compassion of God’s heart, step outside of our comfort zone and use the gifts God has given us, then our families, friends, neighbors greatly benefit. God has a corporate compassion for all of the human race this is the plurality of His love for us. Definitely a victory for God occurs when we step outside of our comfort zone and become interested in each other, come along side in support of all people, celebrating the uniqueness of the human race in such a way that comparison and prejudice find no place in us. This is Christmas outside of our comfort zone. It is wholesome unity! An absolute knowing of the plurality of God’s love for us. Be so. Heart TO Heart! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/christmas-compassion/

I don’t know about you, but I need encouragement from others. Where do you find the best encouragement? Do you have a special relationship that you gravitate to that you know will always add value to your day? I do and first and foremost that is Jesus Christ, a vital-vertical relationship I have that strengthens me daily. Also, there are sweet friendships that God has connected me to, I call them “Kindred Friends”, those close to my heart who always add value to my life. Do you have a “Kindred Friend” you can go to and be encouraged by. I pray God sends you them. God is the best kind of friend, who has proven His allegiance to us. He came to us. This is something about Christmas, which I love remembering, which I will never forget. He came to us. He sought us out. How cool is that? I do love Christmas, but what makes it so special is my “Kindred Friendship” with God and others. How about you? What do you love about Christmas? What is your special “Kindred Friendship” which enlightens and enlivens this amazing season with joy? I hope that for us during this Christmas Season, Heart To Heart, that God will bless us, gift us with Kindred Friendship, friends who encourage us, strengthen our soul and lift up our tired heart. Christmas brings out many different emotions in people. Some good, some bad, but this Christmas Season, may we step out from underneath emotions that are fickle and may we know the strength of God’s Joy in the reality of truth that Jesus came to us. We are valuable to Him. Our lives have purpose, we are not meaningless, we have a future and a hope. God’s love for us is unchangeable. When everything else in this world rocks back and forth between love and hate, the love of God remains the same, for us. This Christmas Season, position yourself under the Rulership of the Love of God, an unchangeable, strong and powerful place where we are always welcome, we always belong, we will become, miraculously, merrily wholly-holy His. Jesus chose to come and we choose to become all because of an unchangeable devotion to us and for us. We live in the light of living hope, strengthened by the very joy that was not given by the world, but gifted to us by Jesus, through an unchangeable love, a love that chose us, came to us. Merry Christmas, enjoy the season. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/living-hope/

We have a lot of goings and comings in this life season we are in. We never lack. God is an amazing provider and He does this through His Providential Care of us. Provider, Provision and Providential Care, we are so blessed, this human race, loved well by our God. There is nothing He did not plan for. He knows us, He knows our human condition and He is constantly working to better us, purposefully so. The best gift God gave us was His Son, Jesus, Who came here, to us, died our death, so we could live His forever life. God finishes what He starts and He will finish well on this side of heaven for us, His people. There is no doubt about this. God is on the move, with us, for us and is working His excellence into our character. There is never a moment when He is not with us or for us, wanting the best for our lives. Heart To Heart, I pray God blesses us in the all and the everything of our lives, I pray His blessing will be upon us, you and yours, being blessed by this amazing Awe God, Who created us purposefully so and will carry out His Sovereign Will for our good. The human race, with its human ways is loved unconditionally, and cared for perfectly by its Creator God. He does not leave us, He does not forsake us and no weapon formed against us will prosper. He does not do things in the way we are accustomed to; He does things His ways, which sometimes are not the way we would do it, but all the time, end very well. We experience this care every single day we are on this side of heaven, we are a blessed people and we should never underestimate God’s ability to take care of us. He blesses immensely in that way only He can. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/reciprocal-love/

There are many challenges in our lives, this is our reality of truth!! The Christmas season seems to be one where our expectations in others and God may get dashed. It is a challenge to not be discouraged or disappointed during this season of high hopes, and grossly enlarged expectations. The way to navigate this life season, and all life seasons, is to put our expectations in God’s Hands. We desire, hope and want, this is part of our human condition. There are times when our expectations are way out of line, and really ridiculous, and they ride us right into a huge disappointment, that we foolishly set ourselves up for. Why not rise up to the challenge of letting God determine the outcome of our expectations. The reality of truth is just that, it is our expectations that God has purposefully set forth into our lives as experiences in gaining wisdom. The things we experience in life, they become our life wisdom and this is more valuable than all the treasure in the world. God will stretch our faith in that way where we turn to Him and we realize the strength of His life in our weaknesses. Trials come, but God teaches us many things and purposefully uses them to shape His goodness into our character. God never leaves us in our challenges to rot, in fact, He never leaves us at all, He promised He would deliver us out of every trial, and He does. Sometimes we don’t like the means and ways that He uses, to save us from ourselves, but the end game always leaves us in Awe of Him, and is more than we could ever hope for or imagine.

