HeartTOHeart

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/

Women, we are validated by God and no one can erase our gender or mess with our God created design. We were fearfully and wonderfully made by God to be women, shaped and designed in the womb of our mother. Motherhood continues with the egg of a woman and the sperm of a man and the creative life giving breathe of God. No corrupted culture can steal our identity; we are women destined and created specifically by the hand of our God. Women are fabulous, unique and incredible people. God’s created women. The gender of woman started with a rib from man, used by God to create the first woman. The rib protects the heart and the lungs. Isn’t that amazing that women were created as protectors of the heart. There is so much confusion in our corrupted culture about the genders. There are two genders. Male and Female. Confusion always has a deceptive core and the enemy of our soul is trying to take away the God validation of women, making them less vital, visible and viable in our culture. It is obvious the enemy is threatened by our design, the protector of the heart and breath of truth in the family and in society. We protect truth, we guard the hearts of our family with the atmosphere of love and truth. Figuratively a woman was created with a rib that protects the lungs because in order to live we need to breathe. No evil threat against women’s gender will stand or prosper with evil intent towards us. God will thwart it with His truth. From the beginning of time, women were shaped by God in the womb and born with a beautiful spirit of protectors of heart and protectors of the breath of our soul, the atmosphere of the home is set by women, so the family can breathe and grow in love, strength and truth. Every day women are born, with a vagina, a womb to carry a child and the egg that will join with the sperm for God to create life. This in itself is the God proof that shatters the darkness of this deceit. There is no confusion. God said it, it keeps happening and He proves it. Women, Mothers, we are loved by God and He has incredible things for us to do as women in this generation. Stay true to the gender God created you with, cling to God, dig your life roots deeply in Him, precious woman. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/happy-mothers-day/

You can’t deny it and there is no doubt about it, our God is amazing. Awe-GOD! He is at work in our world in ways we can’t even begin to wrap our mind around. Every single day, His purposes are in play and He is working towards something we could not even imagine that could happen. We have had a lot of Awe-GOD moments this year as God has exposed and expunged long term evil and left us with our mouth’s open in awe. Did that just happen. Yes it did! I have thought this many times this year. I can’t believe that things so deeply secreted are coming to the light of truth. The same God Who created everything, powerfully maintains everything! How amazing is that. We don’t maintain this earth, He does. He Who created, is the God Who wants to have a personal relationship with us. There is an authority of love, a power of transformation and an incredible truth that stands the tests of time and this is our God. There is no one like our God. AWE-GOD, He is the redeeming power of all things in our culture. We plant food by seed, it grows and we eat it and it bears more seed. Who could have done that but Him?!! We sense, we feel, we know there is an authority of love governing us and it is a stability in our soul in times such as these where illegitimate authority has grabbed control of power and is corrupting the governments of our nations. Global corruption and it can’t even touch God, it can’t stop Him. The greatest of human schemes are taking place, by powerful deceptive deceivers and yet, they all will end up bowing to God Almighty. He is Mighty and a Power like no other, tides coming in and going out, transformations of hearts and minds, and His Truth, His Bible that He breathed life into, it is still here, it is still viable. God knows exactly what He is doing in times such as these, and we need to stand back in Awe and surrender our lives to Him. Our future is in Him, the One who is, was and will be forever. He flat out told us that we would have hard times here, but He would be with us, He would be our Advocate. Nothing compares to the future and hope He has given us. Awe Lord God. This is not all there is, Jesus went to prepare a place for us. How do we respond to such a great truth as this? We cling to God, we dig our life roots deeply in Him, we watch, we wait and we see Him gloriously renovate, redeem, restore, renew and revive in that way only HE can. Awe Lord God! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/god-causes-it/

