What Glenn Writes

I am glad to see my teens still running to my wife or I when they have a scrap, cut, or what they used to call, “a boo boo”. I guess even with older children it sparks something inside me to be able to comfort them, ease their pain, and apply some sort of a band-aid or protection. Call it the parenting instinct, love, or whatever you want, I believe it is something built into each of us with children.

Just as we are glad to see our children come to us with their “boo boos”, I am confident God feels the same compassion for us when we take our scraps and pains to Him. I believe He welcomes us, requests us to come to Him, and is waiting to embrace us, but we are many times reluctant to enter into this healing grace.

Why? I think most times because we want to figure out how we got hurt, why we got hurt, or we want revenge and retribution in the situation. This is like a child falling off the slide wanting to know why he fell, how he fell, and then wanting the slide disassembled… really, the best thing for the child is to accept the injury, attend to the injury, and move on. › Continue reading

My daughter wrote a poem for a dear friend battling cancer. She is my guest blogger today as she shares this poem with you.

A Dance With God

He holds my hands,
And I hold His eyes,
It eases the pain,
The torment the lies.
 
When life gets tough,
I’ll ride on His back,
He protects me,
Blocks every attack.
 
He holds me close,
Never letting go,
He’s so tall,
Yet He leans down low.
 
He says shall we dance,
And the music starts to play,
Its so peaceful,
Only He makes me feel this way.
 
And then I dance with God,
We don’t dance to fast,
It could go on forever,
But the music won’t last.
 
I’ll stray away,
Cuz of me He cried,
But He’ll always have me back,
With arms open wide.

I’ll get hit with rocks,
I’ll fall off His shoulders,
But when I look back,
He’s holding the boulders.
 
All that hits me,
He knows I can take,
And when its all over,
A better me it will make.
 
I may feel forgotten,
But He’s always right there,
Holding me tight,
With extra care.
 
When I cry He wipes away my tears,
when I am scared He quiets my fears.
 
And then I dance with God,
We don’t dance to fast,
It could go on forever,
But the music won’t last.
 
I’ll stray away,
Cuz of me He cried,
But He’ll always have me back,
With arms open wide.

By Karli Sasscer

My thanks to Karli for sharing this beautiful encouragement and blessing. I am struck by how her words reveal the depth of her faith, and how much I can learn from my own children.

Glenn Sasscer

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www.glennsasscer.com

A couple of common questions I get is how do I know God is there and what is “all this God business” about? I believe these are common questions and very valid questions for someone who has never experienced God. The answer is always the same for me: Because I have a relationship with Him or “it is about the relationship”.

This response can be mind-boggling for some folks, but I don’t answer this way just to boggle their mind… whatever boggling one’s mind means, I answer this way because it is simply the only truthful way I know to answer.

For me, this answer is complete, concise, and fully describes my faith. Sometimes their eyebrows go up and they change the subject while wondering about my medication, other times the answer will provoke more questions about this relationship and I begin to share my testimony. › Continue reading

I referred to the disciples asking Jesus to increase their faith in yesterday’s article, found here .

I place myself in this position each morning in prayer, knowing full well I am severely lacking in so many ways when I stand before the Lord. My natural request of Him is to increase my faith and prepare me for what He has planned in the day… because really… man, some days seem to take on their own personality and are out to get me.

Oh Lord, just increase my faith, huh?

I believe Jesus is faithful to answer this request, though it is not with a sweep of His hand, a spoken word, or anything we can describe with the word “instantly”. Instantly would not teach us. Instantly would not open our eyes. Instantly would not get rid of some of the wrong ways of thinking, reacting, or justifying our decisions. Instead, we find ourselves in the same position as the disciples some 2,000 years ago, making a request and wondering how the Lord is going to work it out in our lives. › Continue reading

I read about a test conducted at MIT that illustrates the general character of a large portion of our society today. Now, first of all, I really do not like lumping all of society into one group or trying to characterize America or some other country by a single test conducted somewhere at some time by someone, but I just did… why? To illustrate my point, of course.

Dan Ariely, who holds joint appointments in MIT’s Media Lab and Sloan School of Management, performed a test in the dorms at their school. Here’s how the test worked: Ariely and his students went around and left six-packs of Coke in randomly selected dorm refrigerators all over campus. When he checked back in a few days, all of the Cokes were gone.

