Do you UNDERSTAND?

Good morning to everyone! Do you ever have trouble understanding things? I do and in this post I will talk about our understanding, verses God’s understanding! Let’s dive right in! Life is full of things I don’t understand…why people hate on other people that are succeeding in life….why my kids do the complete opposite of what I tell them at times, can you relate to that?….why life at times seems so great but at other times it's very frustrating. I can't seem to understand why people do not get along any better than they do, nor can I figure out why special, loving people seem to die young while mean, cranky people seem to live forever. What do you do when you just don’t understand something? Sometimes I think about the fact that I do not even understand why I do what I do, so it is not unreasonable that I sometimes cannot understand why God does what he does. The fact is, there is much in life, much about God himself, much about eternity, that I will never understand. The question I need to ask is, how much understanding does it take for me to trust God. Leaning on our own understanding and on human wisdom instead of trusting Jesus leads to a lifetime of frustration and confusion instead of contentment and joy. God alone is the sole source of all understanding. What a freedom we find when we put aside our demands to understand everything and relax in the knowledge that because he does, we don’t have to. Asking him for understanding is great and we should. In fact, David cries out for it no less than 5 times in Psalm 119 as he pleads, “Give me understanding that I may live.” But the measure of our trust is revealed when we do not understand but are content to know that God does! In other words we TRUST GOD NO MATTER WHAT!! Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight.” That is a verse to live by! I pray you have a blessed day and know that someone loves you, his name is JESUS!

Hell No!

This is what I call good old home cooking straight from the heart. Here we go!! Is arguing causing people to bust Hell wide open? I think it is. Please let me explain! Some Christians and Churches would rather argue amongst themselves than reach out to their communities and reach out to one another. If I were the Devil I would keep Christians arguing all the time. Because if Christians argue people don’t get reached for Christ.You see some arguments I have overheard are about the most ridiculous subjects and most of the time based on man made religion, not scripture. If the Church and Christians would take time to look at what truly matters, think Kingdom Minded and simply open their hearts and doors to the lost Jesus could RADICALLY change the way non-Christians view THE CHURCH as a whole. Race does not matter whether your Black, White, Hispanic, Latino or Green or Orange the truth is color of a person should not matter! We are all God’s children! What a person wears should not matter! If you don’t like what they are wearing you need to realize everyone is different and not every person that goes to Church wears a suit and tie or a skirt and dress. They should be welcome any day, any time, and in any Church! What a person drives, where they live, and who their mommy and daddy are should not be the reason you want them to stay or go! I am the son of a drug dealer and alcoholic that does not mean I am also living that lifestyle. Yes he is in jail and has been for over 15 years, which does not mean I will follow that same path! You see Jesus said come as you are! So why in the HELL would Christians put up a wall and actually think they can say who comes in and who goes out of the Church! The facts are Denominations and man made religion puts people in HELL! The same goes for arguments if we are arguing, people are not being reached! I am not saying that Church leaders and members should never argue that would be unrealistic! Good things can come from arguing, but arguing about some of the things I have discussed in this post could never have a positive impact! DO NOT FORGET…. THE CHURCH WAS CREATED TO REACH PEOPLE FOR JESUS CHRIST AND MAKE HIM FAMOUS! IT WAS CREATED FOR THE LOST! IT WAS NOT CREATED SO CHURCHES COULD TALK ABOUT ONE ANOTHER AND TEAR DOWN WHAT SO AND SO CHURCH IS DOING! WE ARE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM SO LET”S ACT LIKE IT! I will end this post with a question Would Jesus be welcome at your Church? Remember he dressed homely, most scholars say he had long hair, and he hung out with people that the religious despised! That’s the Jesus that changed the world forever! With Love for all Jason

Washing Mudd!

Good morning everyone. I am going to be talking about being spiritually blind. In John chapter 9 verses 10-11, and also 35-38,39. Jesus has healed a blind man in these verses. I find it funny how the religious leaders demanded the man tell them who done this for him! Anyway that's another story for another time! Jesus said something in this scripture that blows me away. ' I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind!" The last part rocks my world. He is saying we should become blind to our plan and follow his! That's awesome that the creator of the universe would choose us. In this text the miracle is great. Jesus encounters one who has never seen or known light-a blind man from birth- and he gives this man sight and light. After Jesus spit on the ground and made mud, he covered the mans eyes with the mud. What happens next is a sign of how strong the mans faith was. Jesus told him go to the pool of Siloam and wash this off and you will see. So the man had to step up and go! After he washed his eyes he could see i can only imagine the excitement that came over him! He never had to go back to his begging post again! You see in verses 35-38 was the conversion. Jesus gave him a spiritual light also he could now see with his heart. The way to see in this world is a willingness to admit we are blind. The blind man did not argue with Jesus. He acknowledged his condition and his need. He submitted himself to Christ and was OBEDIENT! My question for you is we all have certain things we try to keep in the Dark! What are you trying to keep hid in your life? You see Jesus sees it all you can't hide it from him. Instead of hiding it ask Jesus to take it away and watch him do another awesome and great work! Love you Guys! Jason

