HeartTOHeart

Redeem The Time Time is a precious gift. Time! It goes by so fast. What do you do with your time? Do you find a lot of it is wasted on petty distractions that the enemy has set us up to be upset? Have you ever heard the saying that “time is flying”. How do we redeem the time, making the most out of every day. For me, I find that if my first step out is down, and I bow down to the Sovereignty of God’s plan for me in the day, then it seems like my day goes better. It is so important to do things that matter. We can redeem our time today in a way that matters with kindness, gentleness, love, and truth. These are the things that matter, that stay around forming a living legacy out of our time here. In times such as these there are mean spirited, angry, grouchy people all over the place and we never know what will trigger their flesh out reaction. Where deception is so prevalent, we can so easily, unintentionally trigger people by the truth we share. So how do we respond to someone negative and angry? The correct use of this time matters. We can make an eternal impact by not reacting out of our flesh, by not fleshing out in reaction to someone who is fleshing out at us. Take that deep breath and breathe in God’s Holy Spirit and exhale your reaction and respond out of God’s of the power of God’s Holy Spirit. Give up your right to be right to the ONE Who is right, The Holy Spirit of God. Only God can give us the power to be self-controlled when someone else is not and they are in our face with their anger, bitterness and hatred. Not reacting and responding in a gentle, godly way, sharing the truth in love with them, and allowing the Holy Spirit to do His job of conviction and convincing is our best course of action. We don’t have to do that job, that part where the Holy Spirit convinces them, the part where He is the prover. We don’t have to prove anything, we don’t have to make them see we are right, that is the Holy Spirit’s job. We should stick to doing our part, speaking the truth in love and let the Holy Spirit be the Prover. We can redeem the precious time we have been given on this day by being gentle, kind, truthful, and loving. Speak the truth, speak it once with firm, bold confidence, and let God prove it. What happens if you don’t agree? Trying to be right often leads into a heated argument, where we end up not redeeming the time, we end up fleshing out. Choice by choice we can redeem the time by being God’s agent of truth and love, letting the battle be His, letting go and letting His Holy Spirit Work. God is the Proof, Jesus is the Proven and The Holy Spirit is the Prover. When we yield to the Triune God, we redeem the time in the power of His life, by His characteristics alive in our response. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/flesh-out/ Other Rumble Videos: https://rumble.com/vcdjqz-stretchmake-peace.html; https://rumble.com/vaw2fb-stupid-petty-arguments.html

God is a giver. We were created in His Image, that is why we also are givers. I love giving to others. I love encouraging others. This is because God’s Image in me reflects out of me. God gives to us continually, do we acknowledge it? The wonderful Giver, our God? There are those times when God uses shock and awe, giving to us abundantly and suddenly. Usually when that happens to me, it humbles me so incredibly. One thing is for sure, we will never outgive God! Miracles happen every single day in so many ways God is on the move in our lives, providing, protecting and purposefully leading us. This is nothing short of miraculous, that our GOD is with us from every moment to every choice of our lives, giving us what we need to grow through this life and become more like Him. Miracles happen every day, but we very rarely stop to take notice of them, we have gotten used to having God in our lives, making our way. Can you even begin to imagine what the world would be like completely void of God? I don’t even want to go there. The Awe of God, the reverence of Him, the respect of Him has diminished much in our world. We have taken the Presence of God with us and for us, for granted. Sometimes God does these shockingly HUGE things to gain attention from us and once He does that in your life, that something you could never hope for or imagine happens and it shocks you back to reality and full focus of God. God is a giver and when He gives in a huge way, it does bring you back to the amazing truth, to the seeing of the everyday miracles, it brings you back to gratitude, awe, thankfulness in the all of your everything. We so need to get back to the basics of just plain AWE of God. We take so much for granted, yet He still works in the unseen these every day miracles for us. His giving is unstoppable. The sun rises. The tides change. The dew forms on the grass. There are so many, you can add your own in the comment section. We can start this moment with a new God consciousness, a commitment to be aware of what He is doing and begin to sharpen our senses and awaken our grateful heart towards Him. Let’s begin giving honor to whom honor is due, our Almighty God, Who created us in His image, Who faithfully maintains His creation moment to moment, miraculously so. AweGOD! Thankyou Father God for the miraculous touch of Your Presence, Protection, Provision and Purpose in our lives, faithfully at all times. We are so grateful for You. AweGOD! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/completely-satisfied/

Wow, the wind is whipping in our cultural chaos. Change is swirling up some incredible emotional tornados. It used to be that we could keep safe from the storms, but now they are so violent, that they are interrupting out lives in ways we could not have even begun to imagine. Times are changing, but God is not. God remains steadfast and faithfully working on our behalf for our good and His glory. This is what the Providential Care of God looks like, these two purposes our good and His glory, intermingled in an Advocacy on our behalf for His Kingdom. The most miraculous way to live is with a kingdom perspective, shedding ourselves of a worldly viewpoint and doing life with Jesus, giving the Holy Spirit of God total access to our lives. It is a great God Adventure these cultural storms. God is doing new things that He has never done before. Seek God, find Him in the storm, He is in the midst of it. Storm Watch is not letting the storms off the horizon of our life, frighten us, but instead, clinging tighter to God, digging our life roots deeply in His Kingdom. Don’t react to the whirlwind, respond to God first. Walk in followship with God, knowing that the truth of our Salvation is that we are never alone, never unequipped for the Storm Watch. The storms may be whipping up some nasty stuff in our culture and it may feel like an overwhelming chaos around us, but it can be well with our soul. God is with us. He will never not be with us, our faithful God. There is nothing He can’t do, there is no one who is more powerful than Him. The Sword He has yielded is a Truth that stands the tests of time. As you find yourself in a storm watch, pick up the Bible and let God speak His truth into your soul. Peace, be still, let be, be still and know I AM God. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/purposeful-permanence/