Unto us, came Jesus, the Prince of Peace. He is our peace as we live in this world, but are not of it. The cultural chaos will not govern us, the peace of God will. The wickedness of humanity, giving into its human condition is a stealer of our peace, yet in Christ, peace remains. There is no place where God’s peace can’t go. As we open our hearts wide to God, He fills us with His peace. No matter what we are growing through, God has not left us without His peace which stabilizes our soul. There is no life storm that God’s peace can’t still and this miraculous, merrily so of harmony of soul in Christ Jesus, our Prince of Peace, is a soul anchor that holds. Fairness and justice are two things that are scarce in our times, yet, even so, in the midst of this season of governmental overreach, God still reigns and His peace still rules in the truth of our future and hope, which is not here in this place where the supremacy of human beings utterly fails us. The Prince of Peace, will rule us all with fairness and justice like no other, for all eternity. So, if your peace is being rocked by the foolishness of humanity, listen up to God, let His Voice peaceable lead you in times such as these, where truth is so hard to find, peace is readily available as Jesus, rests the government of our lives on His shoulders, there is peace that surpasses all of our understanding. Peace e To You, And Yours, God bless you, Much! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/prince-of-peace-3/ Isaiah 9:6 Hope of all hopes, dream of our dreams, a child is born, sweet-breathed; a son is given to us: a living gift. And even now, with tiny features and dewy hair, He is great. The power of leadership, and the weight of authority, will rest on His shoulders. His name? His name we’ll know in many ways—He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Dear Father everlasting, ever-present never-failing, Master of Wholeness, Prince of Peace. The Voice

A Grateful Heart! Speak it, your God gratefulness, your praise for Jesus. People Must Know. I have so much to be thankful for. Jesus Came To Us! I will never get over this. How about you? What are your expectations for this time, for this season, for now? On this day, what are your Christmas Thoughts? As we develop a thankful heart, thinking on the amazing, miraculously, merrily so birth of Jesus, our Savior, we are more thankful than we can express. So Grateful! In my heavenly hindsight, I think about where I came from to where God has brought me. I think about how much I have changed for the better knowing Jesus, walking with God, living by His amazing Word, and being directed by His Holy Spirit. This time of year, I can’t help thinking about Jesus, coming here, to us. I am so grateful for that choice, Jesus ushered in, that Christmas morning, at His birth, the greatest transformation ever to be known by mankind. He came to die our death, so we could live His life. From death to life, this miraculous-merrily so, state of our soul, was ushered in by Jesus. How can we even begin to thank God for Christmas? As I think on Jesus, what He has done for our humanity, I am in Awe and so very grateful. Think on Christmas, miraculously muse on the Word of God, and as you do, ask the Holy Spirit to give you insight into what Christmas truly means and develop a thankful heart. There are no adequate Words for us to speak, just Awe, just incredible Awe and reverence, when we think of what our God did for us. (John 3:16) Our Creator, came to us, so we could live with Him forever. Nothing was perfect, we definitely were not perfect and we owed a debt, we could not pay. Yet, Jesus, He still came to us, and we undeservedly, were given the gift of God’s Son, to pay the sin debt we owed. Jesus, the King of heaven, came here among us, born humbly, and with meekness, His power under the control of the Will of God, became God in the flesh, so we could be forgiven and be forever free, with a future hope of life with God. There is no greater gift, the gift of mercy which keeps on giving from generation to generation as we accept this Christmas Child into our heart, are forgiven of our sins and given a forever life. Be so. Be the one Who accepts the gift of Jesus, that gives life forever. Jesus, Christmas Savior. Thank you. We are so grateful. Miraculously-Merrily-So. (Luke 19:37-40) If we don’t praise Him, thank Him, even the rocks will cry out in praise to Him. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/we-are-the-reason/

