Your Hope Bucket Empty?

If you could carry your hope in a bucket this morning, would yours be empty? If this is the case, it was probably difficult for you to get out of bed this morning. Did that cloud of failure hovering over you last night keep you awake? Are you too tired to face today?  What is your problem: addictions, incarceration, financially bankrupt, family problems, lonely, or something going on in your life giving you the thoughts of ending it.? Yes I agree, any of these could drain all hope from your bucket.  I want you to procrastinate thinking about your problems for 7 minutes.

I had a leaky outdoor water faucet a few years ago. Instead of fixing it, I just put an empty 5 gallon bucket under it.  After several hours, that bucket was running over. It filled up from one drip of water at a time.  Hope can return to you in small increments just like the drops filled my bucket. Yes, it does take time, but not as long as you may think.

Who you are, what you have done, or the mess you have created doesn't concern me at the moment.  What does concern me is you are my brother or sister in humanity and are hurting, helpless and feeling hopeless at this moment.

Ok. Let's begin.  In the morning, just before sunrise I want you to go outside, sit in a chair or on the ground, facing the east. I then want you to look at the sun rising. Just look at it rising and not after it has risen enough to blind you. I don't want you to ruin your eyes. You have enough to deal with without ruining your eyes. Have you ever done this, watching the sun rise?

Now, as you look at that beautiful powerful sun come up above the eastern horizon, ask yourself this question, "Where did the sun come from?" While you are pondering this, notice how slowly the dark is replaced by light. Now you can see everything around you.  Listen to the sounds around you. What do you hear? Birds singing? Squirrels barking? People going to work?

Feel the heat from the rising sun and the life it brings to the morning. Where did this big yellow ball come from? Did it come from nothing? Did it come into existence by a creator? Was that creator God? Guess what. He created that powerful ball in the sky to give us light, warmth, and many other numerous blessings.  Think you are worthless and evil? He still created it for you as well as the righteous.  ...for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust. (Matthew 5:45,KJV)

Get your bucket. Here is your first drop. God created the sun for you. Whether you are good or evil, he made it just for you.  Do you realize what I just said? Right now you may feel worthless, hopeless, guilty and unimportant, yet you were created by the all powerful God who created the powerful sun just for you. Read it for yourself. Then God made two great lights: the greater to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. (Genesis 1:16, NKJV)

Also, I would like to ask you to read about how another, who thought of himself as a poor and lightly esteemed man, came from nothing to be a man after God's own heart. ( 1Samuel 18:23 and Acts 13:22)  How did he come from an having an empty bucket of hope to one overflowing. He did as I am asking you to begin doing. Something had to get his attention and he was put in a position of needing fulfillment. He began to notice the rising and setting of the sun, and realizing what tremendous power was needed to create the sun that gave him warmth and light each day. Please take time to read Psalm 19:1-6. I believe this reveals to us how David prepared himself to have such a love for God, transforming his thoughts and actions to later be a man after God's own heart doing all His will.

Some of the drops in my bucket are the drops of hoping you will do this simple exercise. Feel free to set aside a least 7 minutes in the morning to watch the sunrise, notice its power and precision,your hope bucket will also fill and read the scriptures I have recommended.

If God created a powerful sun for you, why did He create you?  Did you know we are created in his image and likeness? Of all of His creation, we are the only ones created in His image. Now read Genesis 1:26-27. You are not junk, worthless or hopeless. You have just let things of this world cover up the image you were created in.  I did the same and everyone else has too. Please work with me as I show you the way you can get it back.

My email is rhepler52@gmail.com.  You need to know God cares for you. Let me help you find the way back. If you want me to personally help you by email that is fine.  I will keep it confidential or you can just read my blog post as we both study together.  The only cost is your time.

Please share this blog post with someone you know who needs help. I just want to help. I am tired of seeing people living hopeless lives.  God's word gives us hope of a better place. You have to trust Him.  He doesn't lie.

Thanks for reading. I hope in some way I can help you. Give yourself another chance. Walk down a different path. You will begin to see your life differently when you do.

Rick Hepler







 

Turning Age 66 Today and My Thoughts Looking Back

Wow, 66 years old today. A lot of years and hoping for many more.  Papaw Hepler always told me  his granddaddy, if I can still remember correctly, lived to be 3 days past his 100th birthday. Papaw's goal was to live past 100. He died at 93, but he would probably have made it if he had not smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day and instead of drinking all that whiskey had left it in the bottles.

I have started getting in my office at 5:00 every morning to study and write. This morning I paused my writing project for a few minutes to reflect back on my 66 years. Looking back, the time has flown by much quicker than when I was way back there living it. My time is much more valuable to me now than it was back then, because I do not have as much of it left.

