Category: Guys With God

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Change Must Come From Within

Change must come from within… 


It’s such a blessing to be around folks who are sharing the changes they are making in themselves! 


Their positive motivation and encouragement inspire me to continue to work on myself. 

The key word here for me is WORK. 


Maybe your results have been different, but I have not been able to just think my way to positive change within me and my life. 

I have had to provide the needed actions to change my attitudes, beliefs, habits, and behaviors too. 


The blessings for me in all of this activity is that not only do I begin to become the person God intended me to be, but also, I am building new friendships and relationships as I grow. 


How are you bringing change to yourself?.. 


Check your experience… 


“Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.” Big Book pg. 84 


Lord, let us provide the action and willingness to bring about the needed changes in our lives, AMEN. 


“Get rid of all the sins you have done and get for yourselves a new heart and a new way of thinking.” Ezekiel 18:31 


Have a blessed day Y’all! 


What if you had a person who coached and mentored you in building a better life? 


 Inspired 365 Life Coaching with Mark Farley!! 


https://www.faiththroughworksfellowship.org/inspired-365-life-coaching 


Want in? 


[email protected]


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When the Going Gets Tough

When the going gets tough…


There are times when we are faced with a difficult decision or situation, it seems to be a part of being human. 


Perhaps you are healthier mentally and spiritually than me, but my initial gut reaction is to feel alone, isolate, and let my self-generated fears magnify the difficult moment to lead me into making a bad choice with my actions or behaviors. 


Over the years I have learned to expect this reaction in me and to not act on it. I turn to prayer and invite the Holy Spirit to guide my words, actions, and choices. 


When I do, I no longer feel alone, defeated, or fearful. 


Sure, I still have to walk through the situation but I no longer let it control me and my attitudes. 


I remind myself that God has me covered with His Spiritual Armor and I walk through it. 


Is God helping you through those rough patches?..


Check your experience… 


“God either is or He isn’t. What was our choice to be?” Big Book pg. 53 


Lord, remind our hearts and quiet our minds in times of difficulty that You are with us no matter what, AMEN. 


“When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown!” Isaiah 43:2 


Have a blessed day Y’all!! 


Join me in looking at the things we face daily with passages from both the Big Book and Bible! 


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pastor+mark+farley&ref=nb_sb_noss 


 How about a daily dose of hope and inspired thought? 

Weed Control

Pull the weeds trying to grow near your heart…


Static noise and visual distractions are everywhere these days. 


Our tablets and electronic devices are bombarded with visual ads trying to distract us. 


I just learned that highway billboard are now electronic and change ads in front of our eyes as we drive! 


The ads on “free versions” of Internet radio interrupt our music filling our heads with “offers and specials” 


Peyton Manning humming the Nationwide jingle is still stuck in my head! 

We experience the same type of distractions with our Spiritual walk with Jesus. 


Worldly clamors distract us trying to allow fear, worry, and pride to fuel our self-centered minds away from seeking and doing God’s will. 

How many times daily are your good thoughts challenged with earthly interruptions? 


Check your experience…


“His presence had been blotted out by worldly clamors, mostly those within myself.” Big Book pg 12-13 


Lord, please let us focus on your love and will for us despite all of the earthly distractions around us, AMEN. 


“The seed that fell among the thorny weeds is like those who hear God’s teaching, but they let the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life keep them from growing and producing good fruit.” Luke 8:14 


Have a blessed day Y’all! 

What if you had a person who coached and mentored you in building a better life? 


 Inspired 365 Life Coaching with Mark Farley!! 


https://www.faiththroughworksfellowship.org/inspired-365-life-coaching 


Want in? 


[email protected]

A Design for Living

Keeping our eyes on our own paper…. 


Remember hearing that when we were in grade school? 

The temptation to look at our neighbor’s work is based on the fear of doing something new and is a basic part of growing we all go through. 


This temptation takes a twist as we become adults. 

Instead of looking at our neighbor’s work to get the answer, we want to look to compare. 