Compassion was a huge part of the Christmas Story. So many miracles happened because Jesus came to us, all of us. Jesus did not hold back His compassion until we were perfect, He embraced everyone in a grip of unconditional love. People, we have the same human condition as each other, yet we conditionally share compassion, we withhold kindness because we “turn up our nose” at people who are labeled with specific sin, or people who are labeled with different religions, or people who do not look the same as us. TRULY, we all were made in the Image of God, all of us created by the hand of the Almighty God. TRULY, we all are sinners. We are the human race, not black or white, brown or red, but human. A human race, who belongs to God, this is who we are, and as His Created people, compassion is in our spiritual DNA. This Christmas, we must let go of all our preconceived ideas about the people around us and let God open our eyes to His reality of truth. People must know the compassion of the Christmas Savior, so we choose to take the journey of unrestricted love with God, and experience the God Adventure of compassion. Our culture is in chaos, so add unconditional compassion to the situations you find yourself in this Christmas Season. Why not add civility to the culture where God has placed you in? Why not love unconditionally, with fully expressed, unobstructed compassion, given to all. Mercy, acted out compassionately, this is what God did when He sent His Son Jesus to us that first Christmas morning. We did not deserve this act of sacrificial love, yet it was freely given to us all. Christmas Compassion! Give like God gave us. People must know. We are God’s Messengers, our life must be God’s show and tell about Jesus, His Christmas Compassion. By God’s unconditional love over flowing in us, through compassion for all people, dare to care this Christmas by loving the unlovely, being kind to the kindless, and by giving compassion where it is not earned. Mercy is kind and compassionate, we have received it, not to keep to ourselves, but to give it away to others. God is at work in our world, and in heavenly hindsight, compassion was meekly birthed into our universe as Jesus, The King of Heaven, Our Savior, was born in a humble stable and meekly His power was under control of God’s Sovereign will purposefully in play for us. Live heart to heart with this Christmas Savior, let Him fill you with the compassion of His soul. On this day, choose compassion, be kind, be loving, be unconditionally caring to all those God puts in your path, miraculously merrily so. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/s-h-a-r-e/

We are all created so differently, shaped so uniquely by God. Yet, we all were created to need soul rest. This will look different for each of us because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Rest your soul. What do you need to have soul rest? God worked, creating the universe for six days, rested on the 7th day taking a Sabbath break. (Genesis 2:2) What is it for you that replenishes your soul, refreshes your soul? Life can be busy, but truly life is what we make it. We set our schedules; we make our plans. Does our planning for this week include some soul rest? Most likely no. We need to change this up. Do you have a hobby? Do you have something you enjoy doing, something that rests your soul? I like walking the beach, playing golf or reading a good novel. What rests your soul? We push ourselves too hard and sometimes don’t take any kind of rest until we crash and burn emotionally. This life season is very much a “hustle-bustle” and we can get so caught up in it, that before we know it, we are soul fatigued and not good for anything or anyone. Soul exhaustion is the enemy’s playground for confusion. We see more clearly when we have rested, it brings out in us a gratitude, an acknowledgement of God, seeing clearly His Sovereignty in our lives, and the things He has accomplished in us and through us. We get that sweet “heavenly hindsight” clarity when we take “time out” from life’s goings and comings. Rest your soul, replenish your soul, take time out with God, and do something that “floats your boat”, something you love doing, something that rests your soul. Maybe even do nothing, wouldn’t that be a change? We were created to need soul rest, to just breathe into our soul some God harmony. Step away, apart from the chaos, deeply breathe in the peace of God. When is the last time you did this? Take a Sabbath, a soul rest away from all the stress and chaos of life, just You and God? Try it. Wholly-Holy align your soul with God and listen up to Him without any distraction. It will rest your soul, it will make you a better, stronger person who walks with clarity in followship of God. God bless ya. Get some soul rest. Just breathe in God! Peace to you! Live life with clarity, confidently and courageously because it is well with your soul. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/beauty-tagged-by-peace/ “I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!” John 14:27