But when they later placed plates of six loose dollar bills in those same refrigerators, not a single bill was missing when they checked back. Even though the value was comparable, and thus the situations were supposed to be equivalent, people responded in opposite ways. Why is that?

Well, for one, because a Coke just tastes really good! I mean, if they did the test with Pepsi, those would all still be sitting there… who in their right mind would justify stealing a Pepsi. › Continue reading

One of the life changing revelations the Lord has given me is to recognize my weakness and His strength in my life. As an American male, this is big… I have a huge ego and ginormous pride; a mountain of macho crap the Lord could not get around, but had to pierce and go through in order to get to my heart.

The Lord is like that, isn’t He? He doesn’t go around walls or over walls; He goes through them in order to get to us. And, from my experience, He doesn’t let anything get in His way, including our pride, our ego, or our silly ideas about how well we are or how good we are doing. When He goes through those walls or mountains of egotistical pride, we not only get uncomfortable, but we start to respond in a variety of ways: denial, indifference, building more walls, excuses, reclusion, pretending we are so ‘Johnny Bravo cool’, and flat out running in the opposite direction. › Continue reading

On Friday of last week, I wrote an article for this blog that may have freaked a few people out. I’m ok with that, as I write about life and guess what? Life experiences can be pretty freaky sometimes. If you do not have freaky moments in life, you are probably dead and just don’t know it yet.

I wrote about spiritual warfare. You can ignore it, say it doesn’t exist, or pretend you are immune to the battles being waged against you, but the bottom line is the only way to win a war is to recognize you are in one.

On Friday, I mentioned being in the presence of demons as the most terrible times of my entire life. I stick by this statement, and yes… there were a few times. I also pointed out I never worshipped the devil, practiced voodoo, played around with black magic, or messed around with anything like that of a serious nature.

This is significant; this statement points out we are all vulnerable. You may think you are not walking in my shoes and will not follow the same path, but again… I never did anything to entice the encounters. We are targets of the enemy, so how will you respond if or when you find yourself in those crosshairs? › Continue reading

After teaching three times this past month at church and writing numerous articles on this blog about being transformed and receiving more of God’s strength and grace, is it any wonder I should be the focus of an attack from the enemy? I have recognized several forms of his feeble assaults in my relationships and with our finances, each time trusting in the Lord for His grace, and each time receiving a testimony for how good is God.

However, this past week the stakes were raised and the enemy found a chink in my armor or an area of my life I had not fully given over to the Lord.

This revelation is an interesting one for me. Once I had given over my relationships to the Lord, any attacks against me in this area were useless, as these were in the Lord’s hands where the enemy has no power. Once I had given my finances over to the Lord, any attacks against me in this area were useless, as these were in the Lord’s hands where the enemy has no power. This concept is a paradigm shift in my thinking… something I sort of knew, something for which I had a fuzzy understanding, but now the application is right in front of my face and I’m living it out. › Continue reading

I received an email this morning that struck a chord somewhere deep inside. This one was not about someone needing prayer for surgery back in 2008 or something I needed to send out to ten people to get some sort of nifty surprise in my inbox (which is not usually where I like to find surprises anyway).

You may have read it already, and if you have I am sorry to lay the same story out for you again. However, this one has a deeper meaning and maybe it is worth another read. (Thanks to Diane for sending it!)

SCARS OF LIFE

Some years ago, on a hot summer day in South Florida , a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house.

In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore. › Continue reading

When we hear the words, “SOLD OUT”, we are either disappointed in the store for not stocking enough products or we are disappointed in someone else for selling out their values for money, a job, or some other materialistic gain. Being sold out in the world is not usually a good thing and usually leads to disappointment in others, ourselves, or in the situation.

However, being sold out in your kingdom experience is completely different. Should we really be surprised a phrase has opposite meanings in the world and in the kingdom?

In the past two articles, found here and here , I spoke about a transformation happening when we are totally given over to God, seeking Him, and putting our complete trust in Him. In this regard, we are totally sold out for God, selling ourselves out of the worldly ways of thinking and giving ourselves over to a kingdom way of thinking.

You might ask, “Ok Glenn, but how do we do that? What does that look like?” › Continue reading