Identity in Christ

 

I was sitting in a pastors office today just talking about different things. A famous name in the apologetic rim was brought up. I’ve noticed in my own life that I often marvel at preachers for the way they talk, or the depth of their teaching, or how they articulate their stories. Too often I’ve found myself wanting preach like that preacher or have the same influence that someone has. This is thinking with a false identity. It’s pretty common ethics to known that you shouldn’t pretend to be something your not, or pretend to be someone your not. The only person we should be like is Jesus. In 1St Corinthians 11:1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. Paul was writing to a congregation. If you have studied Paul you know that the man he was at the time of this writing was not the man we read about before Paul’s conversion. So what was he saying? Paul wasn’t saying that people should strive to be like him. He was saying that everything you saw about Paul that was God like, or of God, imitate that. The bible talks about in Matthew 5:14 how we are the light of the world. So its not us that people see, it is the light. Take a light house for instance. The purpose of a light house is to keep ships from coming in too close to shore and wrecking. The lighthouse stands tall, but without the beacon of light at the top it is useless and has no purpose for 1) being where it is located 2) and it has no destiny if it is not lit.

How many times do we ask the question “What is my purpose?” or “Why am I not being blessed?” I do believe that it all has to do with the fact that we need to seek God and seek His will and purpose for our lives. We need to seek His guidance. Lets recount the life of 1St Kings 17 we read about how God used ravens to bring bread to Elijah. But Elijah would not have gotten that blessing had it not been for his obedience to go where God told Him to go. I am going into a phase of my life right now that I’ve got an opportunity on the table and I’ve prayed about it. And I haven’t heard a confirmed yes or no. What do you do in that case? Sometimes God is waiting on your decision. If I choose to go and take this opportunity, I know I will be blessed. I tend to believe that God will tell you no if you start to make a decision, but on the stuff he approves, you shouldn’t have to ask for a yes or a no. I am not saying that you should avoid asking God for guidance. The bible says in Psalms 37:23 says that the foot steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord. But get this, if Christ died and now lives inside of you, and you are dead to sin, and you live by the spirit, then your decisions as a fleshly human shouldn’t make a difference, you should be moved to make decisions according to the Spirit. When I say that your fleshly human decisions shouldn’t make a difference what I am trying to convey is that you are not making decisions of the flesh, but you are making every decision by the Spirit. And the Bible says in John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. So if we are really a Christian why do we make fleshly decisions instead of ones by the Spirit? Because we all fall short. But be of good cheer, for Jesus came into this world to give you life and life more abundantly. You have the ability to live a righteous life, the fact is that we choose not too. When we are truly dead to the flesh, we won’t carry that dead man around with us, in case we need to get into the flesh. We will put that old body in the ground and walk in Spirit and in Truth all the time.

What does all this have to do with our identity in Christ? I’m glad you asked. Everything that we are, or aspire to be should be found in Jesus. See I am not a writer, but because God prompted me to share my thoughts with you, I became a writer. And because of that I have the ability to operate as a writer. I don’t write all the time, only when I feel like God wants me to share. So therefore I do not own the title of writer, does that make sense? I am a minister of the gospel, but the title isn’t on me everywhere I go. In a coffee shop people don’t address me as Pastor, nor do I require that of people. Because I am a servant of Christ. I serve at the pleasure of Christ. Why would I not want people calling me Pastor? Because people react totally different around you because you have a title. Titles in my opinion can be a very worldly thing. People with titles must be very careful, because with a title comes the ability to really inflict pain in someones live ether intentional or not.  I can operate as a writer, pastor, missionary, comedian, counselor, friend, but its important to realize that I am not all those things at once. Christ is all things to everyone. And I am not Christ. I am a follower and imitator of Christ, but I can only operate in one or two gifts at the same time, under the authority of the Spirit.