Good Day To You! Or depending upon where you live, Good Evening To You! What does day and night have in common? Light, shattering the darkness. Light is transforming, whether it is the morning sunlight shattering the darkness of night, or the evening moon rising, glistening as the glimmer of hope in a dark night. Good morning, good evening, whichever one you are in right now, I pray the Light of God is with you. The Christmas Star was rejoiced over with great acclaim, a light that brought great joy. (Matthew 2:9-11) The Light of the world was born to usher in the greatest transformation ever known to mankind. Death-Darkness to Everlasting Life-Light. Yes it was a good day. Morning and Evening have in common, Light that fragments the darkness. Light is transforming. The light of hope is a Is a magical, wonderful, miraculous thing. God’s Light Will Never Be Extinguished. There is always hope that lights up our darkness and shatters a dark night. We have many times where we have dark storms in our lives, yet the Light of Hope, shines, breaks through the darkness. Jesus is the hope giver, may His Light be with us all. God bless ya. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/light-2/

Happy Thanksgiving, Heart To Heart! I want to thank each of you for subscribing to my Heart To Heart Chanel and the 1 Minute Encouragement videos, and tell you how thankful I am for you. God Bless You! I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving day! I am visiting the family farm this week, as you can see in the video today. Growing season is over, so it is a great season of thanksgiving and rest for them. I love the mountains; I always feel so close to God when I visit here. When it comes to God’s Presence, I think Charles Spurgeon said it the best: “God is with us and His Power is all around us.” The best gift all of mankind has ever been blessed with is: “The Presence Of God”! We are a blessed people with an amazing future and we also have so much to be grateful for on this side of heaven. I am thinking right now of our future and hope in Jesus, for that I am so grateful. Think on what you are grateful for today and make sure you express it to God. I know God loves our praise and I know He loves, loves a grateful heart. I hope you have a wonderful day with your family and friends today and remember… be thankful… let your heart attitude be stirred up in the AWE of God and be God-grateful. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/thanksgiving-awe/ Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice! Tell all the nations, “The Lord reigns!” Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever. Search for the Lord and for His strength; continually seek Him. He is the Lord our God. His justice is seen throughout the land. 1 Chronicles 16

Dry, dusty, parched… this life season can feel that like this in so many, many ways. The human condition is way out of control, very deplorable. The heat is on in our cultural chaotic world. People hurting people with a corrupted, illegitimate supremacy that they handle so wrongly. Only God can live correctly out of Supremacy, and being supreme over others, we human beings, not so much. I am grateful for the supremacy of God. So, what do we do when a corrupted illegitimate authority has caused such hard times on us that just ordinary living feels overwhelmingly burdensome and the dryness in our soul can be described as dehydrated? Got a parched soul? Have you ever heard of “Living Water”? I am so thankful for it. The meaning of it is, simply-significant Awe-GOD replenishment. Living Water for the parched in soul, it is very refreshing. I am so grateful! So here goes… What is living water? It is this: Jesus, came to us, He came to pay a sin-debt we owed, which we could never pay. Jesus came to defeat death, which wanted to swallow us up forever. He came to die our death, so we could live His life. He left with us here, His Holy Spirit. This is our reality of truth. I am so grateful for this. God With Us! The world can be a dry, dusty, parched place for our soul, yet, miraculously so, it can be well with our soul. How? When we accept Jesus Christ as God’s Son, and give our life wholly-holy to Him, coming to faith in Him, becoming all in with Him, the Holy Spirit of God comes to live inside of us, like a purifying, holy spring of life, a living water. I am so grateful for this! The greatest blessing of our God is His Presence. God with us, always! That is why we can live in a dry, parched environment and be completely soul nourished and strong in our inner spiritual core. This is what living in Christ means… living water in our soul. I am so grateful! The heat is on in our generation, way too high and there is a lot of lawlessness, cheating, disrespect, disunity, hate, no boundaries, no freedom, no privacy, deception, corruption, illegitimate supremacy, no choices and lots of people running around thinking they the god over you, mandating to you what they think is right for you. Living Water, drink it in and be so, positioned underneath the rulership of God’s love. I am so grateful to God. Replenish your soul. God carrying your burdens. Living Water. Yoked To God, your burden is light. Refreshed by God! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/be-replenished/

We are so blessed by God. The greatest blessing from God is His Presence. God is with us. Let that just sink into your reality of truth. God is with us. I am so grateful for this. Sometimes life is so good, sweet and joyful, but then there are those life seasons that are just so hard. I am in one of those life seasons where my faith is being stretched beyond what I think I can bear. Yet, the one thing that helps me the most is flipping my discontentment and grumbling to praise and gratefulness. I have found there is always something to be grateful for, that is how God rolls. There is always light in the darkness, the evil in this world can never extinguish the light of God’s hope. Because God is with me, I choose contentment, I choose happiness, I choose gratefulness. It is so sweet to walk with God, He is so good, so holy, so right and it is precious that He chose to be with us, a gift like no other. We can be heart to heart with God and even in the tough life seasons, growing through with God, we can be thankful. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/praise-faith/

