Do you feel like you're lost? Are you turned off by religious performance and longing for a genuine, personal relationship with God? Do you feel like a "cog in the machine" of faith, rather than a beloved child of the Father? If so, you've found your home. Comment below if what you would like to see happen in your walk with God.

When you give your life to God there are times when His time is a little slower than yours. Sometimes you feel like a runner at the starting line. Feet in the starting blocks, muscles constricted ready to pounce, slow steady breathes pulling oxygen into your lungs, you feel like a cat ready to pounce, or a barrel horse at the gate. You have your friends and family around you cheering you on, and you are just waiting for that gun to go off and you’re ready to follow through with all of the promises and training. You’ve made the decision to go, you’ve done all the training and prep work, you’ve told everyone about your path, and they’ve asked when? Sometimes the Lord tells you to hold for the perfect moment, and doesn’t tell you when that is going to be. Professionally, I have sent all the emails, I have done the interviews, I have packed up the stuff (so much stuff), I have the plan ready. I’ve prayed and prayed, and told my friends and family, and they’ve prayed and prayed. You know its a great plan, because God gave it to you. You have your resignation letter ready to go, ready to take a step into a whole new season. The cattle are just staying out of reach, you know once the Lord gets them in the catch pen you’ll get them loaded onto the trailer and you can breathe the sweet breath of victory. Church, I have so many analogies and anecdotes, so many commas and semi-colons. Have you read my article on our path with God? (Footsteps) That moment when He is about to set you down and set you on a mission is the hardest for me? When I have a task set on me I am like a feral dog with a bone. Have you ever seen a racoon trap? Those cute little trash pandas will get caught in the simplest thing, a hole and a prize too big to fit through the hole. Sometimes all they have to do it let go, but the feeling receptors in their adorable little paws trigger a brain response that won’t let them release the treat. Sound like anyone you know? Nope? Me either. The crazy part is that poor adorable racoon will hold onto it’s treat and watch me approach it with…. a blanket or some other humane item, because my chickens love when racoons visit. Yes, I am saying sometimes we are like racoons, we won’t let go of something so we can run. This is a perfect anecdote, circles under the eyes, few extra pounds, hissing at approaching people, and caught by our own curiosity. God telling us to let go (no I didn’t switch gears), and us, the poor hissing racoon hearing what we want to hear.

We live in a strange society where we think that just because we have lived on this earth for more than 18 years we are all of a sudden a man, or woman. Identity has become the battle cry of this generation. People are running around calling themselves all kind of bizarre things and using those self appointed titles as their identity. An identity you give yourself is so empty, has no meaning, and truly is a prideful statement that will be short lived and even shorter fought for. I mean if I can call myself a dog today and then the trend changes and I call myself an alien tomorrow can I say I was either? Like I said bizarre. The things of this world that have the most meaning are things that are earned, not made up, they are given, not taken. Your name, your nicknames, your material possessions, and your job titles are all things that if they were earned you treat them with respect, you take care of them, your work harder to make them important. Look at individuals who were given a car, they never take care of it. They have no sense of ownership. God is the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Those titles He has earned by creating everything. He earned them by His sacrifice, a sacrifice made to cover our debts cost by our crimes. In doing these things He has bestowed identity and titles on all of His followers. We are His children, we are kings of this world, to have dominion over all of the earth. This birthright we gave to the devil, but we will get it back and now is the time to train for it. I want to talk about being a child of God. This identity is the most important we can ever have. When we are born to this world our parents give us a name. This sacred thing denotes our identity in the world. When people call out our name it lets us know they are speaking to us. When people slander your name it can ruin your name and effect your relationship with the community, one reason why of the short list of things God hates gossip is on it. As a child of God we are all called to follow Him, follow our church leaders as they lead us to Him, and to learn. To love God and to learn about Him with a childlike wonder. When I was a teenager my actions were linked to my name and the names of my parents. My mother and step-father once heard “Oh this is the Wiley house, I know these people.” Even those my last name was not Wiley, my step-father’s last name, my actions were tied to the household name. When my mother heard the police refer the neighbor's house as the “Wiley house” she was quick to correct them and say “Oh no it isn’t”. We had not lived in the house in five years and my parent’s had only recently returned, but my brother’s and my actions still tainted the reputation of the property.