In order to do this and carry out the task God may allow into my life at any given moment. I must always be ready. So when someone ask when do I allow time for me, and the answer is I don’t. If I allow time for me, in my mind I am setting myself up for failure already. Never stop seeking God… EVER. Life is too short to clean up scandals, and misfits, and “you were in the wrong places at the wrong times with no accountability.” We put ourselves into these situations most of the time without even realizing it. Be careful what you hear, say, and do. The devil is always looking for a chance to hit your weak spot. I’m not giving the devil credit but one thing he does well is finds your weak areas. And don’t think for a second you can let your guard down, because His main objective is to kill, steal and destroy. Have we really in America watered the threat down that much. The devil uses things like pornography, and drugs and drinking and the love of money and lust to destroy good men and women.  When will these tactics pop up on our spiritual radar, and we actually see and take action to destroy the attack? The Threat is real.

I wan to leave you with this thought. You do not self identify, God will tell you exactly who you are, and who your suppose to be. Maybe not all in one night, or prayer, but it will be revealed to you if you keep the faith and keep seeking Him. As always I pray this blog has blessed you. I pray that the blessing God gives me extends to you and overflows your life. Praise God and Amen.

Blessings,

Trevor Stevens
Phil 4:13

Dealing with people who have a busy life?

Written by Trevor Stevens 3/26/17
I’d like to take this time and share with you a little bit about myself.  My name is Trevor Stevens, I’m 23 years old. My vocation title on paper is a Fleet Manager, however off paper I do a verity of work. I am also an ordained minister, and a human behavior enthusiast (I’ll explain what that means a little later on.) I am a 20-year cancer survivor. I was given a 10% chance to live. I thank God for healing me. Due to the cancer and the treatment, I struggle with some lasting side effects. I struggle with processing information. My brain sometimes can’t handle a lot of things going on. My ability to learn the way most schools taught, would have been the death of my education. I was homeschooled by my mother. I learned all the subjects that public and private schools taught, but the way that the information was given to me was different. I am a hands-on learner. I often get tired of reading books and the problem is I can’t connect to books, because of my information processing issues. So, I gave up, right? Wrong. Instead of reading a book on how to fix a car, I learned by trial and error. For example, If I read a book telling me how to change brakes on a car, you probably wouldn’t want me changing your brakes. However, someone sat down with me and showed me how to change brakes on a car and guess what? I understood how to do the job. I learned nearly everything I know by this process. I watch people (not in a creepy way) to learn. Schools in my area have since changed their ways to accommodate all the students who learn this way. In saying that, there are people who never had cancer or any issues that I have that need to learn this way, so that the information being given, can reach its highest yield. I am not saying that reading books are bad, nor do I completely shy away from reading books. For as many learners out their like me, there are just as many learners who learn the traditional way. If we all learn the same way, and we all are lead to the answers the same way, then there will never be progress. Some of the biggest leaps in progression were due to “outside the box thinkers”. Just to name a few, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, James Dyson, Anita Roddick. I am in no way trying to measure up to these great inventors, and of course there are thousands more I could mention.

 