Let Be - Be Still And Know He Is God. He Is Our Peace. Is it well with your soul? Do you have peace in these chaotic cultural times? Jesus, just the mention of His name and there is peace. Jesus is our Prince of Peace; He is the quiet for the anxiety in our soul. There was a time when He said: Peace Be Still and the storm stopped. We believe in Him, the Savior of our soul, the Way-Maker of our future, our hope in the darkness of these times. Heart To Heart, I do hope for us peace as we let the truth of God’s Word soul saturate us, as we know that this is not all there is, as we realize the reality of truth that we have an incredible future where there is no deception, there is no hate, there is no sin and there is no deceiver. Jesus Christ is the way to that future, and we seek to know Him, we accept Him in our heart. Salvation is here with us, for us as an Advocate of peace in times where civility is allusive. The best thing about salvation in Jesus Christ, is that we step out in our lives with Him, with His peace, and every moment to every choice, He is with us, He is equipping us with everything we need. Jesus, He is for us. We are never alone, we are never forsaken, we always have an Advocate. This is our peace, this truth that never changes. Whatever comes our way today, we open our heart wide to God, and He will fill it with His peace and it will be well with our soul. God bless you and yours with His peace. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/salvation-is-here/

We grow to be more like Jesus as we grow through the tests of this time. God never said that it would be easy here. In fact, Jesus actually said we would have many trials, that life might get hard for us, but that He would be with us. When we accepted Jesus in our hearts, did we mistakenly believe that everything would smell like roses from then on? The greatest gift of accepting Jesus in our hearts was a future, which is not here and God’s Presence with us here. We are not alone. Our salvation guarantees that. We are never alone, we face nothing alone, we always have the strength, courage, grace, wisdom and peace of God. God with us, the fragrance of God in this stanky world is always with us. This is why it makes no sense when we quit on God and we quit living life. We have the most amazing strength in us and Jesus has given us courage to face this day, a time such as this. If we are afraid, we face life afraid with a bold courage, we press through the fear with courage, because God is with us. God has gone before us to make a way and we know God has already won. Courage is stepping out into the fear of the unknown and doing what God has asked us to do. When the stank of this world overcomes us, we don’t quit on God because we have been filled with the fragrance of God, equipped by Him to be strong and courageous in Him in times such as these. Yes life can get super hard, very stanky, but we don’t quit. God never quits on us, not one of us. We should never quit on God and other people. Tap into the strength of God. No, it is not easy, Yes, we are growing to be more like God as we face the trials of this season of life. Our character grows as we press through hard times in the strength and joy of God. Be bold, be strong, be courageous in Christ. No more excuses for not trying, never give up, stand strong in God, on the side of God’s Truth and wait patiently, pressing on in Christ, waiting for Him to come through, because He will, He will do things in His way and it will turn out great, more than we could ever have hoped for or imagined. So be bold, be strong and courageous and don’t quit, God is with us, God is for us. God bless ya. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/activate-courage/

Of course, we know as Christians, our identity is wholly-holy in God. Our reputation is truly the sign of just how much our lives are wholly aligned with God’s life. Who are you in the eyes of others? What is your reputation? If someone hears your name in a conversation, what do you think pops into their mind about you? What words come up that are synonymous to who you are? Nice person? Mean person? Kind? Hateful? Do you realize that we were created in the Image of God? All of us were. When we are connected with God, heart to heart, His characteristics seem to be mirrored in our lives, so our reputation seems to be a lot like Him. Without God navigating our lives, that means we are altering our reputation by our human condition which is very fickle and self-centered. With God, we are selfless and we have all the attributes that go with that kind of living. Without God we are self-centered and we reek of a bad reputation. Our reputation can be bad or good and it can truly be measured by how much or how less we have surrendered our lives to the accountability, guidance, and navigation of God’s way, truth and life. If you are wholly-holy surrendered to God and in complete followship of Him, you will have a very godly reputation. This is just the reality of truth. When you are doing your own things outside of God, looking out for the number one, YOU, you will have a bad reputation because you will be feeding your flesh and won’t have much self-control as you flesh out all the nasty things that independence from God brings about. The best way to develop a good reputation is by leaning into a personal relationship with God and mirroring all things Him. There is no reputation better than Gods, so why not emulate it in your life? Choose to walk, talk and be like God. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/he-knows/

There is a tug of war between truth and lies and it affects us all. Deception is so prevalent in our times, it is overwhelming the evil that is being exposed and expunged by God. It shakes us our inner spiritual core, trembles with anxiety at times, especially because there is no break from the cultural chaos continually roaring as we are daily confronted by the father of lies. The Holy Spirit of God is our Advocate and He, being with us at all times will navigate us through this time of deception. We can breathe in the Truth of God daily, as we study and mediate with our Bible, our anchor of truth that will hold. We can stand on the side of truth when everyone else around us is chaotically roaring in deception. (Look At Elijah: 1 Kings 18:17-39 Read It) Our anchor of truth will hold us, no doubt about it. We are highly encouraged to trust in the power of God’s Word, as it can and will stand the test of time, it will endure the pounding of deception in times such as these. We can step out and stand on the side of truth, even though the world violently tugs on us with thugs and mob violence, erratically and irrationally pushing forth a fake reality with fear, attacking us with physical threats, and financial ruin. Yet, we stand, we stand in unity with God and His Truth, we depend upon the Holy Spirit of God to make a way for us when our worldly viewpoint shows no way of truth. Together, we are so good, so we make the choice to learn and live with a Kingdom perspective, a reliance upon God, giving God total access to our lives. We say no to living by emotion and feelings, and yes to living by fact and truth. God is greater and more powerful than our enemy who attacks our reputation, finances, future, and hope with false narratives and outright lies about who we are and what we do. We give those stuck in a fake reality no permission to speak into our lives, and we hold the line of truth, we position ourselves under the Rulership of God’s Love. In this tug of war, we will feel exhaustion, but as we dig our life roots deeper in God’s Kingdom. And in the yielding to God, the letting God lead, we will know a strength like no other, a courage like no other, a boldness like no other and we will be able to share truth and love with our enemy is a way we never could imagine doing. On this day of incredible controversy for the truth of God, we breathe in the power of the Holy Spirit, and we exhale, anxiety, fear, and weakness as we choose God and His Kingdom perspective, over this world and its corruptive illegitimate authority. We hold the line of truth and our anchor will hold. Breathe in God in all of His glory and exhale, doubt, worry, and depression. We are anchored in Jesus Christ and our anchor will hold and joyfully, we will go about God’s business, and we will grow through the times such as these, and we will finish well. Stand! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/stand-for-you/

