[This is not easy to admit. But, it is reality and I must live in reality. I desire the shadows no longer.]

I'm not by nature a very pleasant person. When God was not present inside me, I was very self-centered. I was very needy. For that reason, I was very demanding of others. I was not loving. In fact, I was almost incapable of giving and receiving love.

When God entered my heart, all that changed. When I finally admitted the truth that there is a God, he came into me. He changed me from the inside out! He blessed me. He did not harm me.

I began to seek him like never before. I began to study my Bible like never before. I became voracious in my appetite for him. I desired his presence more than I desired anything else! I wanted and needed him! I hated what I had become without him, pursuing selfish pleasures. I desired the peace and joy only he could bring into my life. I wanted that peace and joy that lasts more than ten or fifteen minutes. I needed it all day, everyday. He gave it to me as I stayed close to him.

When God came in my quiet times, nothing was the same. The world became a better place because I was a better person. He made me a better husband, father, man. I was more like him, loving, gentle and kind.

Yes, I have moments when I become afraid again. When I don't fully trust him enough to let him lead. But it doesn't take me long to come back again to him on my knees begging his forgiveness and asking him once more for his peace and joy. He comes. He’s always near. He's always ready to welcome me back.

He loves you very much. He desires you regardless whether you desire him or express a need for him. He keeps knocking on the door of your heart and asking if you will let him in.

That door is locked on the inside.

Misbehavior often is an attempt to get a legitimate need met through illegitimate means. When needs are met appropriately, often the misbehavior disappears. This is no guarantee. This is no excuse for misbehavior. This is merely an explanation for some misbehavior.

No person can entirely satisfy another person’s needs. There are simply too many physical, emotional, and spiritual needs contained in every person. Besides, the one attempting to meet all the needs of another must also, eventually, get his own legitimate needs met! (Just ask any mother!)

In the end, all must turn to God. He alone can satisfy our deepest and unmet needs! He alone is big enough and deep enough to meet the deepest needs.

He would never create another person to take his place in your life!

God is love. God is light. God is life. All these are true about God. However, they cannot sufficiently capture his essence. He is bigger than the terms we choose to describe him. Still, we know much about God. We know because he has chosen to reveal himself.

God revealed himself in creation. God revealed himself through Scripture. God reveals himself through his Spirit embedded in believers.

God speaks still through the righteous and good acts of believers and unbelievers alike. God speaks through the way we treat ourselves and others.

Sobering thought.

Everyone makes mistakes. Yet, when Christians fall the world is quick to judge and gloat. The world uses us as examples that God does not exist; the claims of Christianity to be false.

The failures of Christians do reflect poorly on Christ and his church. Yet, they in no way prove the grave of Jesus to be empty. They do not mean God’s character is no longer intact. They do not cause morality and truth to become indefinable.

Regardless how Christians behave, Christ is risen! Whether anyone believes or not, God is alive. The Holy Spirit is available despite whether any Christian chooses to utilize or access his power.

We all fall short of God’s glory. Our failures merely prove how much we stand in constant need of love and forgiveness. It only proves how much we all need Christ’s atoning sacrifice and cleansing blood to make us whole once again.

At least when Christians fall, we know the way back home!

One of the most loving of relationships is our relationship with God. If we truly know God, then we experience love in a personal way. Without God, one cannot love like God. Without God, one cannot properly experience and recognize the importance of love.

If one has experienced love, one has experienced God.

Many things are practiced in the name Jesus and Christianity that have nothing to do with Jesus. Many things are practiced in Christian churches that have nothing to do with original and true Christianity.

Christians are known best by their love.

Accept no religion that does not properly emphasize and practice love.