I said earlier I was a human behavior enthusiast. I don’t hold a PhD in psychiatry, and I don’t claim to. I meet new people all the time, and let’s be honest the majority of people want to draw conclusions and judge based on their own lives and experience. I know this because I was once that way. As time went on, I began to realize that under the same type of scenarios people tend to make the same decisions. With that being said this isn’t always the case and there are many scenarios I haven’t seen. I enjoy understanding why people feel happy, or why they feel sad. What is going on in a person’s mind who has suicidal thoughts? I have known of a few couples who have divorced, but to everyone including me, they seemed to have it all together. I would like to make this clear, I’m not nosy, and I don’t barge in and ask peoples business. My thought process is, (1) Why did this happen? And (2) Can it be fixed. I care about people, and being a preacher of the gospel, I encounter all types of people in all different walks of life. Recently I’ve been at the funeral home quite a bit for family and friends. I’m interested in helping people. There is a fine line between being nosy and helping someone. One rule I’ve made for myself, is I never ask questions first. I let a person know that I am there for them, and if and when they come to me, then I know it’s not that I am being nosy, it’s that they need or want my opinion. The entire reason for this blog is to perhaps help someone. I also believe that in helping someone, it’s a private matter. We have all heard the term “Doctor-patient confidentiality”. For me its Trevor-human being confidentiality. This is a policy I’ve adopted and here is why. My first and foremost job is protecting an individual’s dignity. They came to me to ask advice, they didn’t come to me to spread gossip about them. If I break this, their trust they had in me is gone. Trust is what you have to build any resolution on. It’s not enough for a person to just love you, or listen to you. Remember I am an outside the box thinker, so I have to bring something new to the table. Or maybe I am helping someone see someone else’s point of view.  I have some really close friends and we talk about anything and everything in our lives, we have made it plain that nothing is off the table when we are talking, we have built that trust over serval years. We are all very different people, we all seem to have different religious views, and we all have different convictions about various topics. One thing we have never done is fought about issues that we differ on. We respect the right to have a different opinion. This kind of friendship in my opinion is the most difficult to find, and maintain. Now you may be thinking I am simply on a rant about my personal experience with human behavior. I’ve not lost my place, yet anyways. I wanted to share that because maybe it will help you and your relationships and friendships, maybe even with your family.  Let me give you an example of dealing with a situation.

Life is so busy in general, it’s a wonder we even have social lives. I want to conclude this blog by expressing how important it is to make time for friends and family. I could write a hundred pages on this topic, but I felt the need to challenge you to try to understand why people do what they do, instead of just shunning people without understanding what’s going on in their lives.  And realize also that you may not get closure for the way people treat you. Sometimes you have to just let things slide. God is in control and we have to trust Him no matter what comes up. Life is too short to be worrying all the time. We must choose to live. Thank you for reading. As always God Bless.

Trevor Stevens

PS: You can email me at any time at trevorstevens70@gmail.com

Shoot me an email and leave a comment or question and I will get back with you shortly. Thank you and God Bless.

Forgiveness

Written by Trevor Stevens                                                                                                        3-17-17
Edited by Amber English

John 8:1-11 (KJV)

“Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

 

Jesus has always had intriguing personality traits to me. How can one, condemn at the same time extend grace, while teaching a lesson and freeing the captive. Of course, that is something only Jesus can do. Though this blog is about forgiveness we have to look to the source from which forgiveness came, Jesus. Without Jesus forgiveness wouldn’t exist. He is the cornerstone of all truth and all truth is found in Him, why would we look elsewhere for the truth? Knowing the truth I am set free, free from bondage of guilt and shame. Sin has been extracted from my life. Because when I met Jesus and invited him to have a home in my life, I had to give up my way of living prior to having Him in my life.

 

The Scribes and Pharisees objective was not to condemn the woman, but to accuse Jesus of breaking the law. Now what if Jesus decided to use your situation like that. Jesus uses my situation like that every day. I am a 20-year cancer survivor, and I have a few things about me that one might consider a limitation. For one, my stature, I stand at 4 foot 11 inches tall. I look like a kid and when people ask about it, I get to tell them about how Jesus healed me of leukemia when I was young. I had a 10 percent chance to live. Now Jesus allowed a bad thing to happen; He wasn’t the cause of my cancer. When the natural things in life happen to us we always want someone to blame, when many times no one is to blame. Now we are talking about forgiveness, so maybe we need to ask God for forgiveness instead off blaming Him for something that is not His fault. I know I certainly need too.

Lastly, I’d like to talk about Jesus’ reaction. I like to picture Jesus in this scenario having a claim, gentle, yet stern demeanor, along with a half way grin knowing how things were going to turn out. He used His position to not only to forgive the woman but to also make the Scribes and Pharisees question their positions on the law. Jesus was the law, He was the standard. The great thing about Jesus is He always offers a better solution to your problem then you could possibly ever dream of. We must learn to fully trust Jesus with every aspect of our lives. This is essential to living a full life. Just as Jesus forgave the woman, we must forgive others. Jesus could have also judged this woman but He did not. He offered her help. It’s easy to judge and I am guilty of it. But it is better to offer help than to judge. Judging gets neither party anywhere, but helping gives the other person an option to change.