ADHD, PTSD, depression, anxiety, autism…. Have you dealt with any of these? I have. Before I began my walk with Christ I struggled with a few different things that made my life feel chaotic. Trauma from combat in Iraq left scars, alcoholism, drug addiction, witchcraft, and so many other things in my past made it difficult to function on a level that maintained healthy relationships with other people. It made seeing God almost impossible for me to do. As with any person we all have the same step one, follow Him. Christ is step one, you can not change yourself without Him. I do not care where you are in your life or what terrible things you have done. Christ is step one. Turn yourself over to the Holy Spirit and decide that He is your Lord and you will surrender and obey. Super simple right? When you feel like your life is in a spiral and there is a hole in you that you have tried to fill with drugs, alcohol, video games, social media, and other idols are the same. They lead to addiction, lower self worth, and they get in the way of having a relationship with your creator. But how do we begin to slow down, to calm the chaos, and to welcome God back into our lives? I have a simple 5 step program that will do wonders on your mental health and you spiritual health. Little victories. Step one, set an alarm to wake up. Don’t sleep in and just go with the flow. Wake up with a sense of purpose. You are a child of the one true God and he has a calling for you. You have a commission that He gave to all of us and He wants your help. Step two, make your bed. Such a small victory, but it will create a template for your space and life. When you leave your bed a mess you are setting the stage for the rest of your day. Making your bed is so powerful and we underestimate it so much. Some of us avoid making our bed because we are still in a mindset of rebellion. We resent that our parents, or military made us do it and we are still rebelling against that. Why would you start your day with an act of rebellion?

Yesterday I was preaching and the Holy Spirit was working on me, it was so good. I love Sunday mornings. I spend all week thinking about Sunday. I write about God, I talk about Him, all in preparation for Sunday morning. I once heard a pastor tell other pastors “you don’t have to give them 100% every Sunday.” That hurt my heart. I disagreed with that at a fundamental level, a cellular level, in my very being. That felt like he was telling pastors to bury the money and save it. I understand keeping the lamp trimmed so it lasts longer, but God refills me. We were going over some gifts of the Holy Spirit, and being sent on the Great Commission, on how we are told when we feed the hungry and produce good fruit they will know we are followers of Jesus. It’s not just the words we say, but the actions we display. That is why we get gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of prophesy, the gift of healing, the gift administration, and all of the others. To glorify God. Our life as a Christian is described as a “walk with God” or our “path”, and there was a very popular poem called “Footprints in the sand”. I actually disagree with poem, I think it has it backwards. I don’t think that Jesus carries us through the trying and troubling times. I think our path with Jesus and there is only one set of footprints is when Jesus is carrying us to give us rest. I think that time is when we must prepare to do some work. Man was created on the 6th day, and rested on the 7th, because he had to prepare to do some work. So I think Jesus carries us for a while to get rest, he shares our yoke, or we share His. Then I think He points out a troubling time, a time for us to produce good fruit and help someone, or a time to strengthen our faith, and grow as leaders. He then sets us down, gives us some gifts, and watches us complete the tasks we would not be able to do without Him. Upon completion of those tasks He lifts us back up to get some peace and rest. He carries us for a while, then He asks us to tell Him all of the wonderful things we did, all of the struggles we overcame, all of the people we spoke to, and all of it we couldn’t have done without Him. Because we are His children, His beloved and He wants to hear from all of us. So we pray and tell Him about it all. The tough things we wanted to quit, the wonderful things where we saw God’s hands, and when we were in the fire afraid to burn and we saw Him next to us and we knew no matter how far we ran from Him he was always with us.