Have you been wronged in your life? Felt like someone has taken advantage of you? Things not going your way?

I love the story of Joseph in the Bible. I highly encourage you to read it! Click Here For The Story (Do it! Do it! You won’t be disappointed [...]]]>

Have you been wronged in your life? Felt like someone has taken advantage of you? Things not going your way?

I love the story of Joseph in the Bible. I highly encourage you to read it! Click Here For The Story (Do it! Do it! You won’t be disappointed and it’s in New Century Version which is so easy to read). Below is a section of the climax to this story when Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and I want you to notice what he says about God being the one that allowed bad events in his life for good:

Gen. 45:1-11

1 Joseph could not control himself in front of his servants any longer, so he cried out, “Have everyone leave me.” When only the brothers were left with Joseph, he told them who he was.2 Joseph cried so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and the people in the king’s palace heard about it.

3 He said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But the brothers could not answer him, because they were very afraid of him.
4 So Joseph said to them, “Come close to me.” When the brothers came close to him, he said to them, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold as a slave to go to Egypt.5 Now don’t be worried or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. God sent me here ahead of you to save people’s lives.6 No food has grown on the land for two years now, and there will be five more years without planting or harvest.7 So God sent me here ahead of you to make sure you have some descendants left on earth and to keep you alive in an amazing way.

8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. God has made me the highest officer of the king of Egypt. I am in charge of his palace, and I am the master of all the land of Egypt.
9 “So leave quickly and go to my father. Tell him, ‘Your son Joseph says: God has made me master over all Egypt. Come down to me quickly.10 Live in the land of Goshen where you will be near me. Your children, your grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all that you have will also be near me.

11 I will care for you during the next five years of hunger so that you and your family and all that you have will not starve.’

Amazing! The fact that Joseph stated and realized God’s hand in the matter is so awesome. Joseph was attacked by his brothers, sold into slavery, thrown into prison after wrongly being accused and then God allowed this plan to happen to save thousands of people’s lives including Joseph’s family.

So if anything I wanted to encourage you with this story that if you are going through troubling events in your life, that God still has a plan.

It definitely makes me wonder what things are inevitable in our lives and what things we can actually change. Joseph certainly was not able to overcome his situation, but rather God overcame for him. All Joseph did was put his faith and trust in God.

What about your faith in God? What do you believe? What do we really have control over? Please leave a comment below if you have some thoughts to add.

For me – I have both wronged and been wronged in my life and often times struggle with getting past the negative things and thinking positively. Like in James 1:2-4, “² My brothers and sisters, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, ³ because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience.⁴ Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need.”

Way easier just to know about this in your mind, but to actually doing it when you are experiencing troubles is definitely a challenge! But know this: God loves you and cares about you and can still be with you during your trouble.

Received an email from Soul Fuel is which a part of Dare2Share ministries and this particular section quoted is from an unknown author but seems to live up to information that is out there about St. Valentine:

According to church tradition, St. Valentine was a priest near Rome about [...]]]> source

Received an email from Soul Fuel is which a part of Dare2Share ministries and this particular section quoted is from an unknown author but seems to live up to information that is out there about St. Valentine:

According to church tradition, St. Valentine was a priest near Rome about the year 270 A.D. At that time the Roman Emperor was imprisoning Christians for not worshiping the Roman gods. During this persecution Valentine was arrested. Some say he was arrested because he was performing Christian marriages, but others say it was for helping Christians escape prison.

During the trial they asked Valentine what he thought of the Roman gods Jupiter and Mercury. Of course Valentine said they were false gods and that the God that Jesus called Father was the only true God. So the Romans threw him in prison for insulting the gods.

While in prison Valentine continued to minister. He shared the Gospel with the guards. One of the guards was a good man who had adopted a blind girl. He asked Valentine if his God could help his daughter. Valentine prayed and the girl was given her sight. The guard and his whole family, 46 people, believed in Jesus and were baptized. When the emperor heard about this, he was furious that Valentine was still making converts even in prison, so he had Valentine clubbed and beheaded.

Valentine and the prisoner’s daughter that had been blind developed a special friendship, and, before he was executed, Valentine wrote her a note of encouragement and signed it “From your Valentine.” From this sad situation we now celebrate Valentine’s Day as a special day for expressing love and friendship.

I wanted to further express that God loves YOU! It does not matter who you are, or what you are going through, or what you have been. He has written you a Valentine’s day card called the Bible because He loves you.

He wants a relationship with you and the following video explains how much God loves you and I also highly encourage you to click the link below the video to learn more.

First, I have been doing Health Insurance In Montana since 2006 and have some clients [...]]]> I’m currently a licensed agent for health and life insurance in Iowa and Montana. I wanted to go over what I currently offer for these states so if you are looking – I can help get you.

First, I have been doing Health Insurance In Montana since 2006 and have some clients already so if you happen to be reading this and you are from Montana – please just click the link and follow that process.

This post is about what I can offer for both states so let me cover that:

Health: For both states I offer Assurant Health. They are A- rated from the insurance rating companies meaning good to excellent for paying claims and they are one of the longest running health insurance companies around – since 1903.

• Visit any dentist – no network restrictions
• Easy to obtain – no medical underwriting
• Coverage available to you, your spouse and/or your dependent children

When I started: YouthMinistryIdeas.net – that is all it was to share [...]]]> This year I have been making it a goal to do a daily reading through the Bible plan.With this I have been thinking about a way to share my scripture readings with other Christians and to be able to encourage them.

When I started: YouthMinistryIdeas.net – that is all it was to share my ideas about doing youth ministry and use it as a reference for later and it has helped other youth leaders to which I’m grateful.

So I created a Facebook page called Church Online which is not a church but rather encouraging the Church (Christian Believers) while online to love and good deeds. The primary way of doing this will be via scripture verse Facebook status updates. As you can see it’s new.

For those that may want Twitter – I created a Church Online Twitter page too.

Eventually I may set up my domain name ChurchOnline.ws to a website too, but so far it just goes to the Facebook page.

If your just NOT a Fan of twitter but still want Text Message updates you still have that option with Facebook.

Here are the steps to set up your phone to get SMS (or texts) sent to your phone and the great part is if you don’t have a smart phone – you can still do this – you just need to be ok with receiving text messages on your phone.

1. Log into your Facebook
2. Click on the drop down arrow on the top right and click on account settings and then on left-hand side is Facebook Mobile. Follow the instructions. (Click on image for larger view then click back on your browser.)
3. Once you verified your phone you should be good to get Texted from whomever you want to subscribe to.

Ok now that you have your phone set up for Facebook Mobile, all you need to do is CLICK HERE and “like” Church Online’s page, then you will notice on the side that you can click to subscribe to SMS updates which means you will get a text when a Scripture is posted.

Scott, me brotherO, talkin with our Grandpa

Grandma holding baby Marisa – How Cute!

Love this pic of Christopher. He has been watching Wolverine and pretty much thinks that he is wolverine.

Well, try [...]]]> Ok, so you are like getting these annoying auto-posting things on your facebook that sometimes scare you like this picture of me with batman sunglasses on meant for a 5yr-old and you are scaring your friends or even getting them to click on the app that causes them to catch this virus.

Well, try this solution:

Once logged into your facebook, go up to your account (top right-hand corner) click on privacy settings, then scroll down and on bottom left-hand side you will see Apps and Websites – click on edit settings, then you will see where it says apps you use – click on edit settings and anything in there that you don’t recognize or want – just delete by clicking on the x

This should solve in most cases those silly little auto-posting app thingys.

Good Luck and Happy New Year!