Do you HATE God?

This is a real life testimony of Hatred toward God! This is how some non Christians view Jesus! But most of all for some this is reality! You don’t like the thought of even being a Christian or you hate the word Church! Well how does God feel about all that’s happened to you? The truth is he cares! I pray that everyone that reads this that their eyes are opened believer or not! You may feel like this guy did! I pray for you to let God do a miracle in your life! Ask and you shall receive! Thanks Jason! This really rocked me to the core, reality is a beast! What has God ever done for me? I’ve never killed anyone. I’ve never raped anyone. I’ve never robbed a bank or stolen a car. Yeah – I’ve hurt a few people, but they hurt me first! They deserve what they got! You’ve hurt me, God, from the day I was born. I had no father or mother to raise me. I went from foster home to foster home as though I was just a cheap piece of rubbish. No one ever really loved me. Sandy was the only one who ever really loved me, and you let her get cancer and die on me. God, I hate you so much.You even let Molly get ran over by a car. Remember that, God? Molly was my friend’s pet dog, and Molly loved me more than she loved Sam, her owner. Molly would come over and beg me to pet her and play with her. She was the only one I could really talk to. She was the only one I could really trust. She never turned her back on me like everyone else has. And you let her get run over God. You took my only true friend, and I hate you for that too!Remember that time my mom called me and asked if I would meet her at that restaurant? She wanted to see what I looked like all grown up. I waited there at that restaurant, God, but mom never showed up. She never ever even called back to tell me what happened. I prayed and asked you to have her call me and tell me why she never showed up, but you wouldn’t even have her do that!Sandy and me were good together, God. She had been hurt her whole life just like me. She understood me, and I understood her. We had plans to marry as soon as we could get some money together. When I held her in my arms, I felt like nothing else in the world mattered. My hurt would go away and her’s would go away too. You took that away from me God, and I’ll hate you forever for taking her away from me. Why did you have to let her die?I used to dream that she would come to me at night. I swear I could hear her in my room sometimes, calling my name, after she died. I prayed and asked you to let me see her, but you wouldn’t even let me see her, even though I begged you to. I could feel her there sometimes … I know she was there beside me – but you wouldn’t let me see her. You are so cruel, God.Look at the mess this world is in? People killing people over nothing. People strung out on drugs and killing each other for it. What kind of God are you to make people do things like this? Babies starving in other countries and disease is killing people like no tomorrow. People killing people because of their hatred over religious beliefs and people blowing themselves up thinking that you are going to reward them in heaven for it? This is crazy, God, and I think you are crazy too. You’re crazy, God, that’s what you are – mad crazy!And remember that time I went into that church to talk to you? I really wanted to know if you really are real, or people just believe in you because they need something to believe in. I gave you a chance to prove to me that you are real, and nothing happened. I even got down on my knees and asked you to somehow show me you are real, and nothing happened. Nothing! I don’t think you are real, even. If you were, you would answer me right now. Are you a coward, God, or just think you’re too important to let me know you are real or not? Yet I want you to be real so you can know how much I hurt. I want you to hurt just like I hurt. I want you to hurt worse! I don’t deserve to hurt this way. Why did you let me be born in the first place? Just to hurt like this? You are so cruel and mean. Religious nuts say you died on a cross for my sins. They claim you even rose again and went to heaven after you died. Well, if that is so, why didn’t you let Sandy come back to life? Those religious nuts claim you healed people before you died – why didn’t you heal Sandy before she died? She asked you to heal her, but you didn’t. I don’t think you healed nobody. I don’t think you even died. I don’t think you even existed. You’re just a fairytale lie some religious nuts have come up with so they can get money out of poor people. That’s what I think. So you going to send me to hell for hating you, God? How can hell be any worse than the hell I’ve lived my whole life? I don’t want to live