Today’s a new day! Whatever has power over you is becoming powerless. Chains are being broken. Strongholds released! God is freeing you, so you can experience His peace, love, healing and purpose in every area of your life. ~OC
Speak Peace
Dear Jesus, we have seen you calm natural storms and stormy lives.
We are praying you extend your power and grace again,
especially upon those most recent storm victims.
Speak peace and healing over the lives of so many broken by Hurricane Helene.
Jesus, speak peace.
Speak peace and hope over families and communities devastated by the sudden loss caused by Hurricane Helene.
Jesus, speak peace.
Speak peace and unity over diverse groups of people, so they would come together for the greater good and the rebuilding of lives and communities.
Jesus, speak peace.
Speak peace and protection over rescue workers, first responders and all volunteers as they reach out to those who are suffering.
Jesus, speak peace.
Speak calmness over Hurricane Milton as it rages in the open waters. May everyone in its path be safe.
You are the Prince of Peace.
You are the Resurrection and the Life.
You are strong to save and restore.
Our hope and trust are in you. Amen.
The American Flag
As the election season heats up, there is a lot of talk about the 🇺🇸 and how we should respect it and how people are disrespecting it. Let me drop a little knowledge this afternoon . Based on the U.S. Flag Code Chapter 10:176, the following are disrespectful:
*The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft & free. (Ever watch NFL pregame ceremonies).
*The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding or drapery.
*The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flags is flown.
*No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniforms. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen & members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country & is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
*The flag, when it is in such condition that is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
So before we start judging who is disrespecting the flag, have you done any of the above? ~OC
Joy!
Today’s a new day! Being chronically ill comes with a lot of ups and downs and a wide range of emotions. These emotions can be so strong and overwhelming at times. As you walk through the different stages of being chronically ill, you are faced with a lot of situations that you could never prepare for and those moments can make you feel like you’re on an emotional roller coaster. Physical health affects your mental, emotional and spiritual health more than people would think.
When you are chronically ill, your life becomes a vicious cycle of intense symptoms and flares. This can leave you feeling completely hopeless and lost at times. But even at moments when it feels impossible to find joy, it is possible, even on the darkest days. Some days you have to search a little harder for that joy but it is always there. Joy looks different to everyone. As a chronic illness warrior it is so important that you surround yourself with joy because it is easy to lose hope of experiencing pure joy again.
I find joy in many ways in my life and I really make an effort to make those things a part of my daily living. One of the main ways that I find joy/happiness is by leaning into my faith. My faith has allowed me to overcome a lot of tough moments in this journey. I also surround myself with the love and support of my family and the few friends who have decided to stay in the boat with me. A supportive group of people have the ability to turn my bad days into great days. I am so thankful for each of them because they not only provide peace/joy, they also give me so much hope. I also find joy and happiness in doing things I love such as: writing,listening to music and making memories with my bride.
The past month has been filled with more tough news regarding my health. Looking back on the past month, joy has still there even in the darkest days. Sometimes during hard times things become so overwhelming that we forget that even then we can still find joy in the little things. It is okay to have bad days but it is so important that everyday we challenge ourselves to stop and find happiness and joy. Joy always outweighs the bad and it is so important that we remind ourselves of that. Have a great day! ~OC
Dear Christian’s, I Have Some Questions
Today’s a new day! I know I will take some heat for this post, but I am a big boy. As we move toward another presidential election, I truly am trying to understand how Christians can continue to support Donald Trump. In all seriousness and good faith, I’m asking you to tell me.
I am posting a number of questions here and I would truly love your honest feedback about your support of the former President.
I would ask that nobody leave sarcastic, snarky or rude answers or comments. I truly do want to understand how a Christian could cast their vote for Donald Trump.
I grew up in the Church, so I know we are all more than one thing. I know if I was just released from the hospital, you would start a meal train. If I were in a car wreck you’d stop to help me. You wouldn’t ask if I’m a Christian or a Democrat or a DEI worker. You’d just help. I know that side of so many of you. That’s part of what makes your support of Trump so baffling to me.
I want to understand this issue that puzzles me because what I see in the former President is absolutely antithetical to the gospel I learned about as a child in that Southern Baptist church in South Florida.
I want to understand how you see the former president so very differently than I do. So, please, write in and respond to one or two of these questions:
1). Why do you as a Christian support Donald Trump?
2). Do you think Trump as a person and/or his former presidency and current campaign express the love of God in Christ for others to see?