 

God Bless you this week and remember to Forgive.

Please email me if you have questions or prayer request. trevorstevens70@gmail.com

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Trevor Stevens

What Is Best For Me?

Written By Trevor Stevens                                                                                                 03-07-2017
Edited By Amber English

Inside of me there is a man who tells me who I should and shouldn’t be. His name is Jesus. In order for there to be enough room inside I had to kick out the former resident, my flesh. My flesh told me for years who I should be, what I was going to do, and it made decisions for me. Some decisions I made were not even thought out, I just made those choices without any reason or logic. My flesh had a huge impact on how my life was going. In the first part of this blog, I want to go in depth with my flesh. I want you to understand the difference between living a flesh based life vs a Spirit based life. I am using myself as an example. I don’t want you think that I am something special, or I am elite or anything of that nature. I am just a regular guy with a passion and desire to listen and obey the spirit to help point you to a better life. It all starts right here.

Sometimes I am driving down the road and I see stuff that I want, I think “if I just had the money to buy that car I would be happy.” Or I see a pretty young lady, and I think about how nice it would be to take her to dinner and get to know her. The point is I see things or people and I automatically assume that in some way if they were in my possession, or in my life, that it would better my life. This is built on false thinking because at the root of this is greed, and my desire to gain something that I don’t need. I would love to go out on the town carrying on, talking to the ladies, being a real player, and I don’t mean to sound prideful, but I’d be good at sweeping the lasses off their feet. I’d be good at charming the ladies. If I had money falling off the tree in the backyard, I’d have every kind of sports car you could think of. I’d have a nice truck, and a huge mansion and huge garage to store all my toys in. I’d be hanging out with a different woman every night. But I wouldn’t be happy and I wouldn’t be satisfied. If all I had to do is lay around in a lazy boy rocking chair and count my money, I wouldn’t be happy or satisfied. You may be thinking how do I know this. It’s because I know who the old me was, I know that I would be out there doing all those things, if I wouldn’t have kicked my flesh out. No, I am not the same man I was five years ago, I had a different way of thinking then. I was only focused on what made me happy, and frankly I still ask that same thing, but it’s different now. I will explain in a moment. I kicked my flesh out to make way for Jesus a long time ago. This made it a little easier to say no to my flesh that kept knocking on my door, trying to find vacancy. But I can assure you there is no vacancy, at least for the flesh to move back in.

I don’t drink alcohol because somehow deep inside I know I would only like the hard stuff and I would become addicted to it, should I ever reach for a bottle. I’d be the type of person who would get wasted every night, and run up a huge tab. Besides I like the idea of being sober and sharp minded. At all times being able to give account to myself and to others if need be. I don’t see the point or the fun in drinking until you don’t remember, passing out on a bathroom floor and waking up the next morning with the worst headache you’ve ever had, and not remembering where you were or what you were doing.  This is the same reason I’ve never used drugs for recreation. The only time I have ever used drugs are when they were prescribed to me by a medical doctor. By the time, I was old enough to be influenced by drugs I had already kicked my flesh to the curb and invited Jesus to dwell in my life. So those things don’t appeal to me. My entire lifestyle has changed.