These are times where there is absolutely no clarity, and we are fogged in by the confusion and deception of our cultural say-so. This is the perfect time to take a personal sabbatical alone with God, apart from all things puzzling us, making our minds tired as we try to wrap human understanding around what God is doing. God is working in the unseen exposing and expunging evil, and He is not giving us understanding of His ways. God is asking for us to trust Him in the confusion the enemy is stirring up deceptively in our world. There are those times when we absolutely need to get away with God, leaving all distractions behind, hoping that we see things with clarity, these new life experiences, these changes in our culture that are totally blowing our mind. Hmmmm… maybe we even find out that God was in the confusion, actually was the Author of it. Truth Is: The Lord said: These people approach me with their speeches to honor me with lip-service, yet their hearts are far from me, and human rules direct their worship of me. Therefore, I will again confound these people with wonder after wonder. The wisdom of their wise will vanish, and the perception of their perceptive will be hidden. Isaiah 29:13-14 Take some time away and breathe in the fresh revelation of God. Listen up and let God speak His clarity. God has confounded the wisdom of the wise in times such as these. No facts are standing out, only emotional opinions are heard loudly and then crashing into chaos. There seems to be no real wisdom that is not confounded in times such as these. We are a befuddled human race, enveloped by our corrupt cultural chaos that has taken over as we serve no power higher than self. Our world is jumbled up with mediatic false frenzy that has led to many living in a fake reality. Deception has overwhelmed us. This is so true: 1 Corinthians 1:27 God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Confused, we seek truth and God is using this lack of clarity to bring us back to Him, heart to heart with Him, being navigated by His purity of righteousness, to stand upon His strong foundation of truth. It is hard to find our way in times such as these, but it is not impossible, as we come back to God, and yield to His way, truth and life, becoming wholly-holy His. So, what now? Well, do it… shake off all the distractions, give God total access to our lives, and look up to God, listening up to Him first. God is the only ONE Who knows, the wisest of us all, Jesus Christ, Spirit of Truth. All knowledge starts and ends with God, our Navigator of our next step into our next right choice. It is a time to stop listening to any human being, but look up to God and listen up to Him, first. It is wise on our part to surrender our lives to God, the Creator of all things, the Creator of all people, and the ONE Who maintains all things for us. God knows us most, and God knows us best. God wants to be in a love relationship with us and desires for us to stay in followship of Him, in times such as these. There is no better way to grow through these times of unclarity than with God’s Spirit of Truth, Jesus. Stop listening to men and look up Higher and listen to God first. This is where the clarity is, Christ in us. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/christ-in-me/

Have you ever been in a time of transition where all hell broke loose? Transitions are hard, it is not an easy time because you feel caught between old and new. It is a time in your life where you will feel strong confusion and unsteadiness. If you are in the old life season, stepping toward a new life season, you want to focus on the old and finish well. Let God lead you into the new life season, don’t be impulsive and push forward to quickly, let God’s Holy Spirit Navigate you in His timing. God’s timing is purposefully the best and it brings about the best you. When you step into the new life season, you want to be the best you, that you can bring into that new life season. Common Sense tells us that if we are stepping into the new out of the old, that the enemy will pour out all kind of strife, adversity and confusion. Transition is a narrow place; we are winding down from the broad comfort of an old life season into the newness of a situation that we sometimes don’t know anything about, so our viewpoint is narrow. Transition is a time of change, so we do need to change. Change is hard to face as it is, but stepping out of an old life season into a new life season makes change even harder. We can end well in our old life season even though it is challenging during times of transitions, and we will find the need for self-control high. Within every great challenge, the God purpose contained in the challenge is greater than the challenge itself. This is how God rolls, He purposefully shapes us, equips us with what we need for the new life season and this can be very challenging as we are growing through a transition from old to new. We need God’s help. Everything is changing, and so must we, and God is the right One to help us do that effectively and excellently. Yes, transitions are hard, but God is truly up to the challenge of bringing forth the best you that can step into this next life season gracefully, in the rhythm of His Sovereign Will. When you are transitioning from one life season to the next, just lean into God’s Sovereign sway, don’t resist the change, follow after God and don’t be unwilling to be led. Let be, let go, be still and watch God work something new in You, making You the best you that you could ever be to step into the new great God Adventure He has for you. Guard your heart with all diligence, work at the change with all your heart leaning into God’s Will and be the best you connected heart to heart with the best of Him. Happy Transition and God bless your new life season. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/divine-power/

