Let’s pray first… yes, for a biblical revival and a spiritual awakening here. It’s happened four times in my Land before. God can do it again!

http://kurtwvs.tumblr.com/post/150403456703/there-is-just-too-much-hopelessness-in-the-air

Who does God want to reach? The ひきこもり or 引き籠もり. The self-confined. The young, the hurting and the empty people. You.

Hikikomori (hiˌkēkəˈmôri):

A young adult who has withdrawn from social life and society, a recluse who fails to properly prioritize, is self cut off, often obsessed with TV, Internet and video games and rarely ever leaves one's room. As people refuse to leave their house or flat they start to think that their isolation from people is normal and they lose all interaction skills in their homes for say six months plus at a time. Could be mute and somewhat nocturnal–might not get the phone, the door or speak to anyone, often sleeps all day and emerges to visit the fridge and do their big screen stuff by night. 

Okay, so neglect, hurt, aimless hopelessness, and emptiness are all real. But choose to forgive and live footloose and fancy free - you won't be young forever. Make the most of each day and moment as you were designed to. Find out why you are here. Youth lasts about as long as smoke. 

So, remove sorrow, addictions, selfishness, grief, lazy-slothfulness, boredom, entitlement, passive-resentment and anger from your heart . Turn from sin–it destroys. Put away inner pain, porn, evil and time-wasting from you, because youth and the prime of your life are fleeting away. Live to give what will make a difference in your generation. Why feel sorry about all the squandering later on?   

Who does God want to Help with a capital H? The lonely self-confined Hikikomori: ひきこもり or 引き籠もり. You! Why? Cuz He loves you fiercely and has a meaningful, unique, excellent plan for you. Your life is no worthless accident!

"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, 'I find no pleasure in them.'"  12/1eccl. 

"Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me." 27/10psalm

"Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted." 25/16ps.

"God sets the lonely in families, He leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land." 68/6ps.niv

"A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother." 18/24prov. The one you and I need most today is Jesus Christ. 

"It is nothing to die (please don’t make it happen).  It is frightful not to live (but any day of the week you can choose to die to selfish ways and really live)." — Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, emph.mine

#Also see 1Cor13:11#Ecclesiastes 12:1#Read and wisely apply the Bible

Here’s A January Update For You...

What can I say? It's 10:09 AM and we be doin' fine. Trusting for more open doors to go through. Liney and I are still zealous and praying together in 2011.

Man, and it looks like there's some extra nice weather outside in Dallas today. Love that. Liney is home painting a room a medium shade of blue today so she is happy and joyous at the same time. We hope you are doing well too!

Been workin' on paying our taxes again. Fun. NOT! But it's that time of year again. We've been out hiking some too lately. I really want to get back on my mountain-bike soon.  Really enjoy that. And even more than mere exercise outdoors, we would love to serve God in some new areas this year reaching more people needing some edification.   

Our kids, like all American kids today it seems, need some prayer. Thanks in advance. Our second son, Nathan ..after some hospitalization following four tours of duty as a sniper in Iraq.. has unfortunately been diagnosed with the highest form of Bi-polar that there is. He indeed had some major problems starting in his teen years, but we never knew all that. Thank God there are some meds that address his condition—we pray he just remains on them. Many people with this do not.

I not sure what you might be dealing with where you live, but please know that no matter how you feel, up or down at times, and no matter what is going on around you there, that you are highly valued and very important to God, who is indeed by your side. We don't have to do a thing to be in His presence—we already are. He's omnipresent. It might not always be the easiest place to shine for Christ where you work and live (not sure), but Jesus Christ can help you as you continually yield to His Spirit, and He indeed has a good plan for you. Sounds kind of cliché I'm sure, but please don't give up hope because things can change ..even overnight in amazing ways at times.. if you and I will only trust the Lord and obey.

I just heard the latest U.S. unemployment figures. Still not good. Man, I think it's the right time for this Nation to get back to the God of the Bible in repentance, confession, humility, and faith ..and to turn back to His principles that work.. that made this country great in the first place. Like me, do you ever ask yourself, what is it going to take to get our attention? It has been 20 months, after all, since the national unemployment rate last stood as low as 9.4 percent. In December joblessness was down from 9.8 percent in November, but here are some current aspects to take into account...  

* As Bloomberg News reports, unemployment ballooned to 9.8 percent in November because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics undercounted 70,000 jobs that were added to the economy that month and in October as well.

* The 103,000 jobs added in December fall well short of the median job growth of 150,000 positions  forecast in a Bloomberg News Survey that preceded the release of Friday's employment data.

* If you wonder why joblessness dropped four-tenths of a point in December, the Economic Policy Institute says look no further than the 260,000 Americans who left the labor force last month. 

* The EPI analysis also reveals that the workforce "participation rate" is now 64.3 percent -- "a stunning new low for the recession."

* The upshot, again from the EPI: "Incredibly, the U.S. labor force is now smaller than it was before the recession started, though it should have grown by over 4 million workers to keep up with the working-age population growth over this period."

* Finally, this, the Labor Department says 8.9 million Americans are still employed involuntarily in part-time jobs, 2.6 million displaced workers were not counted in the report because they had not looked for jobs during the four weeks covered by the monthly employment survey and another 1.3 million people have simply given up hope of finding a job.