Experience everything you can, when you can, by being present. Don’t let distraction steal from you. Life is short and the best way to live it is being present with those you are with. The first focus that is really good to have is, God, knowing He is always with you throughout your day is practicing His Presence, being alert to Him in the all of your everything. The sweetest way to live is uncompartmentalized, giving God total access to your life. Asking God to navigate you through your day. God Adventure is fantastic and when He leads you through your day, it will be an incredible day, full of new things, full of escapades you could not even begin to imagine or hope for, miraculously so. So, why not, why not take a risk today, open your heart wide to God, experience a new God consciousness and let Him lead you into a closer relationship, past acquaintance to friendship. What do you have to lose? Why not experience the newness and freshness of God, He is simply-significantly amazing. Got a minute? Stop where you are, clear the slate of your mind. That in itself feels great! Now, sit with God and reflect, think on the beauty, the majesty, the amazing awe of all things Him. How was that? When is the last time you took time to just experience new things with God? Listening up to Him, talking and walking through His Word with Him. Letting Him be in the all of Your everything each day. He is with us, all the time, and that is His greatest blessing to us, so we really should take full advantage of that. God makes things personal. With God, is not about religion, it is all about relationship. We were created to know Him, and to worship Him, heart to heart. I hope you had a great God Adventure in His peace today. God bless ya. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/deeply-know-god/

We are dealt from the hand of God many good things in this life and have a lot to be grateful for. Friendship is God ordained and divinely set up. God is the perfect one to put people together, He knows us best. Our spouses are a good example of that. God knows what He is doing and when we follow after God, we find ourselves in very deep, fulfilling relationships. Heart To Heart. Have you ever experienced the loss of a spouse, family member, loved one or friend? I have. The deeper the love runs, the more painful the loss is. Love hurts, but in the long run, it is so worth investing ourselves in. Whenever I have dealt with loss, at first it hurts so badly, I have to tell myself to just breathe, but then I start to think gratefully about all the years I did have the person I lost, in my life, and that cuts the rawness out of my grief. When your heart is broken in this way, separated, left on this side of heaven, when your loved one has gone home, people will tell you that you will get over it in time. I don’t believe that. A strong love life is where you give your friend a piece of your heart, your fully invested in them, and you will never get that back when they die. Loss of a precious, highly valued heart friendship, is soul crushing. You don’t just get over it. Death of a loved one, it will hurt and it will feel like a piece of you is always missing, a piece you can’t get back. Grief is not hopeless, because Jesus, our Healer walks beside us every single day. We face each day with Him. We grow on only because of God, because of His strong undergirding, His mighty right hand of comfort, and incredible inner core strength, He provides. God is the “bearable” in our grief, so we are not totally overwhelmed by it. God understands how we are feeling, more than anyone else. Jesus, so preciously weeps with us; He sits with us in our grief and sadness and never leaves our side. Our Father God is the one that empowers us with courage, which helps us to move forward, step by step, without the one we have loved so well. It is in the strength of the Holy Spirit, that we have the help and guidance we need to pioneer the new life season we were suddenly thrust into. Hope in Christ, grows us through grief, day by day. Our God, He is the Way-Maker God as we cling to Him, dig our life roots deeply in Him, on this day. When grief presses in my soul, I am grateful that our God won’t leave me, forsake me, or let me down. God is with us in our losses. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/i-dont-understand/