Reflecting back on the good times is easy, but acknowledging my failures, not so easy. But my failures have driven me to something I love doing.  I honor those failures as teachers, along with the other great teachers I have had from first grade through college. Today I am jotting down some thoughts of what I have learned, some funny, some sad, and some I just don't know how to categorize. I imagine many of you could do the same. Remember, these are my thoughts and I am accountable for them. I am going to go for it.

1. Friends are great to have, but the one's you have from childhood are always special.
2. I have had many great teachers, but my failures were the greatest.
3. I have cherished my courage to be vulnerable. My prior years I tried to please everyone.  My desire now is to please God and everything else will fall into place.
4. I try not to be as cantankerous, but it still slips up on me now and then.
5. Worry is an enemy and I am not going to give it my valuable time.
6. At 66 years old, I can't go back and start a new beginning, but I can begin today on having a great ending.
7. To the young and unmarried. Don't let your first blind date scar you for life. Go on and go on a second blind date. I did and married her. She is absolutely the best thing that has happened to me.
8. In life, we all need to hit a walk off home run, but if we never get up to bat we never will.
9. What I admire most about professional athletes, is not the money they earn, the way they play, but the discipline they have in getting there.
10. We were created by God in His image and His likeness. Don't let anyone teach you we evolved billions of years ago from some slime in the ocean. I had some college professors that probably thought I was stupid. They are dead now. Sad to say, they now know who the stupid one was.
11. I am not going to vote for someone who wants to kill innocent babies in the womb and doesn't want me to call a man a man and a woman a woman. PERIOD!
12. I don't follow the herd unless I know where they are going and I know the leader .  We have too much of that nonsense going on today as it is.
13. Live right and die right. This can only be done by living the way God has told us to live. In doing so, you will make a difference in this world and will have lived the purpose for which God has created you.
14. I am so glad that tattoos were not the fad in 1970. I would probably have gotten one, which I would now probably have regretted.
15. I have learned it is not my outside appearance that builds integrity, but what is in the heart. Remember, "The pure in heart will see God", and I want to see God.
16. You wouldn't give your children counterfeit $100 bills, so make sure you don't give them a counterfeit plan of salvation.
17. Humility, repentance, seeking God's face, and fervent prayers are the only things that will make our country better, not who we elect to govern it.
18. In 1970 there were about 90 percent or more people in this country who professed to be Christians. In that period of the seventies, prayer was taken out of schools, the law was established allowing women to murder their unborn child, and sensual living began to be the lifestyle of many.  Only a few got this started, with 90 percent professing to be Christians. I read the other day by the year 2020 that number will be around 66 percent. Old people we better watch it. It will be us next. We better get to looking useful in our old age or we will be euthanized to save the government money.
19. When I die, and I don't know when that will be, whoever does my funeral, please don't tell the audience that I was a faithful Christian and I loved the Lord. If they don't know it by then, Christ won't either. So it is not going to make much difference will it?
20. We live in a fallen world and life is not fair sometimes. 
21. Remember this. Everyone shouldn't get a trophy and everyone doesn't go to heaven. You must work for the one and live a life of gratitude, obedience and love for the Christ who made going to heaven possible.  Earning a trophy brings value to it. Christ dying in our place shows us how much God loves us. Oh, if we would only love Him as much.
22. Don't let their tattoos, addictions and felonies run you off. Yes, some are just plain evil, but some just made  several wrong choices. Christ said for us to even love our enemies and pray for them. I am not saying these are my enemies, but if I should love and pray for my enemies should I not also love everyone?
23. Looking back on my life, I have many regrets. Looking forward in life, I am going for what I used to think was impossible. I don't want to be good, I want to be great with what God has given me. I want to erase all my regrets, and to use them to propel me forward in living for God.
24. Just because I am 66 doesn't mean I am dead yet. I still have a lot of faults and weaknesses to correct with God's help. I want the fruit of God's Spirit to be seen in me, not because of duty or guilt, but because I love Him and this fruit makes this fallen world a better place to live for everyone.
25. Well, I think 25 thoughts are enough for now. Looking back is tough. Made lots of mistakes. I just have to work toward my goals today. One last thing. I want to live the rest of my life encouraging, loving and being a Christ-like example to all I meet. The greatest gift and example I can leave to my family, the day of my funeral, is many coming up to them saying, "Your dad had an influence on me to live a better life or your dad always prayed for me"..

Remember these are just my thoughts. Age has changed my thinking over the years. Hope you enjoyed reading. To my old friends, "Love you guys", you are part of my life. To my new friends, I am looking forward to knowing you better, loving you and making you part of my life.

I thank everyone who has wished me a "Happy Birthday" today and also for you spending the time to read what I write. I am working to be a better writer and the only way I get get better is to write more. Sometimes I may bore you and sometimes my writing may challenge you and me.

Thank you so much!
Rick Hepler

Please send comments to rhepler52@gmail.com .