I don’t think many people like change, especially this kind of change, where it is not for the better, but for the worse. The change in our world is less security, we all feel like we are on unstable ground. Do you take change well? Everything changes! And one of the prevalent changes that I see is the Ocean Tides and how everyday they come in and go out, faithfully so. This kind of change points us to God as we know He is maintaining the world He created, and that brings us peace and stabilizes our soul. Lately we have had so much change in our culture that it makes our head spin. Even down to words we have known for years, they now have different meanings. Our culture is in chaos and it feels a bit cra-cra-crazy to our soul. It is easy to feel shook up inside with anxiety and fear in times such as these. Everything changes, like the day and night, and the seasons, but these are different kinds of changes, these natural changes, but the changes happening to us now doesn’t feel natural. We are experiencing changes where right is now wrong and wrong is now right. Good things we were used to are no longer and the things that are replacing them, it is hard to wrap our mind around them and our soul is anxious because of it. Common Sense is no longer used, facts are no more, compassion is not seen at all, and civility is at an all-time low. Change! One thing is for sure in this world, and that is Jesus Christ, He doesn’t change. God is stable, secure, faithful and trustworthy and this doesn’t change. God’s truth doesn’t change. Even unbelief can’t change God’s Truth as it is not changed by people’s unbelief of it. God being with us and for us, this changes not. The cultural tides are changing and it is ugly and chaotic, and sometimes dangerous for us. The best thing we can do in times such as these, is dig our life roots in Jesus, put our identity wholly-holy in Him and trust Him as our enough. We can speak truth to our anxious soul and know God is in control, He has us and He knows what He is doing. The Holy Spirit of God will navigate us through this time of flux, and will help us patiently endure, with the goodness of self-control, the revelation of discernment, and Godly wisdom which will lead us to kindness, compassion and inner peace. God bless you as you give Him total access to your life and depend on Him first. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/common-sense/

Are we even aware of the people all around us? Are we aware that God is with us? Or are we so very busy with fixing up our comfort zones that we see nothing and take so much for granted? Been there and done that! Not a fun way to live life. God purposefully puts people around us because He fills us up with the encouragement, love and wisdom they need and we can overflow right into their lives. That is if we are paying attention. Sometimes, we can get so distracted by things that don’t matter, that we don’t even see or hear the people around us. Oh, I wish we all could do better with this, we all need to be more friendly and relational. We put more on our plate than we should, it makes us weary. We take the role of “Fixer” and “Savior” we are not these, we could never be. We were not created to be a fixer or a savior, we were created to serve The Fixer and The Savior. We are the created, Jesus is the Creator. We need to step out of the roles we have taken on that belong to God, they create weariness in our soul. Weariness is one of the biggest distractions to being Present with people. Weariness distracts our focus like no other. We have to back it down, stop trying to do everything directed by our human will, and not ending well, and do less navigated by God’s Holy Spirit and ending well with Him at the Helm of our boat. Joy is more abundant when we find ourselves in the clarity of God, living in the Present with God, being aware of Him and others all around us. We take for granted the Presence of God that is so miraculous. He came to us, wanting to be in a personal relationship with us. So Good! It is really a good way to live life when we wisely stomp out our distractions and we live life giving God total access to us, and sharing with others what God has blessed us with. Life is good when we stay alert to God’s Presence and aware of others around us, relating, being all in, being Present where we are. Being aware of what God is doing in our lives makes our attitude of gratitude so good, and our emotions stable and consistently healthy. No more emotional roller coaster rides! Yes, not taking God and people for granted, not letting all the things that really don’t matter much distracted us, this makes life, so good! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/weariness/

We live in “wonky” times. Yet, we can enjoy this day! We should not let our worldly view point keep us from enjoying what we have been gifted with by God. There is God-Given beauty in this day, find it and enjoy it. Enjoy The Day! We are never without beauty; it is all around us. We can choose a Kingdom perspective, which leans us out of the negative, into the positive of having a grateful heart, a soul steeped in the AWE of God. Reverence for God, it dispels the wonky doldrums. There is always joy to be found in this day. If we step out into the day at hand, seeking God, His way, truth and life, we will enjoy this day. No Doubt About It! God is amazing; therefore, we choose to step out into this wonky life season, and on this day, we stir up the AWE in our soul for the obvious God goodness all around us. Why settle with wonky, when you can choose wonderful, and the word, wonderful, this describes the character of God in play in our lives. I hope we enjoy the God Adventure in this day, the wonderful new experiences God will lead us in. Say NO to wonky and yield to wonderful! Stop settling for the dullness and sullenness of wonky. How do we disconnect from the wonky? Easy-Peasy, start our day connected with God, Heart To Heart in a vital-vertical relationship with Him. We can step out confidently into this day, activating our faith in Jesus, His Holy Spirit in us, Who is our hope of glory. Every morning, we joyfully reaffirm our identity in Christ. We belong wholly-holy to our amazing Awe-God. We will always have contrasts in this world. Which one will we lean into? There is love and there is hatred; there is goodness and there is evil; there is encouragement and there is discouragement; there is victory and there is defeat; there healing and there is woundedness; there is justice and there is injustice; there is civility and there is incivility; there is fairness and there is unfairness. Which will we yield our soul too? The best choice for us is leaning into God’s Sovereign sway, into the rhythm of His Grace and Truth. We can’t control these wonky and contrasting life variables, but we can, we can activate our faith, and choose joy as we walk in the Presence of our God. God has not given into the “wonky” absolutely no way has Jesus relinquished His authority to the wonky, instead, He is actively working with God purposes in play in our today, for our good. It may be a wonky life season, but we still have the choice to position ourselves underneath the Rulership of God’s love. Our amazing AWE-GOD has chosen to be with us, to be our Advocate for our good. So, today, we choose to shake off all the wonky stuff in our life, and we choose joy, we choose to enjoy this day. God bless you. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/shine-joy/