3). Does Trump’s personal moral behavior matter to you as long as he supports policies you want?
4). Do you think Donald Trump is a good role model for your children or grandchildren?
5). The Bible many times over says to welcome the foreigner within your borders. How does that square with Trump’s ultra anti-immigrant stance and policies that especially target migrants at our southern border?
6). What do you think of Trump’s history of sexual misconduct and impropriety, including comments about his own daughter, Ivanka?
7). The former president has threatened chaos, including the possibility of a civil war, if he’s not elected. What do you think of that?
8). If you believe the U.S. is supposed to be a Christian nation, what do you think we should do about the non-Christians who live here?
9). If the U.S. is supposed to be a Christian nation, which Christians get to decide public policy?
10). What do you think of how Trump calls people names or says ugly things about people?
11). Are you bothered by all of the Trump lies?
12). How does your support of Trump square with the Gospel for you?
I really hope and pray my fellow Christians will take the time to study and answer these questions. Thank you. ~OC
Hope
Today’s a new day! There is a four-letter word that is woven into the fabric of our souls, and that word is HOPE. Having a purpose in life encourages self-determination. It all starts with a belief, an idea that can create a powerful purpose filled life.
The seed of hope is planted deep within each of us. If we water those seeds, amazing and beautiful things will be created. Hope creates motion, motion creates action, action creates results, results create achievement, achievement creates self-confidence, and self-confidence creates the mindset that we can and will achieve everything God desires for us.
Through hope, we can conquer our fears and turn a life of trials into a life of triumph, a mess into a message, fear into faith, and a test into a testimony. There are times our hope button can get stuck. Here is how I believe we can activate our stuck hope button.
We have to decide to change our mindset from selfish to selfless, from “poor me” to helping someone else who is walking through a major trial. Our selfless time engaged in someone else’s life battle could help kick-start hope within them and start a chain of of hope dealers. Hope is contagious!
How awesome would it be if we each lived a life of Helping One Person Everyday. Helping others succeed brings so much hope and meaning into our lives. How beautiful it is when we give of ourselves. It fills us up as well and provides us with the strength to conquer life’s challenges.
We all have the ability to share hope with those around us. It could be a smile, kind word, listening, or lending a helping hand.
It is never too late to start living a life of Hope. You never know the difference you can make in a person’s life. So today be bold, compassionate and loving. Share Hope. Help one person today. ~OC
Prideful Strut
Today’s a new day! We need to stop walking with a prideful strut. We need to stop being smug and selfish. We need to stop making life about us. We need to stop being a “Me Society.” We need to put the focus back on God. He is the only one who needs to be famous. We need the Holy Spirit to subdue our fleshly pride. We need to walk with a limp of total dependency on God. ~OC
The Legacy of President Jimmy Carter
Today’s a new day! Yesterday, I had the honor of being in Plains, GA to celebrate former President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday. It was a wonderful day seeing old friends, meeting new friends and reflecting on the life of a man who has truly lived a life of honor.
As we are in the middle of another election, I spent some time reflecting over the legacy of past American presidents. The debate over a president’s legacy begins the moment they leave office. Sometimes sooner. I am sure everyone can make their case for who is or was the best and greatest president in the history of America. We could debate their contributions, records and everyone could weigh in with their memories and opinions. But I personally do not believe anyone can argue that the greatest post presidency does not belong to the 39th President of the United States from Plains, Georgia Jimmy Carter.
When President Carter and Mrs Carter left Washington, DC in 1981, the so called experts were in agreement that President Carter had failed and would be forgotten. That was not to be the case. Not even close. President and Mrs Carter would leave a major life changing legacy behind.
Upon leaving the White House, one of the first things the Carters did was to become closely identified with a nonprofit volunteer project, Habitat for Humanity. During its initial two decades, owing in large measure to the Carter’s involvement, Habitat became a household name in communities across the US, helping over 59 million people build or improve a place to call home. Well into their 90’s, President and Mrs. Carter were still spending one week each year volunteering with Habitat. The Carters became so identified with Habitat that when thinking of them, more Americans probably called to mind the Carters in denim with hammers in their hand more than the Carters dressed up for a formal dinner at the White House.