Sometimes You Just Need to Go Against The Grain

"Going Against the Grain”

If you say that an idea or action goes against the grain, you mean it is very difficult for you to accept it or do it, because it conflicts with your previous ideas, beliefs or principles.  -Collins English Dictionary

I have made many mistakes in my life.  Consequences always follow wrong choices or decisions and they certainly do not discriminate. It doesn’t matter who you are, they will show up sooner or later.

Letting the crowd, peers, friends, and family formulate your ideas, beliefs and principles can cause unwanted consequences, guilt and regrets. Going against the grain can be very difficult.  So how can we go against the grain, why would we, when should we, and what are the benefits?

Today I am writing about someone who went against the grain of the traditional thinking of his time, producing impossible actions with amazing results. If you and I want to go from average to great in using the talents God created in us, we can follow the same pattern as he did.

That someone was the lowly shepherd boy David.  How did he prepare his thinking and develop the courage to go against the grain at such a young age, around 15 years of age, among all the naysayers?

 The Preparation: Knowing Who Created You.

It was the best thing that could have happened to him.  His father gave him the job of tending his sheep.  Evidently, the father thought it was a menial job. His father didn’t even think of David when Samuel came to anoint the next King of Israel.  Jesse sent David’s seven brothers, without David, for Samuel to choose and anoint the next king.  Why did he not send David?

I don’t know if David enjoyed being a shepherd or not, but in doing so, he was placed in a position to discover his God, know this God, and to highly reverence this God.  What was the key of tending those sheep? “Be still and know that I am God”. (Psalm 46:10)

Was Psalm 19 written because of David's spending lonely days and nights in the wilderness overseeing his father’s sheep?  I believe it was and influenced David to serve God and to reveal God’s glory to the children of Israel.  The first 6 verses of this Psalm reveal God in nature. The next 5 in His law and the last 3 reveal David’s belief and trusting in God by his prayers to Him.

God sought a man after His own heart (1Sam. 13:14) and said, "I have found My servant David." (Psalm 89:20) Again, in the New Testament, God is quoted as saying, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will." (This is taken from 1Sam. 13:14 and quoted in Acts 13:22)

David was prepared by seeking the One who created him, having all trust in this Creator (God) and laying his heart out to this God in prayer.  A great pattern to follow if you want to bring out the best of yourself.

Samuel, the priest, attempted to go with the grain in choosing the next king, God wanted, by his outward appearance.  Don’t we do the same?  God plainly lets all of us know in this important matter, "For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."  (1 Samuel 16:5)

Even David’s father Jesse, didn’t believe David needed to be with them at the sacrifice.  He left him uninvited with the sheep.  Evidently, this father did not know his youngest son’s heart either.  God knew his heart and out of this heart came devotion, trust, and desiring a relationship of fervent prayers to Him.

David was given something by God after Samuel anointed him. "…and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." (1 Samuel 16:13) David cherished God’s Spirit upon him. How do I know? The prayer of David’s repentance in Psalm 51: 10-11, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit in me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."

David learned about God in the wilderness while protecting his father’s sheep. He knew God’s word was truth, and more importantly he knew Him well enough that he unloaded himself in prayer daily.  He reverenced God’s glory and he would serve Him in honor and do his best to reveal to all His glory.  I believe that is why God said, “I have found David, a man after My own heart, who will do all of My will".  This is what God wants in you and me.  If we remember this, God’s glory will be shown by us in our generation and we will live to obey all of His will as David.

So, David was prepared to follow and obey God’s will wherever it would take him.  As Christians, we should expect no less from ourselves.


( In the next few post I am going to show how thoughts of living in this world can become so ingrained into our thinking that our faith is slowly, and sometimes subtly, dissipated. We as Christians have slowly allowed the ways of the world, (going with the world's grain of thinking and living) to influence our decisions of the way we act and the lifestyles we manifest with that line of thinking.

Is this important? Should we begin (and that we includes me) to notice how the world view is affecting our living as God would have us to live.  Do we delight in the Lord any more? Is our heart's desire to do His will.

Choosing to live by the ways of the world or the commandments of God is our choice.  In the next few post on "Going Against the Grain" I want to use the same pattern David did.

Our children and grandchildren, in a culture of instability, need to have a solid faith to stand on. They must first learn to love God and believe Him.

In my first book, "The Heart Behind the Stone: Develop a Giant Slaying Heart" is a good book for your teenager to read on how David prepared his faith and love of God in order to face and defeat his giants.  Also, I write about the three giants that have taunted the moral fiber of this great country in which we live.  Have you listened to the news the last several months?  Do you want your  children to live as the world or the way God directs them?)

What motivates us to go against evil? Are we afraid of going against the grain of world view? David wasn't and the three giants we are faced with today can be put down just as David put down Goliath.  All we need are men and women after God's own heart. Don't you think it is time? Are you ready to be like David and have "A Cause"? The cost is only $2.99. You can click here to go to: http://amzn.to/1Mi2AXW to purchase online.  This is a Kindle E-book.

Thank you!

Rick Hepler