It’s now a pride issue and not a fear issue. 


We want to either catch them doing it wrong or pat ourselves on the back for being better than them. 


Either way, we are stuck in a self-centered motive fueled by pride and the outcome is never healthy


Think about it, our best learning comes from working with others and not against them. 


 When we focus on doing our best and not on the other person’s work, we are fulfilling a spiritual principle… 


Check your experience… 


“What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God. A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, “a design for living” that really works.” Big Book pg 28 


Lord, let us look at our motives and efforts to see that we are doing the best work that we can, AMEN. 


 “Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.” Galatians 6:4 


 Have a blessed day y’all! 


Join me in looking at the things we face daily with passages from both the Big Book and Bible! 


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pastor+mark+farley&ref=nb_sb_noss 


 How about a daily dose of hope and inspired thought? 

Be the change you want to see

There are times in my life when I don’t like the direction I’m going. What do I do? To many times I point fingers. I may blame others, or the situation. What I didn’t do enough in the past was ask myself, ”what can I do to change things? What is in my control?” I didn’t have the courage or confidence in the past to do anything. I let life control me. That has changed. As I continue to grow in my relationship with Jesus, and the men He has out into my life, I am getting better at taking over the things I control. I am taking action. If I want to see things differently in my life, I have to take a step. One step at a time! If I want to see change in my life, it has to start with me. I have to be the change in my life that I want to happen.

Truth or Lies?

Exchanging the truth for a lie… 


Part of being human and having free will is dealing with the constant challenges we face daily for our attention and focus. 


There are all kinds and types of never-ending noise around us attempting to grab our attention and take us hostage emotionally. 


We are led to believe by many tricksters and false prophets that their product or service will fix us and make us complete. 


It never ends, or so it seems…


The gift of free will is that we can consciously choose what we focus on and what we allow to grab our attention. 


The person, place, thing, or situation that we allow to dominate our mind will eventually invade our heart and drive our behaviors. 

It becomes our God. 


So the suggestion I want to make today is to take a long look in the mirror and ask ourselves, what or who is our God? ..


Check your experience…


“We had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing.” Big Book pg. 53 


Lord let us open our hearts and minds daily to turn our will and lives over to You to be free of the worldly false Gods, AMEN. 


“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.” Romans 1:25 


Have a blessed day Y’all! 


Looking to volunteer or plug into an existing helping opportunity in the Greater Phoenix AZ area? 


Visit Servants Hearts! 


It’s a free site to help connect folks with volunteer and helping opportunities! 


http://aservantsheart.us 

Get a Grip

Get a grip… 


There is a big difference between being in the grip and in getting a grip. 


When something has a grip on us, like an illness, we are almost powerless over it until it releases us. 


However, when we get a grip on something, like our Spiritual life, we control the effect it has on us through our motives and efforts. 


Experience along with good counsel from many wiser than me has taught me to get a grip on my Spiritual life instead of remaining in the grip of the worldly clamors of pride, anger, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, and sloth. (PAGLEGS) 


How’s this working out for you? 


As always, please ….check your experience… 


 “It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do.” Big Book pg. 85 


Lord, let us get a grip on our relationship with You through time in Your Word and prayer, AMEN. 


“With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter.” 2Thessalonians 2:15 


Have a blessed day Y’all! 


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Filling That Hole in Our Heart

Trying to fill that hole in our hearts… 


Have you ever noticed that in certain times of trial or stress, no matter how much thought, effort, and will you give it, it just doesn’t seem enough? 


Or perhaps you ar
e struggling with that empty feeling and no matter what you attempt to do or use to overcome it, the hole remains. 


That hole is in our hearts and no amount of food, relationships, material things, booze, drugs, or any other man-made solution will fill it. 

That is Jesus knocking on the doors of your heart asking to come in. 


Perhaps you invited Him in long ago but, like the well-worn pair of shoes in the back part of the closet, you leave them there but no longer use them


When we have a daily relationship with Christ, much like our daily relationships with our loved ones, the hole in our hearts gets filled and we become complete... 