1 Minute Encouragement Video: We all, HeartToHeart should be in what I call daily trust mode. It is way too hard to look ahead when we have so much cultural chaos growing on. Then we those suddenly reality bombs that totally disrupt our lives and we feel like we can’t win for losing. A sudden trial hits our lives, and there is no clarity. It looks really bad, but maybe it won’t be so bad, so we begin over thinking. Sometimes, there is no answer, no clarity and we don’t know, we have to wait and see how it plays out. Our foundation gets rocked and we lean into our worldly viewpoint and then our soul emotions go cra-cra crazy! It is not good when our soul is stirred up, especially because all the cultural stress from cultural rot, combined with the unsureness of a sudden new development does tend to push us over the emotional ledge! Will the real truth and nothing but the truth speak out? Okay! So, the reality of truth is what really matters has not changed, we are still positioned underneath the Rulership of God’s Love. This is our Kingdom perspective. But us human beings just love hanging onto that worldly viewpoint trying to figure it all out. So, what is the solution to alleviate the fleshly stress of dealing with cultural corruption and now a sudden life storm? The solution is in adjusting our focus. We have to choose, either a worldly viewpoint or a kingdom perspective. The best choice starts with a Kingdom perspective that activates our trust and helps us step out of the chaos of the unknown and focus on Jesus in the now. When trust is activated, the peace of God pours into our soul. So today, we remind ourselves of the most basic, yet most stabilizing truth, God is with us now, right now, in this day, He is with us and for us. We can’t fix tomorrow, and we probably can only assume and speculate about the trouble we think might be in it. So why borrow the trouble against a presupposition and pay the anxiety interest on a loan that we don’t have yet? Makes sense not to walk in a fake reality created by worry. The cost of worry is a peaceless day. Got peace? If not, activate your trust in God, walk in faith and know He’s gotcha. #DigDeeper https://thebridegroomscafe.com/the-bridegroom-speaks-about-questions/

We are promised by God to be cared for in so many ways. God is a Promise Keeper, there is no doubt about that. We each know it; we each have experienced the Providential Care of God. There is never a place where we are stuck or that we are not provided for when we walk with God. God has promised us so much in that way where He is our Way-Maker. We do have living water that refreshes our soul in these parched times, where our spirit feels so dried out from the winds of cultural chaos and rot. Rivers in the desert, this was one of the promises of God, also He said we would be the head and not the tail. There are so many God Promises that we believe and receive throughout our journey with Him, our Great God Adventure. So Grateful! We can hope in the dark because we know that our God is with us, and for us, and we don’t doubt it. We walk forward in these crazy chaotic times knowing that our anchor is in Jesus Christ, and we have a future and hope in Him. There are so many ways people are scurrying around, some on the broad road of doing whatever they want, and some on the narrow road of following after God. Sometimes we collide at the crossroads of life with people who are walking the broad road, and there is friction and conflict. But God is in that too, showing Who He is through us as we speak truth in love and stand unmovable on the right side of the narrow path of life. God is at work as we see the rivers in the deserts of our cultural chaos. We will never be lost, all we have to do is ask for direction, and the Holy Spirit will say: This is the way, walk in it. We were promised an Advocate by our God, and He gave us The Holy Spirit to guide us, direct us, counsel us, teach us and be with us in the all of our everything. We were promised to be equipped and we have been, in the best way possible. Thank you, Jesus for keeping Your Promises, we have all that we need in this season where our world is a dry, parched and weary place. We are grateful we have a future and a hope in Jesus. Awe-GOD! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/gods-promises/

What does your common sense tell you the truth is? Lean out of the mediatic false frenzy and lean into God-given common sense. Listen to our gut. What does your gut say? (Gibbs) Sometimes we hear these false narratives that make our common-sense cringe. We instantly know it is foolishness. Deception creates a maze of crooked paths and it can be so confusing when we are trying to find our way through all the cultural say so. We can see where we need to get to, we have the God given vision of where our point A is to where we need to get to our point B. On our own in this world, where there is not much truth being spoken, it can be hard for us to navigate from point A to point B on someone’s opinion, assumption, speculation, rationalization, and mediatic false frenzy. It can be downright dangerous for us! In times such as these, our cultural chaos is wild with deception, lies are spewed everywhere, and false narrative, with the edge of fake reality, makes clarity a rarity. This world has more relative reality than reality of truth. It is all relative. Do what you feel like doing. Feelings over facts. There are no right and wrong ways, it is all relative, and then to top off the stupidity, sometimes there is right and wrong but they are only someone’s opinions. It is crazy that in our cultural say-so of the day, right is defined as wrong and wrong is defined as right. What a twisted-up mess of crooked paths that we have to sometimes navigate and grow through from point A in the culture worldview, to point B where God is with a Kingdom Perspective. Deception is rampant in our society, so we don’t have much of a choice than to try to navigate around it, because the way is broad with rationalization and the narrow path of truth is hard to find. Christ in us, the hope of finishing well. This is why we smile, and confidently take our first God enlightened step into the maze of confusion, because we yielded our way to “The Navigator” Who knows all. We can hope in the dark, because Jesus is the light of Truth, Who can and will light our path one step at a time. We won’t be stuck without navigation in a maze of crooked paths. We will know the direction to take. God will say: This is the way, walk in it. God has not left us without a Navigator. God’s Holy Spirit will direct us. We need to listen up. Do you feel overwhelmed by the maze that is in front of you, the mess of many crooked paths? Look up to Jesus~Ask Him For Help! Listen Up! We need God’s guidance, because not only is it a cray-cray maze, but it is filled with cultural rot. Our moral values have been corrupted and it is hard to find our way to truth. The cultural chaos all around us makes finding a way to God’s truth, a dangerous way for us, because of all the deception, and social rot. We need God’s help. We need God’s Holy Spirit to shine a light of truth on our path. We need God’s protection and provision. So, if you find a maze ahead of you with many crooked paths, don’t try to navigate it alone, yield to the Navigator, Jesus Christ and in followship of Him, go ye therefore. God bless you and yours. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/remember/