Happy Birthday United States Marine Corps from a Marine Mom who loves you all and will always be proud of your excellence in courage, strength, honor and in the way you have preserved our freedom and maintained our liberty for 246 years. I have many titles, but one title I am most proud of is “Marine Mom”! I loved and supported my USMarine and his unit for many, many years, through numerous deployments to Iraq, and Afghanistan, until his last battle injury caused a medical retirement. He fought for his country overseas for many deployments, valiantly and with great honor, courage, wisdom and strength. I could not be prouder of him and all of our United States Marines. My Marine Mom’s heart will forever be connected with the US Marines, in prayer, hope and encouragement, as there is a piece of my heart they will always have. Of all my memories, the ones that are so vivid are the times we family members said goodbye on the tarmac, not knowing if it was our last goodbye, if they would return from war. I looked around and saw children hugging dads and mom’s saying goodbye, family members crying and it was always heartbreaking for me. Then the flipside was the waiting for them to return, waiting on the tarmac with all the families, sometimes we waited for hours, once from 10am in the morning till 1am the next morning, but we all waited with joy knowing our soldier had come home and when the buses came and the soldiers came off, it was a sea of humanity, everyone looking for their soldier. I will never forget that. The one memory that is so vivid and unforgettable is when I waited for my soldier to come home on the medical transport and I watched them unload soldier after soldier on medial cots and wheel chairs, waiting for a glimpse of my wounded soldier while being overcome with emotion for everyone else too, knowing that all of our lives had changed forever and a season of recovery was upon us. My heart goes out to all the military family members who know the experience of watching the buses load up and drive off taking soldiers to war, and the sight of all the family members not moving until the buses were completely out of sight. I can’t tell you what that felt like, knowing that many of them, even your own soldier, may not be back. After the buses were completely out of sight, I put my hand on my cheek where my son had kissed me and remembered his voice: I love you mom, he said. Then I wept, saying a prayer to the only one who could comfort me, our God, Who held his future. I remember all the times we watched the news and we heard of the battles and then there were the times when news came in about our unit with our losses and the pain of the consequences of war realized. The letters from our soldiers came once in a while, and it was like receiving gold in the mail, the whole family sitting around and listening as we read them, and the short phone calls at 2am our time, which were impossible to hear them, yet we relished because we had another day to say a short “I love you”, and encouraging them the best we could. I will never forget getting the dreaded call that my soldier was wounded… alive but broken in heart, body and spirit. Oh… the heart of a Marine Mom, it grows strong through the many ups and downs of military life, and it is bowed many, many times in anguished prayer and stretched faith, yet thankfully was always undergirded by the mighty right hand of God. There is a special place in my heart for military families. God bless them. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/liberty/

With the current of our culture, we can drift away from God without even noticing it. The mediatic false frenzy of our messages being repeated over and over again, can create a fake reality, a deception that we can easily drift into. It is easy to drift and not stay wholly-holy aligned with God, His way, truth and life. We have to be aware and alert in times such as these to what is true, to what is false. This is why we have a Navigator, the Holy Spirit of God, Who keeps us underneath the Rulership of His Love, keeps us drifting off into deception. We should do what it takes to let God navigate us, give Him the helm of our life-boat and let Him chart our course. It is really a great way to go, being led by God. God, at the helm of our lives is not negative, it is actually a positively sweet way to go. God navigates us, taking us places that we could never dream of going, and makes things possible we could never even imagine being conceivable. It is really amazing, this life of being led by God, navigated by His Holy Spirit. I have done things I never even thought of doing, or thought I could actually accomplish. God is amazing at equipping us for every transformation, every trip, every adventure this life has in store for us. I highly suggest, letting go and letting God be Your Navigator! With God at the helm of the boat, the best is yet to come. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/shut-up/

I really like mystery novels. I especially enjoy them when the plot takes a different course from what I thought the endgame would be. Mystery is really cool, especially when we think we have it all figured out and BOOM, the plot twists and the confusion thickens! Our lives are a mystery book being written by God. Mysterious! The Lord is a great mystery writer. At times, my heart skips a beat at the sudden way He changes things up and I hear myself say: “You have got to be kidding me?!!” Many times, I have not been at all sure where God was taking me, and every bump in the road made me nauseously anxious. LOL! We don’t really know how to figure out God at times, and we definitely struggle, trying to wrap our minds around the mystery He is writing in our lives. Sometimes, nothing makes sense, we don’t know what He is doing, or where He is taking us, but we know we can trust Him. God is leading us, and thankfully every step we take in this life is God ordained, bringing us closer to God’s endgame, our true destiny. I know if I had the pen and was writing my own life story, that I definitely would have done things differently. If I could order my own way, I am thinking, well… I know, I would have taken the easy way, the way of least resistance, because I don’t like change and I hate conflict! I probably would not do anything that stretched me past what I was comfortable with. If you could write your own life story, would you stay in your comfort zone? God has definitely NOT kept me in a comfort zone and I don’t like it at times, but I am grateful that He does care enough about me as a person to equip my character and stretch my faith. Without some mystery in our lives, our faith would never be stretched and we definitely would not grow up or grow at all, because without challenge, we stay the same monotonous, boring life. God is an incredible mystery Himself, so when our lives are penned by the mystery writer, the God adventure is great. Give God the pen, let Him write Your mystery and enjoy the God Adventure. Miraculously, Mysteriously So! God bless ya. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/need-direction/