I was thinking about this today: We are on the ledge of hell, teetering back and forth, off balance, out of alignment with God, and we really think we won’t fall in? Are we that good or are we that prideful and foolish? Pride goes before a fall. I love to watch the waves at the beach and today as I was sitting there watching the waves, I thought: you know, the choices I make today, they will crash on the shore of my life and wash inland effecting everyone walking with me. Choices matter and I can’t let pride drive my choice. Every single choice we make, on this day, from every moment to every decision, compounds and matters in a good way or a bad way. Consistent bad choices will drift me away from God as choices compound and my alignment with God shifts, therefore my choices follow. Our choices are not made alone, they affect other people. We can be navigated by God to make good choices as we follow after His way, truth and life. God is present, with us and is here for us, to direct us, strengthen us and help us make good choices. Walking apart from God, it is a 50-50 choice of good or bad, a rolling of the dice and the result of a bad choice, the odds are not good that the consequences will be felt by many. Do I want to roll the dice when my family, friends, neighbors and reputation is at stake or do I want to go with the sure thing? Make the right choice. Going all in with God, seeking God, looking for the truth and making a good choice is the best kind of living. A good choice, is not a impulsive choice, it is a well thought out, directed by God choice, which makes it good. People get so sloppy in their choices, focused on selfish wants, not caring about what that choice might mean to others, this is not good and does not end well. Compounded good choices, create good consequences, good reactions, good attitudes, good outcomes and a good life for you and all those you are doing life with. The goodness of God is seen in our choices, good choice after good choice. The result of many, many good choices is contagious in God’s goodness, replicating and mirroring the godliness of our Lord, and creates a living legacy that is really a sweet heirloom for your family. This is why we follow after God in followship of Him, listening up, learning from His Word, being shaped by His Voice about the best choices we can make, and being a godly example to the generation underneath us by the choices we make. Pass on a godly life choice by choice as you make the next right choice and honor God, bringing glory to Him. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/consequences-are-real/

What am I reflecting? Do I mirror the anxiety and fear of the world? How much time are we spending watching the news and the mediatic false frenzy of fear mongering? (Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real) The place we need to listen up to first is from the voice of the ONE we should COME to first, and His name is Jesus. The best start of our day is in God’s Presence, with our Bible open and us soaking our soul with God’s way, truth and life. In our vital-vertical relationship with Jesus, we make it personal with our Lord. We talk it up with God before we talk to anyone else. If we spend time in the LIGHT of His Truth, in our heart-to-heart relationship with HIM, We will mirror His Heart. Therefore, when people see us, they see a reflection of His Life. I usually like to tell people this: I hope you SHINE. What do I mean by that??When we are spending more time with Jesus, listening up most to Him, we shine all things Him, His love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, humility, wisdom and self-control. Why? Because He is light and truth, the only light that no one and nothing can extinguish and He lights up our lives with hope and peace. God’s truth stands the tests of time and it sticks to us. We mirror God, we reflect to the world stability, strength, compassion, civility and common sense, many things that are rare in our day. It is attractive to others as we walk with a Kingdom Perspective, shutting down the worldly viewpoint. Many have tried over the years to put out the light of God’s truth, but all have failed. So, our SHINE today should be a mirror image of Him, of His glory glow. We were created in His Image, and as we spend more and more time with Him, we get a unique reflection, not our own fleshly reactions, but a response which is one that looks a lot like His character. Love is such a good quality as it is given unconditionally as is mercy, which is given to those who do not deserve it. These are just two of the ways we can SHINE today, reflecting our Savior, Jesus Christ in us and through us, we can light up the darkness wherever we step on this day, with His love, compassion, civility and common sense. These in themselves are precious commodities, rare treasures in times such as these, treasures in the dark as Jesus lights up our world as we reflect Him, and share His hope within a hopeless world trying to survive within the structure of no power higher than self. God is our hope in the dark where illegitimate authority has corrupted beyond our wildest dreams and as we position ourselves underneath His Rulership of Love, He is able to help us thrive in our world where mankind is so focused on self-gain, dangerously so. Within our vital-vertical relationship with Jesus, He changes things up for us and we reflect Him, His way, truth and life as we walk counter culturally with Him, joyful, strong and peaceful in all of our ways. SHINE! What are you reflecting? Reflect Jesus! Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/missionary-prayer-journey-7/

