What Are You Looking For?

by Steve Ferber

What am I looking for? A lot of times I don’t really know….all I really know is that something isn’t quite right. There has to be a reason for feeling this way. Maybe I’ve done something wrong, made somebody mad at me. This is where the blame game starts, first myself then I move on to situations in my life, then blaming others for how I feel. I don’t know about you, but placing blame never brings a lasting inner peace. And isn’t inner peace what we are all looking for?

The Power of Love

Give a helping hand in time of trouble.

by Steve Ferber

Love… that topic brings a variety of responses from people, emotionally and mentally.  There are those that use love to manipulate others so that they have power over them. It seems that in our Western culture we are obsessed with power and love, it is part of how we define who we are and how we react to others. In recent years my journey with God has taken me down paths I would not have imagined. These paths were in areas of my life that I thought I had together. Well, I was wrong! There is an old song that says it pretty good, “I got a new attitude”. It says in that song “I never knew I had such a lesson to learn”.  I’ve been living that for several years now, learning a lesson that affects my outlook on life, that is my attitude towards things. Who knew I was lacking so much… I sure didn’t have a clue.

Prepare YOU, the way of the Lord: Alive In Christ... Really?

by Steve Ferber

It has been amazing how I have been happy to live in my delusions in the past.  Now this is a strong word, when we think of someone being delusional it evokes a strong response in us.  We think of those under the influence of drugs, demonic activity or mental conditions.  I want to use this definition; delusion, 1.a false belief… a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of a psychiatric condition.

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Hope

by Steve Ferber

God sure has been faithful to me, especially the past couple of years.  He has disciplined me like a son, bringing me closer to who he created me to be.  I remember when I first started this journey; the first trial I walked thru was trust.  This one was really hard for me, but I finally received a deposit of trust after many months of God adjusting my belief system.  I knew that this was not the end of my journey, just the beginning.  I really trusted the Lord, but there was still not rest in my soul.

Prepare YOU, the way of the Lord: No Matter Where I Go, There I am

by Steve Ferber

WHAT!!!  Don’t you mean wherever I go there the Lord is?  Well that is true, but it is not what I want to talk about.

Years ago a country artist released a song about his walk in life and that no matter where he went, there he was.  Things would not be going too well where he was hanging out at so he would go to a different bar, find a new set of friends or even move to a different town.  He was always looking for where he would “fit in”.  It seemed that when he started hanging out someplace different that everything was good for a while, but over time things would change to where it was not so good any more.  Why couldn’t people just be honest about who they were in the beginning instead of putting on a front?  It sure would save a lot of grief in the long run.  Well, it was time to move on… again! 

Healing

by Steve Ferber

I am not writing this to give biblical teaching; this is just an account of my experience with the Lord concerning physical healing in my life.  It all started in the early 1980’s.  At the end of the church service the pastor said that the Lord was present for healing, to come forward to be prayed for.  There were several people praying for healing.  As I waited in line a man came up to me and asked what I needed prayed for.  He said that he wanted to pray for my healing.  I told him that there has been a lot of pain in my left knee.  He knelt down and laid his hands on my knee asking the Lord to heal it.  I could not tell you everything that he said because while he was praying I was really hoping it was the pastor who was praying for me.  Well God healed my knee right then, despite my wrong attitude!  The biggest lesson I learned was that God was not a respecter of persons; not me because he did not use the person l thought he should.  I also learned not to look at the person that the Lord chooses to use, Gods ways are not my ways.

Prepare YOU, the way of the Lord

by Steve Ferber

Easter Sunday, what a wonderful celebration for us Christians!  A time of celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Churches may celebrate a little differently, but we all rejoice in the fact that thru the blood of Jesus Christ our sins our forgiven and by His stripes (the physical punishment he endured prior to the crucifixion) we are healed.

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Authority

by Steve Ferber

What authority do I have?  My own authority does not count for much, only that which is given to me really counts.  As a supervisor/ project manager I had much natural authority over many years.  Not only over men working under me, but as one who secured contracts for the company.  With this authority comes much responsibility and accountability.  My soul was well satisfied with this; it came to be how I identified myself.

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Glory

by Steve Ferber

Thru out the years that I have been a Christian I heard many things about God’s glory.  Isaiah 48: 9-11 tells us that God will not yield His glory to another, that He refines us in the furnace of affliction for His own sake.  I am thankful that the Holy Spirit, that lives within me, helps me thru these testings. 

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Striving

by Steve Ferber

By definition striving is a good thing; it means to try very hard to achieve something.  In application it is not such an easy thing to do.  In our American way of life we demand to see quick results, we will strive at something for a short period of time then give up when we do not see the results that we expect in a short amount of time.

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Unity

by Steve Ferber

In 1984 Tammy and I, along with three others, went on a mission’s trip to Amsterdam, Holland.  The trip was for ‘Youth with a Mission’.  The Salvation Army had given them a building in the ‘red light district’ in Amsterdam.  They were having groups of skilled labor come at different times to help restore the building.  At the time I was a carpenter foreman; the skill set that we brought to the project was painting, wall papering, build a circular stair case and cabinets.  The trip was successful along with us learning some new life lessons.  One in particular for me was about unity.

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Riding the Storm Out

by Steve Ferber
REO Speed Wagon wrote and performed a song called “Riding the Storm Out.”  They were what I call a high energy rock and roll band.  As they were traveling from one performance to another they were caught in a bad thunderstorm, high winds and rain so heavy they could hardly see to drive.  They could not pull over and stop because they did not want to miss their next engagement; so they pressed on and made it on time.

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Broken Not Beaten

by Steve Ferber

I remember when my son was considering joining the Marine Corps to fight the war on terror.  We had many conversations prior to his enlistment and all his reasons for doing this were sound and honorable.  He was running among other things to get in shape before he went to boot camp.  He hated eggs but knew that he would have to eat a lot of them so he started gagging down scrambled eggs to get used to them.  He watched Full Metal Jacket over and over again to start conditioning his mind to be ready for the training he was going to receive.

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Motive

by Steve Ferber

Tammy and I went to church last night for corporate prayer.  As Elizabeth opened up the prayer time she spoke of a few areas that she felt God was leading us to pray in, two of those were an enlarged heart and the harvest.  When we broke into different groups for prayer I held back for a few minutes waiting on the Lords direction, I had interest in three different areas and needed to know which way to proceed.

Ramblings of a Changing Man: Trust

by Steve Ferber
This journey started in July 2009.  I had been laid off due to lack of work, I had a really good job but the company I worked for was downsizing drastically due to the economic down turn.  God provided a job in November, but it was for about two thirds of what I had been earning.  I believed that God was going to provide me with a good job; I was doing my part but not striving in the flesh.