Check your experience… 


“There had been a humble willingness to have Him with me — and He came.” Big Book pg 12 


Lord, let us look to You to fill the hole in our hearts, AMEN. 


“You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!” Haggai 1: 4-6 


Have a blessed day Y’all! 

Join me in looking at the things we face daily with passages from both the Big Book and Bible! 


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pastor+mark+farley&ref=nb_sb_noss 


 How about a daily dose of hope and inspired thought? 


No Fear

At one level, fear is healthy. ‘Fear’ is an emotion induced by a perceived threat. It is a natural human emotion. It is God-given. It is a basic survival mechanism. It keeps us alive. It protects us from danger.

However, there is also such a thing as unhealthy fear. The Greek word commonly used in the New Testament is Phobos – from which we get the word ‘phobia’. This is unhealthy fear. It is disproportionate to the danger posed. It is ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’. It is when we catastrophize –overestimating the danger and underestimating our ability to cope.

Common phobias include fears in relation to health, finances, failure, growing old, death, loneliness, rejection, messing up, public speaking, flying, heights, snakes, and spiders. They also include things such as, what is now called, FOMO – the Fear Of Missing Out, the fear of not being special.

Whereas the Spirit of God does not produce negative fear, there is a healthier fear – the fear of God. This does not mean being frightened of God. In fact, it means the opposite. It is an understanding of who God is in relation to us. It means respect, reverence, awe, honor, adoration, and worship; it could even be translated as love for God. It recognizes the power, majesty, and holiness of God Almighty. It leads to a healthy respect of God and is the antidote to all other fears and phobias we experience in life. Fear God and you need not fear anything else or anyone else.

It is no coincidence that as the fear of God has decreased in our society, all the other fears have increased. We need to return to a right relationship with God. The expression ‘do not be afraid’ is one of the most frequent commands in the Bible.

Proverbs 1:20-33 – No fear of harm

This passage gives you the key to avoiding ‘terror and calamity’ (v.26) and living ‘without fear or dread of disaster’ (v.33).

The idea of the ‘Fear of the Lord’ is one of the key themes of Proverbs and appears twenty-one times throughout the book. It is a choice that you make. If you are wise, you will ‘choose to fear the Lord’ (v.29) and listen to him. He promises that you ‘will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.’ (v.33).

Wisdom is personified in the book of Proverbs (v.20). As we read it through the lens of the New Testament, we know that it is Jesus who is ‘the wisdom of God’ (1 Corinthians 1:24).

This passage (Proverbs 1:20–32) is a warning against ignoring the Lord’s voice and following a path of ‘turning away’ and ‘complacency’ (v.32).

Instead, choose to fear God, listen to him and repent when he corrects you. If you do, God will reveal to you more than you could ever imagine. ‘I will pour out my spirit upon you; I will make my words known to you’ (v.23a). He will reveal to you the hidden treasures of wisdom in his words. Choose this fear of God and you will be ‘at ease’ (v.33) and can be free from the fear of harm.

Lord, I choose to fear you – to live a life in reverence and awe of your power, majesty and holiness. Help me to live life fearing you alone.

Matthew 10:1-31 – No fear of people

Three times in this passage Jesus says, ‘Do not be afraid’ (vv.26,28,31).

The context is Jesus sending out his disciples to preach the gospel and heal the sick. The moment Jesus calls his twelve disciples, he sends them out on mission.

He sends them (and us) to follow his example:

  • To proclaim: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near (v.7)
  • To demonstrate: ‘Heal the sick’ (v.8)

As Jesus sends us out, he warns us that we will face a lot of opposition: ‘I am sending you out like sheep among wolves’ (10:16a). We will need pure wisdom (‘be wise as serpents and innocent as doves’, v.16b).