I love so much that each of us are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are all created in God’s image. God takes the time to shape us and design us in our mother’s womb for our own destiny. We are a part of the human race, but we are all made differently and the first clue to that is having been given our own fingerprint, unlike anyone else. I know Who I am, my identity is in Christ Jesus, therefore I also know Whose I am, I belong to God. I love living out of this confidence. God knows every day I will live on this earth and every plan He has for me. This assures me that all is well as I walk out each day in the Presence of God, being navigated by His Holy Spirit. This brings me great joy, knowing I belong to God and I am so happy that I surrendered my life to Jesus as my Lord and Savior, it has been the best God adventure every, this life, this time, this season and I am thankful for His life, light, wisdom, that makes my life here, on this side of heaven so amazing. I stand in Awe of God. I hope for you this same confidence, joy, hope and peace I have found in Christ Jesus. God bless ya. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/grow-through/

Did you have a good day? Did you have a good week? Were you consistent? Were you faithful? Were you consistently faithful to God? I wish I could say that I was. I wish I was more consistent and faithful to God. I am working on it, but I am not there yet. I struggle with being consistent. I know that God will finish what He started in me. I believe that. There is no doubt about it. We are so blessed in that way, God is faithful to us, unconditionally so. God’s faithfulness is astounding. The things we take for granted; God maintains all of it, life and creation, and He does so excellently and faithfully. He created and He maintains. He is so amazingly trustworthy. There is no one more faithful to us than Him. He is faithful and trustworthy in the all of our everything. God is currently at work, caring, maintaining and finishing what He started in that spectacular way of His. I love the beach and I love watching the tides go in, and the tides go out, so faithfully, every day, because I know it is God, faithfully at work in His Creation. I hope for my life to be more consistent like this amazingly trustworthy God. The stretching of our faith by the situations we find ourselves God purposefully in, and daily facing, are God’s way of creating a more consistent faith in us as we grow through with Him. When we love God with all of our heart, we do develop a servant’s heart. God serves us faithfully and consistently and we should do the same. As we develop our consistent faithfulness, doing everything we do unto God, out of love, we grow a beautiful, amazingly trustworthy servant’s heart, which resembles His. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/firm-faith/

The fall season is so beautiful this year, and the weather has turned colder. When it is colder, I eat more, I am hungrier. It is really true that what you eat, you are! If I eat a lot of sugar and junk than I become sluggish and very tired. Sugar Rush! This happens when I have eaten way too much sugar and I am high on sugar and then I crash, and yes, so do my soul emotions! If I eat bad fatty and fried foods for a long period of time than I become fat, I weigh more! If I eat well, then I feel good. It is the same spiritually! If we take in all the communiques of our worldly viewpoint, we become a “Debbi Downer” a complaining soul fat on grumbling! I struggle the most when I am not feeding my soul with the Promises of God, but am taking in too many depressing and false narratives of the world. If we are exercising our faith, through the promises of God then we are more content, much more grateful and we have a sweet fragrance of thanksgiving in our soul! When we have a consistent intake of all the goodness of God, through His Presence, His truth, His love, His People, then we don’t have that sugar rush soul crash, we have a steady faith and consistently good soul attitudes. Grumble or Gratitude this is the choice of our day, and sometimes the result of this character display, it all depends on what we are taking into our soul! Nourishing our soul with goodness matters. God had gifted us with so much, including the ability to have a grateful heart and a soul overflowing with an attitude of gratitude! The choice is ours; it begins with the spiritual feeding of our soul. Eat well to have a soul that is well! God bless ya. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/attitude-check/