Of course, the best place to be found in this life, is in followship of Jesus. Being positioned in Christ, our identity wholly-holy in Him, this kind of Christianity has so many benefits for us, as God personally equips us to finish miraculously well. Life can throw some pretty difficult things in our life path, causing us to stumble, and sometimes even causing us to step back, afraid to move forward. Anxiety can be a very real stumbling block, and paralyzing fear is definitely a road block put up by the enemy of our soul. Courage is such a necessary part of our lives. One of the prevalent cultural lies of our time that keeps us stuck, keeps us from moving forward in courage is that loss is something we should get used to as this culture rot we live in continues to morally decay. Buying into this lie of our enemy, causes us to focus on ourselves. When we take our eyes off of Jesus, we see loss. Loss of friends, loss of freedom, loss of common sense, loss of justice, loss of reputation, loss of finances, loss of goodness, loss of safety, loss of compassion, loss of civility… yes, so much loss. Who are we trusting when all we are seeing is loss? Why are we shrinking back in fear, doubt and dread? We need to activate our courage. Courage is the ability to press forward even if we are afraid, it is trusting God, and following Him even if we are fearful. Courage that perseveres through the hard times is founded upon trust, and courage activates as we hope wholly-holy in our Way-Maker God. Trust is necessary for courage to be manifested in our soul passion, so our first decision is a choice to activate our faith. What we see may not be so good, but faith sees from a Kingdom perspective, not a worldly viewpoint, and we need to flip-flop our focus from the world to the kingdom of God. We trust God, without having to see everything He is doing, but by believing He is working in the unseen for our good. We believe God’s purposes are in play in our life, and our faith is activated, as we yield our lives to God. Surrender, in this vital-vertical position, this is where our trust impassions our soul courage, as we stand on the side of truth, surrendered to our God’s way, remaining strong and courageous, and moving forward in followship of Jesus. Everything is not lost. What a lie from the pit of hell. This is not the reality of truth we know. The truth is we gained a forever with Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and nothing and no one can take this away from us. No one can snatch us out of the hand of God. On this day, activate your faith, anchor it to Jesus Christ, and don’t let anything shake it as you stand on the side of God’s truth, a reality of truth which prevails the tests and trials of time, and promises a great future in Christ. Our courage is fed by hope, so if it is dark, don’t stop moving froward, don’t stumble in fear, instead, courageously hope in the dark as you are navigated by the Light of Jesus Christ. Watch-Wait-See, our God, our God of Justice will prevail. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/courage/

Memorial Day is somewhat of a somber day for our family, a day to remember, memorialize, and honor those who honor is due. Military families and Veterans and families, who have lost much, don’t like the “Happy” before Memorial Day. It is hard to think of this as a “Happy” day. But we do humbly honor and memorialize, remember fondly, and gratefully all those who have died, sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Memorialize basically means to me, to honor the courage, excellence and selflessness of military families who have given this country so much to service our freedom, to maintain our liberty. United States Citizens, we owe a debt we can’t pay back. The military family is a life of sacrifice, period. I am a very mixed military person, as I love and have loved most of the branches of the military. I am the daughter of a Navy dad, the granddaughter of Army and US Marine, a niece of three uncles who served in the Air Force, one was shot down and made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. I am the wife, mother and mother-in-law of United States Marine Veterans, and a sister to an Army Veteran. I am the mother-in-law of a currently serving Army Black Hawk Pilot and the Aunt of a currently serving US Marine. We have many still serving in our extended family, and many in our family who have faithfully served this nation. I know firsthand the sacrifices made in the military life, and they are many, so many. We are so grateful for all those who have served and we mourn and honor those who gave up their lives for our freedom and pray for their families, on this day. Over the years of my life, I have known so many excellent, courageous, honorable military from all branches and all I can say is because of them, we are one blessed nation and we should be so humbly grateful to have such men and women protecting our freedom and serving our nation. Today, there is so much honor due to our Veterans and our currently serving military and there is so much honor due to their families. Military Family and Veteran Family, may God bless you and yours! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/memorial-day-thoughts/

I was thinking about freedom today and all those who service it with their lives, some of them making the ultimate sacrifice for my freedom. So many have served our liberty with their life and that makes my freedom valuable and the using of my liberty in a civil, wise and good way so very important. Lately, I sense that my freedom is fragile and I have been more aware of what it would be like to be without it. How sad it would be for all those who sacrificed so much, if we just let our freedom erode away. That is what it feels like lately. I have known a freedom of coming and going without any obstructions, of speaking without any constraints and of making the choices for my health without any government heavy handedness. All these freedoms are eroding right before our eyes as the government is taking away our choices in ways that are not even constitutional. I have taken my freedom for granted. I love being free and I hope in this culture of chaos generated by illegitimate power grabs, that God gives us the courage to rise up, speak up and do what it takes to preserve our freedom. Yet, no one and nothing can truly take our freedom in Christ, we will always have Jesus, we will always be seen, validated and vindicated by Him. We always have freedom in Him and this is a freedom that no corrupt government can take from us. The truth of Jesus Christ has made us free; it has enlightened our heart and this freedom that we know in Him, no one can take and no one can extinguish the light of it. We are forever free in Christ Jesus. People who are serving no power higher than themselves, create an absolute power, that is corrupting absolutely and it does affect us in a very negative way. But, they can’t hold on to this power, it does not belong to them, it belongs to God. God is the only Supremacy that can handle power rightly. God will thwart the evil in play in our times, He has a plan and a good endgame. We must trust Him as our earthy freedoms fade, our heavenly freedoms do not. We have a future and hope in Jesus Christ and no, no illegitimate earthly power can change this. No, not one. We are free indeed! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/devoured-freedom/