Hey gang, it's easy for the Lord to provide for His people and He does want what's best for us. Just put Him first. If you've been suffering some and part of that is your own fault ..or not your fault at all.. I am so sorry about all that. There's no condemnation in Christ.

We love you and God loves you even more! Come as you are and change. Listen, He's more concerned with where you are headed, than where you came from.

You already know that all have sinned and in addition, God took out all His "mad at" on Jesus on the Cross so to speak (He wasn't really mad at His sinless son, but Christ got treated as if He were the sinner).

My point? God ain't mad at you or me, though He still intensely hates sin for how it severely destroys so many lives and people groups. We need to hate sin, and Satan too and not be involved in any works of the flesh. Sounds religious, but it ain't. This is just very practical-speak for a nation in our condition, that are led by the type of people leading our government. 

My other points? Your life does matter to Him and His Kingdom, no matter how you feel! And the Lord can bring good out of any bad if we serve Him (see Romans 8 in the Bible).

My following points? Please be encouraged to love the Lord, to seek Him and His will, and then to hang tight with Jesus Christ going the distance with Him. Why? Because, "God is love, and he (or she) who abides in love abides in God, and God in Him" (1 Jn. 4:16, nkjv). Just immerse yourself in a simple, candid love relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - and yeah, simply abide there! Find a Bible teach church to worship with.

I do wanna be uplifting for you, without bein' preachy. Sorry if I'm coming off that way. But I just love how God the Father and God the Son do not have a hard laboring complicated type of kinship, nor a business partnership, nor some cold or robitic legal kind of friendship, nor some competing dictatorship (you know how ruthless those can be), nor a mandatory, forced, or egotistical fellowship, nor an obligatory guardianship.

No, but They (the Members of the Trinity) enjoy a simple, straightforward, loving relationship. How do you spell harmony and order? That's what they have always known. Yes, and we can also keep it simple with them too.

Their union has existed since long before the earth and all the stars were formed! God doesn't change. It's way cool to me that we can be welcomed into such an awesome eternal sphere of a ministry partnership too—a union of grace and unconditional love because of the blood of Jesus applied by faith, not works. It happens when we are born of God's Spirit, and as we continue to walk in His Spirit. Go for Him. Sincerely, kurt

Ever Seen A Ship Or A Watch Up Close? Can Ya Make Sense Of It?

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…" ~Romans 8:28-29

Painful trials, vicious personal tragedy, personal attacks, temptation, sin, stinging setbacks or unexpected reversals.. hugenormus loss, stumbling here and there, embarrassing failure—what have you been through?

Got any really ugly stuff like these things in your past?

Perhaps you've had a bad day today, a bad month, a really bad decade, or thus far.. a really bad life? I really hope you are having a good day, but I want to encourage you.. just in case.. not to give up or become despondent, hopeless or given to self-pity.

In Christ, your best days are indeed ahead of you ..yup, unto the furtherance of His Kingdom and unto His eternal glory as you live wholeheartedly for Him!

Wanna tell you about a suffering soul-winner, a local church pastor that was trying his best to make some sense out of his family's darkest, most horrific tragedy.

He was emotionally besieged as you could imagine, basically coming up empty handed and without words or any relief. He just couldn't on his own and started to pray for God's strength. You see, his son had committed suicide. Ever met anyone who has lost a loved one by this selfish sin? It breaks your heart in half!

There were things that this fisherman of sorts knew and felt he understood ..and many other things that he just didn't get. I know that I wouldn't fully get it if I were in his shoes at the time.

How could God allow this to happen when He is all-powerful and all-knowing? Couldn't He have overridden or blocked the serious folly of his son ..early enough? Many ministers totally leave God and ditch the ministry after going through such brutal and merciless circumstances. Many Christians backslide and stay angry at the Lord for a lifetime after experiencing similar pain. I know some who have and some who refused to.   

But after ten days this believing minister did return to his pulpit. Under such massive duress he read his text from the familiar words of Paul found in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Yeah, visibly shaken, radically care-worn, shell-shocked and struggling for some composure, the minister said:

"I cannot make my son's suicide fit into this passage. It's impossible for me to see how anything good can come out of it. Yet I realize that I only see in part. I only know in part. It's like the miracle of the shipyard. Almost every part of our great oceangoing vessels are made of steel. If you take any single part—be it a steel plate out of the hull or the huge rudder—and throw it into the ocean, it will sink. Steel doesn't float! But when the shipbuilders are finished, when the last plate has been riveted in place, then that massive steel ship is virtually unsinkable. Taken by itself, my son's suicide is senseless. Throw it into the sea of Romans 8:28 and it sinks. Still, I believe that when the Eternal Shipbuilder has finally finished, when God has worked out his perfect design, even this senseless tragedy will somehow work to our eternal good."

Yes, even this tragedy will be put together to serve the high purpose of the God who experienced His own son being murdered. It's because of faith—this pastor had a vital relationship with Jesus Christ and new supernatural strength from Him.

For the committed believer there are no permanent tragedies. For the committed unbeliever there are no permanent triumphs. ~Erwin Lutzer

"Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:  but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." ~1 Peter 4:12-13

Read the entire entry? Are you born anew and in His direct will today?