32 Things I Want to Do If I Died Today

1. Laugh as loud as I can.
2. Sing all my favorite songs.
3. Tell my friends I love them.
4. Love on my mom.
5. Calm my dad down first and tell him I love him (He loves me a lot but one funeral is enough).

6. Give God the best praise I could ever muster.
7. Tell someone that I’m not afraid to die because Jesus has given me a second life to look forward to.

8. Hug as many people as possible.
9. Preach an awesome sermon.
10. Eat some cookie dough.
11. Have my mom sing for me.
12. Cradle my niece in my arms and bath her with sloppy wet kisses.

13. Have my brothers hold me when I give out my last breath.
14. Say sorry.
15. Blare “How He Loves Us” by John McMillan until I break some speakers.

16. Pay for the broken speakers.
17. Sell everything I own to give to the little orphans I met in Dominican Republic.

18. Sail on the sea.
19. Whisper “I love you” to God 1000 times 20. Tell my only begotten nephew about God’s only begotten Son.

21. Write the longest journal entry ever.
22. Sing “Saviour King” by Hillsong to all my friends.
23. Kiss my dog.
24. Cry.

25. Share the Gospel with the best neighbors I ever had that I was too complacent to tell about Jesus.

26. Tell her I love her. (I’m going to die. Might as well)
27. Draw the coolest picture of Jesus I ever made.
28. Read my longest journal entry to my friends.
29. Watch the sun rise.
30. Throw a party.
31. Die smiling.

32. Update my Facebook status: “I’m going to die so don’t hate me if I don’t reply to your posts”
33. Hold my sister’s face in my hands.

I Said “Shut Up” Because I Love You

One of the hardest things for me is to correct someone. This ultimately explained why one day I found myself locked in my car because my whole Sunday School class was on the outside wanting to beat me up.

My lack to correct them was my fear that I will lose their love for me. Have you ever been there? You’re sitting at the table and some guys spits out a very profane joke that totally makes your stomach twist in a knot. You know you should say something but you don’t.

Proverbs 27:5 says, “Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed.”

Rebuking is totally unpopular. You make people uncomfortable. You “kill the vibes” in the atmosphere. You face immediate and even permanent rejection from your friends you love.

But God had Solomon pen that verse that says its better to rebuke than to conceal love. We love our friends. Why do we want to hurt them? I feel Solomon is saying we need to hurt them because we love them.

One of the heaviest grudges I have held against my youngest brother was when one day while we were kids, I was eaten alive by a swarm of fire ants for I had sat on top of their mount. Why I was mad at my brother was because he saw me on the mount and he knew that the mount was there! He actually came to me and told me and my missing posterior, “John, I knew there was a mount there but I didn’t say anything.”

I know my brother loves me, but I also believe he didn’t warn me because he was afraid that he would ruin my enjoyment sitting there and that I may have yelled at him for that. But what brought me the most harm? If he had just rebuked me, I would have still had a behind to sit on that day.

We need to see if we really love our friends, we would rebuke them so they won’t face a greater harm in the long run.

You know those earlier days in my Sunday School class where I overlooked correcting my students were those important moments where I should have stopped and rebuked them.

True love seeks the best in others. For that to happen, sometimes we have to do uncool things like rebuking those we love.

Ask God to give you the strength at the moment of offense and do the right thing.

That’s It Fear!

Fear is arguably humanity’s public enemy number one. It holds back people from fulfilling dreams. It stops Christians from doing God’s work and even stops a lot of great looking couples from being together.

Peter can relate to this. He glared into the dreadful, pale face of death when he saw Jesus in the midst of that violent storm. His beloved master is at his eye shot, but between him and His Lord is the fiercest of waves on that lake. On top of that Jesus calls Him to come to him. Great!

“So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.” Matthew 14:29

Are you reading the same verse? Peter got out of the boat and went to Jesus. Okay, so I did some quick research on Google and according to a study by Todd Bolen on Jerusalem Perspective Online, waves on the Galilee are known to get as high as 10 feet! I don’t how big that storm was but the Bible says were being tossed by the waves.

But Peter came “down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.” (Matt 14:29)

Peter look at his fear and engaged it. I feel the best remedy for fear is to call out to the Lord and then take a step of faith. I’m sure if Peter had hesitated he would retreat below deck after glaring around his fearsome surroundings. But He saw Jesus and he heard Christ called to him; and because of that he moved out in faith.

You know courage is sometimes found after we hand out a tract and initiate conversation. It may catch up after we walk up to that girl we have such the heart wrenching difficulty to talk to and say the word “hi”.

When fear flashes its fangs don’t shy from it, engage it. Take God at His word:

“I will never leave you nor forsake you” Hebrews 13:5

“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you” Deuteronomy 31:6

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” 1 John 4:4

“Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.” Psalm 73:23

Someone Like Me

You know I feel that there is someone else in the world that is just like me. Who is struggling in life. You feels that everything is over their head. Who sees the past as a haunted lists of “what I should have done” and “what I could be if hadn’t done This”.

But yet they aren’t like me to the extent that they don’t know that there is Jesus God who has given me His strength. Jesus who enters my life and conquerors every wall against me and then tells me that I have the victory though He is fighting my battles.

Maybe he doesn’t know that Jesus saw that list of failures, that list of mistakes, that list of filth and said,”You know I’m going to take this from you.”

And That He:

“Himself takes our infirmities (our weaknesses) and our diseases.” (Matt 8:17)

He gathers us as lambs with His arm,
And carry us in His bosom. ( Isa 40:11)

Maybe he doesn’t know that He Jesus told us that:

“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 18:14)

And Him Jesus who loved us, washed us from our sins (that list of ills who we so tearfully tread and grieve) in his own blood. (Revelation 1:5)

And I know His love, because this same Jesus laid down his life. (1 John 3:16)

He gave Himself for all my wrongs that He would deliver me from the all the wickedness that this world holds (Galatians 1:4) that He might take me in as one of His own (Galatians 4:4-5).

Perhaps that this person like as missed this good news and is still suffering in life like I did. I feel he is missing out. Maybe I should go find him and tell him that.

P.S> if you feel that you are that person, email me at johnbell360@hotmail.com.