In 1982, just two years after leaving office, Carter further burnished his credentials as a great leader when they created the Carter Center, which described its role as “waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope.” Many of the Carter Center’s initiatives were led by President and Mrs. Carter, including monitoring elections in dozens of countries; negotiating peaceful resolutions to conflicts in Africa, Asia, and the Americas; under the leadership of President and Mrs. Carter the Center took on programs to help eradicate multiple diseases around the world including guinea worm. According to the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, In 1986, the disease afflicted an estimated 3.5 million people a year in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Today, thanks to the work of The Carter Center and its partners — including the countries themselves — the incidence of Guinea worm has been reduced by more than 99.99 percent to 14 provisional* human cases in 2023. Working tirelessly to address multiple global concerns, the Carters have established a legacy as the greatest of our former First Families.
My wife and I had the honor of meeting President and Mrs. Carter in 2019, as he taught Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, GA. It was one one of highlights of my life. I had no idea how profoundly that day would change my life.
Yesterday, at the 100th birthday celebration, a group of us who all attended President Carter’s Sunday School class at different times, sat around a table reflecting and celebrating the life of the man who brought all of us together yesterday not as strangers, but as friends. That is one of the beautiful legacies of President and Mrs. Carter.
With all these wonderful memories flowing from my heart, I recall the words of President Carter from back in 2019, when sharing about his health, “I didn’t ask God to let me live, but I asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death.”
This is the legacy of our 39th President Jimmy Carter. A humble man who has taught us how to live a life for others in service. As President Carter approaches the end of his life, he is teaching us another lesson about not only living a life with grace, but maybe more important how to die with grace. ~OC
A Big Question
Today’s a new day! What is keeping you from living the complete life? I know that is a big question, with many potential answers. But God designed each of us to live a complete whole life.
Here are a few things, I believe can help us live out the life God created for each of us.
A New Chapter. Too many of us are living in the past. We continue to relive past disappointments. Past failures. Or sometimes we live in past successes. We all know someone, who is eager to tell us about winning the 5th grade all county championship forty years ago. Don’t get me wrong, we should celebrate past successes. We should also learn from past mistakes. But we cannot live in the past. The great thing is, we have the opportunity to start a new chapter each morning. So close the chapter on your past and start writing a new one.
Worthy. Has anyone told you lately you are worthy? That you are important. No matter your past, God finds you worthy. He sent his Son down from heaven to die for us. I think that proves how worthy we are in God’s eyes.
Comfort Zone. I believe to live the whole life that God created for us, we have to step out of our comfort zones. We have to be willing to take some chances in life. God designed us to be creative. To be adventurous. We cannot truly experience life, if we choose to stay in our nice easy comfortable zones.
Labels. Stop wearing the labels the world puts on us. How many people continue to wear the labels put on them as a child? Not smart enough. Too short. Too weird. Too heavy. Too tall. Your from the wrong side of the tracks. So many people continue to wear these labels into adulthood. Today, I encourage you to take those labels off. Trash them. You are more than a label. You were created by a loving God to live an incredible life. To Dream. To Succeed. To Thrive.
Courage. It will take courage to start feeling Worthy. It will take courage to step out of your Comfort Zone. It will take courage to take off the Labels you have been wearing for years. But I promise you it will be worth it.
Today, I encourage each of us to think about these five points. To start living the incredible life, God has created us to live. Will you make a commitment to living wholeheartedly? ~OC
A Gift
Today’s a new day! Imagine, you’re given a gift. When you take a peak inside, it seems more like a curse than a gift. This gift is unfortunately going to cause pain and loss. But this gift is also going to radically change your life and the lives around you. This gift is going to bring family and friends together. You will reconnect with friends and acquaintances that you haven’t heard from in years.
This gift will redefine your faith and your purpose in life. The small things in life will mean more to you. Conversations with friends and strangers will take on a new whole meaning. You will not feel rushed. That next meeting can wait. You will form new friendships that will change your life.
You will be challenged. Oh, the challenges will be real. But you will also be inspired, motivated and humbled. Peace, happiness and love will take on a whole new meaning.
By know, your mind is running in circles trying to figure out this gift. You might be thinking where can I get this incredible gift? Can I order it off of Amazon? Is there a waiting list? Probably not. This gift came to me twenty-two years ago. You cannot really wrap it up in a box and make it look pretty. The gift I am talking about is several life threatening health issues. This gift keeps on taking my life.
And while I am maintaining at this time, I would not wish this gift for you or anyone. I doubt you would ever want this gift. But I personally would never return this gift. It has profoundly changed my life for the better. I would probably need several days to share all the beautiful lessons this gift has given me.
So the next time you face something that’s unwanted, unexpected and uncertain, take a moment to consider it might just be a gift. ~OC
The Blessed Overcomer 