All the love we need is found in Jesus. Period. No doubt about it. Jesus is our ONE. As we keep Him at the center of the all of our everything, our soul is well. There is so much to distract us from God in our chaotic, every changing culture. We have to diligently determine to keep God as our ONE. Many people ask me why I don’t post my face or selfies or personal things about me, well, simply- significantly, Jesus is my One, He is my reason, my purpose, my why I say and do things. You don’t need to know me, you need to know Him. I can’t change people. Jesus can. So, Jesus is my One. My life is not about your response to my videos, my life is about Jesus, His way, truth and life. How about you? Who is your ONE? I hope to encourage people, to point them to Jesus. So, I make the Heart To Heart videos for my ONE. I really don’t care how many likes I get or if people notice me. I am truly hoping that my ONE will touch one person, even just one person is enough, because I know how my one life, affects so many others. If I can put a smile on the face of a person by what they see and hear me say, if I can help them think up and change their attitude from despair to hope, and bless their soul with God’s truth and peace, then that is why I post a video to this Heart TO Heart channel on Rumble. My motive is pure, I do it to point people to Jesus, Who can give them joy, who can change their heart attitude, who can transform their mind from chaotic deception to the truth. Shalom: disrupts chaos. I post videos for THE ONE, unto Him, for the one person that He will touch and change up their life. One person changed is many people touched. If a person has a bad soul attitude and it changes, then that affects many people, all that they come in contact with will be blessed on that day. I am a better person when Jesus, My ONE, has total access to my life, and that is why I give my life wholly-holy to Him so when I step into relationship on this day, people get the best of me, and that best is Jesus, His way, truth and life. Life is not about me, it is about Him. With God, I am less snarky, less judgmental, less critical, less anxious and more civil, more wise, much more compassionate, very loving, and I am trusting of God, trustworthy for others, and I have a lot of common sense in play in my life. The things that our crazy cultural chaos tends to steal from us are: Compassion, Civility and Common Sense, yet when we are Heart To Heart with our ONE, Jesus Christ, He restores all of that, plus so much more. Our God Adventure is joyful, when God is our ONE and great, as His purposes flow in and out of our lives. What are you looking for? All the love, strength, joy, peace and wisdom is found in Jesus, look to Him, make Him your ONE and put God first in your life. Be His Firstee, put God first in the all of your everything. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/firstee/

We all do have that desire to make the right choice the first time. Does it work at that way? Only if we connect to God and not go off impulsively in our own fleshly bright ideas. Sometimes there are so many variables to the decisions we need to make. At times we just walk by faith. Not being able to see what is ahead, but knowing that God has something in play, because we are at a crossroad and need to make a decision. I think the hardest moments of life are when we are at a crossroad and don’t know whether to go left or right. There are decisions to make every single day and a lot of them we don’t have a direction for, we feel confused about them. Some decisions seem natural because they are good choices, yet sometimes doing something good that God has not put on your plate can become a disastrous choice. The best decision if we don’t know what to do is to wait. The key is asking God for the answer, trusting Him and waiting until He answers. This takes some strong patient endurance, but always ends well when we wait on God and go in followship of Him. No that is self-control driven faith. Denying ourselves, this takes an increase in our faith to wait until we hear something definite. Saying no to our impulsive flesh, our faith can be tested as we wait on God. Trust is definitely strenuously exercised when knowing God has the perfect timing, the perfect solution, and the perfect outcome, we wait. Exercising our faith always leaves us with a heavenly hindsight of increased faith, tested belief, and satisfied trust. Waiting doesn’t seem so bad when we think of it that way. So, if you find yourself needing to make a decision and you are at a crossroad in life, ask God, wait patiently in belief, trust and faith. God will come through for you in ways you could not even begin to imagine or hope for and He will say: This is the way, walk in it, and as you do, His perfect will comes into play, purposefully so. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/divine-power/