This part I am excited to tell you about. Most people can tell you the date when they got saved. I remember the night, I remember the place but I don’t remember the date. All I know is that I got saved. A change took place in my heart like I have never felt before. The day I kicked my flesh to the curb and allowed Jesus to change my life forever. Looking back, I really had no idea how bad of shape my life looked. Growing up in a Christian home, I learned right from wrong at an early age. I was never the rebellious type, and I didn’t like to get into trouble. I always knew that deep down inside of my heart that I would get caught if I was to try stealing or lying. Those two things I would never be good at and I was quite alright with that. In fact, every single time I lied it didn’t take long before I was telling on myself because I felt so guilty with myself, that I had to make it right. Now I know I am painting a picture of me being this perfect kid and I can tell you right now that wasn’t the case. I have gotten into trouble before but nothing that wasn’t corrected. I’m not a perfect guy. Sometimes I lust and in doing so commit adultery according to the bible. Sometimes I lust for material things. Sometimes I am greedy and I don’t give back. You get the point. But the greatness to it all is that when I got saved those things no longer had power unless I gave them power. I had a choice to give those things power in my life or I had the choice to say those things didn’t have any power over my life. By inviting Jesus into my life, I gained a power over my life, to overcome; to walk in victory. And that is what I do every single day now. I am tired of being sick, and oppressed, and lonely, scared and afraid. Those things are not how God intended for us to live. Now I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow but that is the beauty of my life, I don’t have too because Jesus is in control of every part of it. In fact, at the time of writing this I am struggling with something. This is Monday morning at 6:00am eastern time zone. I have been waiting this whole weekend to find out the results of my ultrasound to say whether or not I have to have gallbladder surgery. Am I scared or worried, not a bit. I trust God and anything that happens to me has to be approved by God. Jesus loves me? Jesus conquered death when He rose again, and He is not only on my side, but He fights for me? Which means I can’t lose. I can’t die until He approves it. The bible says that it is appointed unto man once to die. I got to do it once I know it’s coming, why should I worry about when? You haven’t got a question that God doesn’t have an answer for. That is the God I serve.  You haven’t said a prayer that God hasn’t heard. You don’t have a need that God can’t meet. Now if God is able, then why are you living like He can’t? Why don’t you believe it? God said, “Ask and you shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” Matthew 7:7

Do you not believe the words God said? I have never asked God for anything that He didn’t answer in one way or another, not one time. God has always answered my prayers. I am telling you that if you get on your knees and ask Jesus to come into your heart, He will change your life forever, for the better. Now I got a little off topic but that is normal, because when Jesus gets a hold of your heart, you can’t help but talk about it. The material things in life are only related to the flesh. The want to be desired by someone is related to the flesh. We all want to be wanted right? You are either 100% focused on God; or you are too consumed with yourself, there is no in between. When you are 100% focused on God, you will only want what He desires for you, but when you are focused elsewhere you will fail 9 times out of 10. Let me say, what God desires for you, and the plans that He has for you, are a million times better than what you could ever come up with. I have done so much that I would have never thought about doing and I owe it all to Jesus. Jesus gets the glory for everything in my life because without Jesus, there would be no me. Thank you for reading this blog I hope it blesses you. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to email me at trevorstevens70@gmail.com if you have prayer request or would like to comment on this blog or have a topic you would like to see in the future. Thanks again.

With love,
Trevor Stevens

Who I am in Christ

1^st Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

 

In my first blog, I talked about who I am. In today’s blog we are going to talk a little bit more in depth with “Who I am.” God laid this on my heart; If there is one thing I am certain of, it is that Jesus has a plan for my life. Maybe you’re reading this and you don’t know who Jesus is. Or maybe you have always thought, “there has to be more to life than the way I have been living.”  Well first let us talk a little about Jesus.  Jesus was born in a town called Bethlehem, in Israel. He is Jewish. The difference between Jesus and any other person, was that Jesus was sinless. He lived for 33 years on this earth without sinning. John 3:16 tells us about how God sent His’ only son to die for our sins. Why would Jesus die for my sins or your sins, when He himself was sinless? That is the beauty of Jesus, the only way for you to be forgiven of your sins was for someone who was sinless to be made a sacrifice. Jesus was that sacrifice and He died on a cross for all of our sins. Because of Jesus I am able to truly live. Now Romans 7:14-15 says, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” Now this is King James English here, so hear me out. Paul the Apostle wrote this, and what he is saying is, he knows what is right, he knows what is justified in the eyes of the Lord, but yet he keeps returning to sin. Paul admitted to basically the whole world that he is a sinner. But Jesus died for Paul, the beauty is that no matter how much you sin, there is always forgiveness. Now you may ask this question, “If this is true, then I can live a sinful lifestyle and just ask for forgiveness when I want?” The answer to this question is “NO.” The act of asking for forgiveness is like squeezing an entire tube of toothpaste out and then trying to put it all back inside the tube. Forgiveness means asking for it, and then turning away from the act, or thoughts of that sin. You have to ask from your heart, and that means you won’t want to sin again. Easier said than done? 1 John 1:9 ESV, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Most of us want the first part without the second part, however it’s a package deal. The reason we just want to be forgiven and not turn away from repeating is because we either think we are content or we just plainly don’t want to face the truth.