We may be opposed by ‘local courts’ (v.17), face hatred (v.22), be persecuted (v.23) and be called demonic (v.25). It is in this context that Jesus says three times, ‘Do not be afraid’ (vv.26,28,31).

  1. Do not be afraid about what to say:
    Jesus says, ‘Do not be afraid of them’ (v.26). You do not need to be afraid of other people, however powerful they may be (for example local courts, governors and kings, vv.17–18): ‘Without knowing it, they have done you – and me – a favor, giving you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And do not worry about what you will say or how you will say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words’ (vv.19–20).
  2. Do not be afraid of what others will do to you:
    Jesus says that rather than fearing those who can ‘kill the body but cannot kill the soul’, you should fear God, ‘who can destroy both soul and body in hell’ (v.28). Have a healthy respect for an all-powerful, as well as all-loving God. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life –body and soul – in his hands.
  3. Do not be afraid of what will happen to you:
    Jesus says that if you fear God, you need fear no one and nothing else. God is in ultimate control: ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father’ (v.29). Not only is he in control but he also loves you deeply: ‘But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.’ (vv.30–31). Jesus cares about what happens to you even more than you do (v.30).

Lord, thank you that you value and love me so much. Help me to know your love, to trust in you and not to be afraid.

Genesis 25:1-26:35 – No fear of death

Life is never easy. It was not easy for Isaac. Among other difficulties, he waited twenty years for the birth of a child (25:20–26). Then there was sibling rivalry when the twins were born. He lived amongst hostile Philistines and one of his sons ‘made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah’ (26:35).

Isaac committed the very same sin as his father – trying to pass off his wife as his sister (vv.26:7–11). However, Isaac did learn from some of his father’s mistakes. When Rebekah was unable to have a baby – unlike Abraham’s disastrous attempt to solve things himself through his relationship with Hagar – Isaac’s response was to pray to God for a miracle (25:21).

The Lord had appeared to Isaac and promised, ‘I will be with you and will bless you… And in your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed’ (26:3–4).

Nevertheless, Isaac was afraid. He feared that he might die: ‘lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah, because she was attractive in appearance.’ (vv.26:7,9b).

God said to Isaac, ‘Fear not, for I am with you’ (v.26:24). Isaac feared people more than he feared God, and yet he is reminded that he need not fear others because God is with him. Remember the same truth when you are tempted to fear: God is with you. If God is with you, you need not be afraid of anyone or anything.

Despite Isaac’s fear of others, God blessed him. God says, ‘I will bless you and multiply your offspring…’ (v.26:24). God’s blessing meant growth, reaping many times over. This is what he wants for your life too.

‘And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham.’ (v.26:18). When Isaac met opposition and was stopped, he moved on until he found another well that he could reopen. In this way, the Lord gave him room to flourish (v.26:22).

Clear Mind and Thoughts

Clear-headed… 


Most of us are busy these days trying to live life on life’s terms. 


From the jobs we have that provide the income that helps us to have homes to live in, food to eat, and things our families need, to the demands on our time to be available for our spouses, children, parents, friends, and family members; we are constantly busy. 


It’s probably different for you, but one thing I have to constantly watch myself on is to stay engaged and not be “asleep at the wheel”.
, and not just go through the motions without mentally being present. 



I have learned the hard way that when I fall into this trap, not only do I miss out on what is happening but also the activity in my head fails to match up with the present. 


I have learned to stay clear-headed by focusing on the here and now and being present. 


This keeps my thoughts on what I am currently doing and my head clear of all the other things it wants me to think about instead. 

How’s this working out for you?.. 


Check your experience… 


“Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.” Big Book pg 86 


Lord, let us keep our minds and hearts clear so we can be present in the moment, AMEN. 


 “So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded.” 1 Thessalonians 5:6 


 Have a blessed day Y’all! 


What if you had a person who coached and mentored you in building a better life? 


 Inspired 365 Life Coaching with Mark Farley!!


https://www.faiththroughworksfellowship.org/inspired-365-life-coaching 


Want in? 


[email protected]