Taking a day off is a great spiritual habit to form. I used to go, go, go until I would crash and burn. God did not create our bodies, minds, spirits, souls to not need rest. It is kind of cool to see how He built rest into our week. I call it a Sabbath day. Once I started taking time off during the week, at least one half a day to a full day, I felt such refreshment in my soul and my health got better. I noticed when I took a day off a week that I wasn’t having those crash and burn days where I just had absolutely no drive or energy. God created us for needing a Sabbath, a time of rest. When we follow after the way we were designed to be, we are much better human beings! Isn’t that the truth! We can actually see all throughout the Old Testament how God warned us that we needed rest, a Sabbath day. He not only asked us to rest, but He provided for it. Do you rest? Think About It: Do you take any time off to rest your soul? God even did it… six days of creation and rested on the 7th day. Rest. We take a day off and God provides for us through the other six days. When we take that Sabbath rest, that day off, it refreshes us personally and we are ready to work and do well the rest of the week. We live in very culturally chaotic times, and that requires a lot of soul reactions and emotional engagement. We need to replenish our soul in times such as these, so we don’t end up with damaged emotions. I remember pushing myself so hard, every single day with no rest, and it did not fare well for me emotionally, physically or spiritually. I was not kind, I was not civil and I was not compassionate. A good description of me when I have too much on my plate and take no time off to rest is this: Compassion Fatigue. Without rest, things never ended well for me. But when I started taking that day off, that Sabbath rest, everything changed up for me. I felt more creative in my work, I felt stronger physically, more alert spiritually, and emotionally very stabilized. It is always good to refurbish, renovate, restore, revive, replenish, your soul. When you do. You finish well. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/be-replenished/

How do you do with change? I really don’t like it. God set up our world with lots of changing seasons of life. We should be used to the transitions we make in every season. Do you get restless before things are going to change up? I do! It seems to me that when I have a big life transition about to happen that all hell seems to break loose! Do you find that to be true? I am comfortable in the way things are and then I see the signs of a new season and I want to run from it. Lots of decisions have to be made in life season changes and sometimes the way is not really clear. Change can be good, but sometimes we make a decision outside of the will of God and that is not fun as it never ends well. We do have that heart’s desire to make the right choice. Sometimes it is a good thing to just wait on God to chart our course into a new life season. God’s timing is always perfect. Life transitions require changes. We leave behind the old and step into the new and have to move into the flow of that new transition. Fitting into a new life season as we transition out of the old, into the new, can be a really narrow place in our lives and can make us feel claustrophobic. Yet God purposefully challenges us because He knows the God purpose in our challenge is greater than the challenge itself. For our good! The in-between the old, the past life season and the new life season is the toughest place, because we don’t like facing the changes that need to be made in us and we feel constricted. Yet, we want to bring the best us we can into the new life phase we are walking into. All of our transitions probably should start facedown before God asking Him to change us and make us ready. Transitions are hard, but oh, so very good for us as we grow forward into new things, into new God adventures. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/the-way-up/

Murky Soul? Can’t see who you are anymore? Looked in the mirror and saw a reflection of yourself, who you did not recognize? Lost your identity in Christ? Have you ever looked in the mirror and did not recognize yourself because you have such a thick façade over your soul? Who Am I? Do you know the answer to that question? Can you speak it with confidence? Sometimes we get so attached to something that God has not put on our plate and it exhausts us as we lose ourselves in someone else’s cause. Do you feel like you are being who someone else wants you to be, and you have lost yourself? Are you wasting time standing in the light of someone else’s glory? We all have a mission that we are uniquely designed for, and sometimes we are so afraid of rejection that we never step out in it, we ride the coattails of someone else’s identity. Who Am I? Have I put my identity wholly-holy in Christ? What causes do you have on your shoulders that are not about you, the you who God has created you to be, but all about chasing approval of others? We need to get back to the basics and learn about our personal identity in Christ, so we can start reflecting His glory and deflect all the distractions that keep us from developing our personal God shape that leads to our destiny. Who Am I? What is my design? What is my shape? Ask God and ask Him to peel off all the layers we have applied so we can become what God sees as His finished masterpiece. Who Am I? Get back to the basics of just You and God and let Him be the reflection in the mirror. Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/back-to-the-basics/