Emotions get stirred up so much by the enemy of our soul, who is so good at disrupting our peaceful emotions. I had such an emotional week with a few things going on in my life at once that were stirring up sad and negative emotions. Have you been there and had that kind of a day or a week even!? It is not fun and emotions can be so exhausting. I am so grateful that even though our emotions make us tired, they don’t tire God out or make God tired of us. God is not afraid of our emotions and always has a heart wide open to us, a safe place to dump out our emotions. Tara Leigh Cobble said this: “God is not afraid of our emotions. God can be trusted to do what is right, even when our feelings are wrong. God can handle receiving the honest outpouring of our emotions, even the ones that don’t honor him or align with His plan.” God is our safe place of unconditional love. When I dumped my emotions out on God, walking it out and talking it up, God treated me kind of like he did Elijah, very practically. Get some food, get some soul rest, and take some time with Me. So I did. I went to my favorite place, the beach, and brought some food with me and I walked out my emotions on the beach. It was such a beautiful evening with God. I dumped out everything that I was feeling, and He took it and changed up the atmosphere in my soul to Shalom: disrupted chaos with His peace. Change happens within families and it shakes life up, but God is faithful to listen and direct our emotions to truth, flip-flopping them from negative to positive, from lie to truth, from incivility to civility, and from hurt to healing. We have so much to be grateful for as we continue to be His. God listens to us and doesn’t judge our emotions, but embraces them as if they were His own. This is a safe atmosphere, in God’s Presence, sharing our hearts. God chooses us and He stays consistent in our lives even if that means coming into a soul wild with chaotic emotions. God proves to us that He is faithful and trustworthy and that we are a keeper. God works with us through all the fleshing out of our human condition and He helps us to, grow us through from emotion to the steadfastness of truth. When I can’t wrap my mind around something it stirs up my emotions like no other. I know that if I walk it out and talk it up with Jesus, I will end up being okay and won’t dump out my emotions on some poor human being! God can defeat the enemy by thwarting the scheme of the enemy that is in play. As I walk it out, I put on the armor of God and position myself underneath the rulership of God and this always ends well for me, but not so well for the enemy of my soul. Walk It Out – Talk It Up! Finish Well! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/good-thoughts-emotions/

When I think of the word: Thankful. I think of Awe. It is like a breath in of God’s Presence and a breath out of the gratefulness of being God’s, of having a future with Him. There is so very much in my life and in my heavenly hindsight that I know I could never have done for myself and I recognize God’s hand of provision, protection, favor, kindness, love and care. It is good to do that, to step outside of the busy, hustle and bustle of our lives and take a moment to consider, reflect and review, remembering the Who that make our life tick as the time flies by and we are loved so well. I am also thankful for God’s Love, so much so, because people in our human condition, we don’t love each other well. But God, He loves us so well and without Him, it would be a really difficult world. We are so blessed to have God in our lives to stay. He will never give us the silent treatment because we are not perfect; He will always love us unconditionally. He will never walk away from relationship with us. I am so grateful for my vital-vertical relationship with Him. Horizontal relationships with people, come and go, according the whims of their likings, but God stays with us and for us. Thank you Lord God. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/thankful-for-jesus/

Lying. Doesn’t it just irk you. It bothers me in so many ways, it is just so aggravating that we can’t tell each other the truth. We have an enemy in this life, he is the father of lies. We have a common denominator; it is our human condition. For so many not good reasons, we feel like we have to lie to one another, but the hidden reason is that the enemy wants to twist up our human relationships with strife. Lies accomplish the enemy’s schemes well. I always feel devalued when someone in my family, or someone I am close friends with lies to me, or someone in authority in my life doesn’t tell me the truth. Lies wreak havoc in our lives in so many ways, but mostly they damage the very relationships that God designed us for. Our relationship with Him and others. Truth stands the tests of time. It is your best option. Even if the truth hurts, it is better than the lie that deeply wounds. The problem with lying is that it never ends with one lie, they just keep on rolling out until the lie tangles us up in a huge human mess. The trick of the lie is that the truth truly is so much easier, but the enemy deceives us into thinking the lie is the easiest way out of a mistaken choice. We rationalize that lying to one another is the easy way out. It is not. If you care about someone, the best thing you can give them is truth. Lies devalue them, because then they know you could not trust them with the truth. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes, but lying about our bad choices just compounds the consequences making it worse. One of the proofs of true love is truth. If you love someone, you tell them the truth. There are some lies that are very conniving and purposeful when other people lie about you, repeat assumptions, speculations and presuppositions, gossiping maliciously to defame you, or disfavor you with other people. These are the worst kind of lies, the stabs in the back from family, friends or colleagues that are motivated by jealousy, or the desire to grab illegitimate controlling power over people. It is stealing away the favor of one person with another person by lying so you look good and they look bad. This is not good and never ends well for the liar. Lying is never the right choice no matter what the motive, the end game of the enemy with even one little lie is to steal, kill and destroy. Tell the truth, it is the best way to add value to your relationship with God and others. Truth matters. Truth is a building block of trust for a relationship where lies tear down the foundation, one brick at a time until the relationship fails. If you love someone, if you value them, speak truth. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/the-freedom-of-truth/ God bless you and yours.

Faith is the substance of things not seen, but hoped for. When you are worrying yourself to being sick, remember God, His mighty Presence and His incredible purposes in play in your life. If you are trying to wrap your mind around something that will be impossible for you to understand, this is what faith if for. Activate your faith. God is trustworthy and He has proven this to us over the last 2000 years of faithfulness toward our human race. If you find yourself at a dead end, turn and fully face God and run, run towards God, by faith, hope in Him. Do you believe in God? Then believe in Him. God is always at work in the unseen for our good and His glory. Believe it. Run out of the darkness, run towards the light of God’s truth, shaking off all assumption, speculation, presupposition and exchanging them for God’s Promises. God is always Present with us. If you find yourself in a dark situation, hope in the dark. Faith stands on the trustworthiness of God and propels forward on steady strength of His Promises. Even if there is fog in your circumstances and you can’t see, God can and will show you the way. Faith is not in what we see, it is trust, belief and hope in God, waiting, patiently enduring because You know, The Way Maker God is purposefully lighting your path, step by step because He has a glorious endgame already planned out. So run this race by faith in Jesus Christ and finish well in Him. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/what-faith-can-do/