Breathing in this beautiful mountain air is so refreshing in stanky times such as these. For the lack of a better word, there is so much crap being flung in our faces, we are living with the stank of the choices of deceptive people, who really thought they could handle supremacy over others well, but have failed. It just gets worse and worse the deplorable choices coming out of corrupted authority as they affect affect all of us so adversely. Look Out! Crap Is Flying Everywhere! Devious Deception! Every day I get up and smell the stank of the new crap that the deceivers have flung, I can hardly wait to see what they will crap next… NOT! Actually, the reality of truth is, I can hardly wait until Jesus, the Fragrance of God comes back and we ALL will bow, everyone of us, ALL, bowing to the true Supremacy, the Highest Authority, which will never be corrupted by this human race! At the name of Jesus, all will bow. Humanity could not handle supremacy, we know no power higher than self-ambition, it is our human nature to take on absolute power that corrupts absolutely. So, we find ourselves here and now in a mess, from nation to nation, sitting in the stank of our darkened human condition. We are stanky, but thankfully so, not without hope for change. Jesus will deliver, restore, refresh, renew and revive us in latter rain. (https://rumble.com/vf2xr5-latter-rain.html) Watch, Wait, See. So, let’s make the next right choice, and that would be to surrender our will, soul, spirit and mind to Jesus Christ, giving Him total access to our lives. It is the right thing to be heart to heart with God, wholly-holy aligned with Him, undivided in love, loyalty, and service to God and His Kingdom. Step into the fragrance of God and out of the stank of this world. Let’s be all in with God, leaving behind our worldly ambition and serving His Kingdom. The crap of this world will continue to be flung by the absolutely corrupted power of human beings, but GOD, the fragrance of His love and truth will supersede it with a strong fragrance of hope in our promised eternal life. It is time for us to wash ourselves clean from the stank of this world and give our heart wholly-holy to God. There is no doubt about it that God can and He will maintain a beautiful fragrance of His life in us and through us. God bless ya. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/latter-rain/

It is so loud right now… lawlessness, injustice and cultural chaos. Right costumed as wrong and wrong costumed as right. Jumbled up righteousness where right is wrong and wrong is right. This creates its own kind of chaos! Sometimes we just have to listen up, tune in with ears wanting desperately to hear that still small voice of peace above the ROAR of this life. Peace Be Still! This is what Jesus shouted into the ROAR of the storm and everything stilled. Awe God! The chaos of the evil one, the one who wants to steal, kill and destroy our peace in God, it is rising and we can’t hear past the ROAR of evil if we are fixating on it with anxiety, fear and worry. Listen up closely, shut out all distraction of the enemy ROARING in your face and you will hear God, You will hear His Voice. No doubt about it, God is still speaking peace to us. We wrongly think that because the ROAR of the enemy in times such as these, is so loud, that it extinguishes God’s Voice. Not SO! Never, will God’s voice be extinguished, absolutely NOT. We just have to zoom in more closely, and we will hear the voice of God clearly above the ROAR of the enemy. We will hear Jesus say: Peace Be Still. So today, listen up and know God’s peace. God bless you. Heart To Heart. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/i-listen-up/

Have you ever felt “beached before” where the water goes out quickly and you find yourself on a sand bar with no way out? Beached in a “hotspot”! Rapidly things can come up in our lives and we can find ourself in an emotional “hotspot” and oh, can we human beings react so very badly! Oh no… I just backed myself in a corner and find myself in a “hotspot”. Been there and done that recently. Impulsive reaction! Hotspot + Impulsivity = Combustion! This is not what we want, it is not good. We get these moments in life where something adverse hits us smack in the face and we end up in a “hotspot” where our anger flares and we have a next choice to either use our self-control or throw up our emotions all over someone. Has that ever happened to you? Did you make the next right choice? If you are in a situation where someone has “pushed that button” and you find yourself in a relational “hot spot”, don’t try to navigate it alone. Wait before you react. Breathe in God, breathe out your anger, don’t flesh out, do the next right thing with God’s help and navigation. Even our sudden situations where tempers flare, God wants to be a part of, bring Him into it, trust Him and He can help us not react badly, but respond godly. God is always Present in our lives as close as the mention of His name. Just say Jesus. He is there for us even in our “hotspots” of this life, ready and willing to navigate us out of it safely. The next time you get in a “hotspot” don’t get yourself beached by anger. Look to God, let Him navigate you around the sandbar of shallow emotional reaction, out into the deep of Godly response. Got a “hotspot”, just breathe, look up to God, listen up, trust God to chart your course so you can respond godly. Make the next right choice, it matters. Explosive angry reaction fixes nothing, just makes the issue at hand worse. Reaction is from a worldly viewpoint, where response is from a Kingdom perspective. It truly is much better for us to live out of a kingdom perspective, less human mess. God bless us, MUCH… we need it in times such as these where tempers seem to flare so quickly. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/crappy-communication/