anymore, God. I want to get it all over with because I’m tired of hurting. I’m tired of the pain. I want you to hurt like I’m hurting God. You don’t even care if I hurt, do you God?My child …if you could only see the tears I’ve shed for you since your birth, and multitudes like you. If you could only know how much my heart really aches when people start hating me as much as you hate me. If you really knew …My child … don’t you think I knew the heartache you were going to experience before I allowed you to even be born? Do you think I delighted in knowing the hurt and pain you were going to experience during your lifetime? You are so wrong if you think I delight in such pain. Don’t you think I’m aware of how much evil is on the earth? Do you think I’m blind to it? Do you think I’m going to allow evil to continue forever? No I’m not. I have a plan in motion to take care of evil, and I have promised the people of earth in the holy scriptures that I will execute that plan exactly the way I planned it from the beginning. Stop listening to what others think about the bible, and read it for yourself. Find out for yourself what my plan is to cleanse earth of the evil you see around you.Do you realize I gave you a choice to hate me? To love me? To believe in me or not believe in me? Why would you think I gave you that free choice? Because I wanted to make you miserable? Would you have wanted me to make you a robot, and program you to believe what I, your creator, wanted you to only believe? That’s not love. That is control. That would be every bit as evil as any other evil is. True love allows others to believe what they want to believe, not control what they believe. Suppose I had healed Sandy’s cancer. Would that have caused you to stop hating me? I can tell you it would not have. You have hated me from your childhood because you did not have your birth parents to raise you. You worship hate, if the truth be known. Hate is your god, and you don’t even realize it. You demand your right to hate me, and I have given you that right – that choice. You are given the right to hate me for all eternity, and life doesn’t end after you die. It continues forever. I cannot lie either – if you carry your hate into eternity, there will be no changing it. It will only intensify as will the hurt and pain it brings. Many have surrendered their hate to me and you can too, if you only will make the decision to do so before you die. I can perform a miracle in you that you can’t comprehend right now. I can cause all your hate to die and put an appreciation for life in you that is beyond your wildest comprehension. You will begin to understand things like you’ve never understood them before. You will begin to treasure talking to me and trusting me to work things out in your life like you’ve never known before. I am not lying. I am a miracle working God, because I’m God. Yet I will never force you or anyone else to stop hating me. I will not force you to love me. I have given you the right - the power - to continue hating me, or start loving me.You’ll never learn to truly love me until you allow me to begin to help you understand what my Son accomplished for you on the cross. I realize you don’t want to hear this, but everyone will be judged according to how they responded to my Son dying on the cross for their sins. That was decreed before the foundation of the world. I would be lying to tell you otherwise, and lying is never love.Are you afraid to love me, or is it just more enjoyable to hate me than love me? I reveal myself to those who want to love me and please me, not hate me. I have feelings too -- please know that. The choice is yours, my child. I already know what my choice is. I want to think joyous thoughts about you every moment through eternity. I want you to allow me to transform you into a miracle creation beyond anything you can possibly imagine. I want to set you free from hate and fill you with love for your creator. When you pass from this life to the next, I desire that you look forward to seeing me face to face with eager expectation – not shaking your fist at me and venting more anger and hate. What pleasure will that bring me? What joy for any amount of time will that bring you, when you realize that I will not have anyone in my kingdom who hates me. Those who pass into the next life hating me will go to a kingdom where hate is their ruler. If only you would believe how much I do not want you, or anyone else, to go to that kingdom. You have no idea what anguish of soul is until you are there in that kingdom. I desire to have you in my kingdom, where there is joy forevermore and anguish cannot be. Please, my child, turn from you anger and hate … before it is too late. Please.