This ocean is so soul inspiring. Awe Lord God! Isn't it amazing how God created us to be inspired in so many ways, by sight, smell, taste, feel, just seeing something, inspires our soul? I could creatively snap a picture right now and God knows He could use that picture to visually reach our heart. God knows this without a doubt, because He created us to be visual. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. AWEGOD. God knows He can reach us, inspire us by His created beauty, just like you see right now, in this video of the beach. He made us visual people; people inspired by what we see. It is amazing how wonderfully we are made. We can see, taste, feel, smell, touch, hear and we have built into our lives an intuitiveness, a God perception that helps us to fully experience all of our senses in a majestic, creative way. We are inspired by God through our God created sense of smell, taste, touch, and we see, feel, and hear Him in all things He Created. Our life satisfaction it comes from Him, and when our life is all about Him, we are completely satisfied. That is why when we see the beauty in this ocean, we touch the sand with our toes, we smell the salt air, we feel the fresh salt water on our skin, we taste the salt on our lips, and we hear the lapping of the ocean waves, we have peace in our soul, a deep sense of satisfaction. When we are using our six senses which were shaped in us by God, there comes a shalom deep within our spirit, that disrupts the chaos of this life, with God’s peace. We are inspired through the very shape He created us in, we are impassioned for life by our God design. Don’t you see, everything comes back to God, our Creator God! He is the common denominator of everything in this life that brings us sensatory joy, hope, peace and soul satisfaction. We will never be satisfied with anything less than God. Everything we chase after in this life will come up empty, it is a vain pursuit. Only God can truly satisfy our soul. He is in our senses, every single one of them, and He uses them to inspire us, to constantly point us to Him. As we see, taste, feel, smell, touch and hear, we look up to Him in grateful Awe of the way He created us to be deeply inspired, to live life passionately in love with Him. When our six senses are fully realizing all that God has created for us to enjoy, we are gratefully humbled and reverently in Awe of the all and the everything of our God. Outside of our Awe-GOD there is nothing that can TRULY soul satisfy us, only Jesus can completely satisfy us. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/honey-in-the-rock/

Exclusion is a word that none of really enjoy experiencing. Sometimes we are left out, not included and it is not intentional, but other times, we are purposefully excluded. Either way, it still makes for a difficult soul trap to avoid. Exclusion is really a nasty trap of the enemy and we can side step it by not making assumptions, speculations, and presumptions when our soul is bearing the feeling of being “left out”. Musing on these kinds of things, trying to wrap our mind around it, and over thinking, just leads us to a pity-party that we don’t really want to go to. The enemy always wants us to “feel” like we are not good enough so he can invite us to a pity party that we wander aimlessly in, pushed through the open door by our passionate soured emotions. That is how the enemy of our soul rolls. Once we get into the pity-party we meet all kinds of party people: Discouragement, Disillusionment, Disappointment, Disenchantment, Displeasure, Discontentment oh yes… and then there is Depression and Despair. Don’t drink what those party people with the same first initial are drinking! Get out quickly! Run! Exclusion immediately attaches disillusionment to our soul and we need to shake it off. No Thank You! This life lesson on Exclusion starts with Jesus. We are not alone. He will never exclude us. He won’t turn his nose up at us in that snotty exclusive way. God is inclusive! He will never reject us. He will never betray us. He is always with us, for us and thinks very highly of us. God thinks more highly of me than I do myself. God loves us unconditionally. So, He is definitely not an exclusive excluder. God sees me as perfectly finished in His mind’s eye, as He sculpts away on my design by testing my character with things like being excluded. Yes, God is with us and the second thing is, focus on Him, not ourself. If you are excluded, God has a solution, something better you can do, look to Him, ask Him, He’s got a great God Adventure waiting for you. The third thing is, preparation for exclusion. We live in a broken world, so exclusion will be a part of it, no doubt about it. Life with people who have a human condition well, all we can say is: life is such… Deal with exclusion before it happens, by putting your identity wholly-holy in Christ. When you know Who you are in Christ, and someone excludes you, leaves you out, acknowledge the way it makes you feel, give it to God and walk on, because you are simply-significantly amazing in Christ and if someone wants to exclude you, that is their loss, not yours. Dust your feet off, shake off the evil intention of your enemy and move on with God. But truly, deeply anchored in God, exclusion may rock your boat, but the anchor holds. Praise God! He is good! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/in-heaven/

Hey Heart To Heart! Hope your day is going well. One of the things I love to do is golf. I drive the ball well, but my chipping gives me some trouble and sometimes I don’t putt consistently well, so I don’t get a par very often. It would be really cool if I could put it all together the driving, chipping and putting, then I would be making a par all the time. But, life is not like that, is it? Sometimes our faith drives us well, but other times doubt, fear, anxiety comes in and really messes up our endgame. I see my faith like that, like I just can’t get it all together, the believing, the trusting, the hoping. I stumble a lot with the trusting. I believe in God, but sometimes I just don’t believe Him like I should. When I am unfocused, I don’t take Him at His Word, I don’t stand on His promises, I waiver a bit. Life can throw at us some huge thunderstorms that just pop up in our lives, and it can knock our hope right off course. We can grow through any life storm with Jesus as we keep exercising our faith, activating it by connecting to God and keeping our life roots dug deeply in Him. There will come a day when we mature in our faith, we will put it all together, believing, trusting, hoping with an active, strong faith. Yes, it is possible, all things are possible with God. One day, we will get it all together, we will drive well, we will chip perfectly and then putt the ball right in the hole for a par. Heart To Heart, I pray we do what it takes to get strong in our faith, belief, hope and trust in God, as we enjoy this great God Adventure with Him, as we are growing through. Let’s stay tight with God in a vital-vertical relationship with Him. Let’s end well, with a par or even a bogey!! God bless you. Happy golfing! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/postured-in-christ/