Becoming a true follower of Christ is allowing your fleshly wants to die, and getting in tune with the wants and desires God has for you. But you can’t be in tune with God and also live in sin.  You may be afraid that you have to give up everything you have worked so hard to become; this is simply not true. God may ask you to give up some stuff. However, it’s not a matter of giving it up, it’s a matter of “Are you willing to give it all up?” I can’t tell you what God’s plan for your life is, I only know what God has planned for my life. Yes I am not 100% sure and why am I not 100%? Because if you live long enough and you talk to God like I am talking to you, then you will know that God is not one to write everything on a calendar for you. God has lead me in so many different directions at different times in my life. I have been able to do some amazing things, and talk and get to know some amazing people. When you give your life to Christ, then you shouldn’t be worried about things that concern you, but rather be passionate about things that concern God. God has a reason and plan for everything, and the Bible says in Romans 14:11 that, “One day every knee will bow.”

I’d like to state my question again, Who am I? I am a sinner saved by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. I do my best to walk in a Christian life daily. I treat others as I want to be treated. I stand for morals such as loyalty, honor, honesty, forgiveness, self-control, and many more. Am I a professional at any of these? Nope not in the least but the deal is I try my best, “And in my weakness He is strong.”– 2 Corinthians 12:9-11.

 

Prayer: God please forgive me for all the sin in my life. I ask you today to help me turn away from this sinful life, allow me to see the life you have for me, the plans you have for me, the dreams and vision you have for me. Allow me to quit looking through my sinful eyes and start seeing through my spiritual eyes. Let me start seeing life how you see life Lord. Help me from this day forward to be guided by your hand and not lead astray. Amen.

 

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Flesh vs. Spirit

Written by Trevor Stevens
Edited by Amber English

Context: Romans 8:6-39

Life is so fast paced today it is hard to make time for anything. I’ve come to a point in my life where I sat last night just talking to God, because I realized that my life wasn’t anything like it should be.  I’ve failed to pray, I’ve failed spend time in the Word, I’ve failed to be grateful for the fact that I can get up each morning.  I wanted to share with you today this passage in Romans chapter eight, because the moment you realize that Jesus is all you need, is the moment you can really begin to live.

Today my flesh is strong, but my spirit is weak. Today I am not so much a quote “’Christian’”, but rather someone who is concerned with what can benefit me instead of the things that concerns God. Romans chapter eight warns of these things by saying in verses 6-8 “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” God wants the best for you, but the problem is that you don’t always know what is best for you. Our flesh wants the pleasures of this life, and I can prove it by asking you these questions.

1. Would you rather have a car to drive or Jesus?
2. Would you rather have loads of cash or Jesus?
3. Would you rather have control over your life or Jesus?