Move FORWARD!

When you placed your trust in Jesus Christ as your ETERNAL Savior, God forgave all the offenses you committed against him, adopted you in his AWESOME family and gave you an inheritance that he, himself, stands guard over in Heaven for you. God also filled you with the presence of the Holy Spirit, who has energized you for special service to God and ministry to everyone your life touches. This makes you special to God both relationally and functionally. Some days if your in ministry you may feel like giving up or like everything you touch doesn’t go as planned! Press on and move forward like Jesus did, carrying the cross wasn’t an easy task either. He could have stopped every time he got spit on, mocked, beaten and just give up, but his Passion to do what only he could do “SAVE THE WORLD” gave him the very strength to keep going! So when the days seem long remember you are a child of the most high and he reigns over everything. There is nothing our God can’t do, I’m living proof! I deserve hell but he shows me mercy, thank you Jesus Christ! To all my peeps I Love each and every one of you remember ONE GOD, ONE LOVE, ONE WAY(John 14:6) with Love for all Jason!

Personal and Ministry thoughts!

Good morning to all of you out there who may read this! What a beautiful October morning here in South Carolina. I want to just talk about whats going on in my life at the current moment and share some personal things with you. So here we go! As many of you know me and my best friend Matt Beasley started a non-profit ministry called the LOT project about 8 months ago and wow what a road it has been so far. We have seen God move mountains and tear down walls that seemed huge at the time. The one thing that has really rocked my world is the fact that we have a group of people that surround us right now that love God and love people! They are some of the most Godliest men and women I know. The one question me and Matt had when God placed this vision on our hearts was "I wonder who God is going to place in our lives to help us?" Then it was like wow we had so many people wanting to help. God has put what me and Matt call a dream team together, some crazy people that simply follow Jesus Christ and dream big dreams! Let me just go ahead and say this before I continue. I praise Jesus for who he has placed in our lives and we are very thankful for all of you. I was not going to do this but oh well. I am going to list some people who have really bought into the vision and are the ones actually making this thing happen many who have been behind the scenes. Dan and Leslie White and family, Tekedra Blanding and family, Kat Laun and her mom Cathy Spaulding, Andy Gibson, Matts,s mom and dad Mary and Donny Beasley, my wife Amber Ashley, Kerry "BROTHER" Bailey and family, Josh Evans, Hannah Bolt, Brian Narcisse, Josh Cline, Cherie and Shane Duffey, Crystal and Ernie Johns, Sandra Counts and family, Tara Payne, Kelly Anderson, Morgan and Jeremy Cobb, Matt Shulte, Michael Parker, Tommy Cross and family, Matt's Grandparents, Jed and Isaac Aho, Craig Walker, Tabitha Vasalis, Stephen and Elizabeth Carroll, The Wagners, The Coopers, Justins and Ashley Sheffard, All of THE SHOTGUN GUYS, and so many others who give of their time every week to serve the LEAST OF THESE. There is one more group I want to say thank you to and without these people the LOT project would not be what it is. To all of the Newspring Fuse youth that serve every week you guys and gals are awesome and we love all of you, keep following hard after Jesus! You see the one question we had was answered over and beyond what we had ever dreamed. Which leads into my next point when you plant a ministry God will take care of the details just follow him and listen to what he says and do it! Leading a ministry is a hard job but it has a ETERNAL IMPACT! So if God is leading you to plant a ministry just do it and watch God show off! Don't worry about how it will run me and Matt have both been busy, Me with raising a family and working and him with school and also working and it hasn't missed a beat! If ministry ever begins to be about you always being there you would have to ask yourself one question "Is it for you or are you doing it for Jesus?" I am currently taking 8 to 10 weeks off of ministry while me and my wife prepare to have our 3rd child. I am more excited now than I was when we planted the LOT project. Because I know God has placed people in our lives that love God and love people and that this ministry will continue to see growth because we have people that serve Jesus and desire to see change in our communities. I want to praise and thank Jesus Christ for his incredible favor on our lives and thank him for reaching down when I couldn't reach up. Please pray for me and my family while we are getting ready for our 3rd child. Please pray for Matt as he is finishing school and traveling a lot for this ministry. Also please ray for Andy Gibson and Kat Laun as they continue structuring and organizing this ministry. We are a blessed group of people and it's only by God's grace that we get to do what we do! I know this has been a long post but I pray it encourages you. Have a blessed day! Love Jason Ashley

Up or down?

Have you ever wondered how you can be in such a great mood and then one thing just ruins your day. Or maybe you wake up and nothing seems to be going your way. As Christians we can be so pumped up and motivated. Maybe we just seen a life long friend come to know Jesus, we just led someone to Christ, or even we in our own walk got our world rocked by a life changing message. They are many other things that can set you on fire spiritually! But what do you do when things just seem to steal your joy, take away from your life, or maybe you feel like your running on empty? Lets face it life is a challenge and being who Jesus called you to be and obeying him is very challenging but we have to press on. I'm going to share some scripture with you that helps me when i get down and out! Proverbs Chapter 3 Verses 1-10. 1 my son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart,2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. 3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck write them on the tablet of your heart.4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. You can continue this reading of scripture in your bible! I hope this lifts you up and gets you in the 66 book love letter he wrote to us! Have an awesome day!!!! Jason