Now here is where we get all spiritual, and we all would probably say that we would take Jesus over any of those things, however the reality of it all, is that we choose things over Jesus every day. I can’t speak for you, but I can tell you that I do. Flesh in this context is talking about that natural desire that we all have to benefit one’s self. The way it is for most of us, is that we would rather have that comfortable Hollywood lifestyle, rather than having a spiritually minded lifestyle. Now I’m not saying the Hollywood lifestyle is a bad thing. My point here is that there is another whole lifestyle that most people couldn’t even dream of. Our problem is that we try to live both lifestyles. If your spiritually minded, the petty things of the fleshly lifestyle are not important, because you are focused on the plans God has planned for your life.  I love working on cars and it is a passion of mine, but in the recent months I’ve noticed a change in my life, where I am not so much as focused on the cars that I love to work on, but the people God has called me to reach. This is the whole reason your reading this right now because I decided to put on a different set of glasses, and instead of being in a fleshly mindset and working on my cars, I realized that God was calling me to reach more and more people. Now I am not telling you this to brag about my lifestyle changes. I am telling you this because I know that I wasn’t living up to my fullest potential by living a fleshly filled life. This does not mean I have to give up cars it just means it doesn’t need to be my main focus. When you are spiritually minded, you are made aware of things in the spirit. When you are fleshly minded, you are aware of things of the flesh, and more times than not you could care less about the spiritual things. For me when I am in the flesh and I am talking about cars, a million thoughts run through my mind. Things like pride, greed, and monetary gain starts creeping in my mind. Those things are not a part of the Spiritual rim. Being spiritually minded means to be God minded. When you spend enough time (and that amount of time is different for everyone) being spiritually minded, you start to think like God thinks; you start to talk the way God talks. God sent His son Jesus in the form of flesh, yet He was Spiritually minded the whole time He was here. We know this when in the book of Luke 2:49, Jesus told his earthly parents that He must be about His father’s business. Jesus was a young Jewish boy at the time this occurred. Now if Jesus must be about his Father’s business, should we not too be about our Heavenly Father’s business? In order to do that, we must be spiritually minded. If we are fleshly minded then the things which need to be done, cannot be done because we are not in tune with God.  I pray that you consider the things that I have talked about and I hope they bless you. I am always praying for you. Thanks for reading.

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The way you are.

Have you ever been in a restaurant, or a bus station and someone keeps staring at you? No matter how hard you try to look normal, its just an impossible task? Today I want to talk about being you. We are all created differently, otherwise life would be pretty boring. I’m a twenty year cancer survivor, and with all the treatment I went through, there have been some lasting impressions. I stand at four feet eleven inches tall, I speak with a southern draw, and I drive a pickup truck. I have never been shy around people, in fact I have always lived to engage with people. I am a extrovert, and I have never met a stranger. I want to share my story because I believe that there are people in that need to hear that it is alright to be different. People often want to criticize me for one reason or anther, and they say stupid things like, your short, but there comparing me to someone who I don’t want to be. “I chose to be me, because everyone else was taken.” – Trevor Stevens. Who cares if I am a little different, I enjoy being about to use it to my advantage.

I have never been a good student. I find learning in a class room to be very difficult. I find that the way I learn best is to just start working, doing, being active. My grandpa once said, if your not making mistakes your not learning. That saying is one of the core foundations of my life, because I know that making mistakes is alright, as long as I learn something from it. I’ll give you an example.  One of my buddies brought a 1948 Ford 8n tractor over to my house, I didn’t want to work on it, but I decided to take a chance and try to figure out what was wrong with it and repair it. Well long story short, the tractor got took apart and for months sat in my dads shop. I tried and tried to get that thing back together, but it just wasn’t going back together. I like being independent, and I like the satisfaction of fixing something all by myself, however I knew that I wasn’t going to get it back together if I didn’t ask for help. I ask my grandpa to come and take a look. 15 minuets later, I knew how to put it back together. It’s alright to ask for help, and too many of us guys don’t want to. I am ready to start on a new journey. I am tired of working on cars, trucks, and equipment from the construction company my grandpa owns. I am ready to do a little less dirty, a little more clean, and make money doing it. Over the next year I hope to post 52 blogs such as this one. Maybe not so all over the place, but with topics that give you motivation, and inspiration. Let me know what you think?