https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsWZU8GPS4w&t=126s
The Restless Ones - starring Johnny Crawford ( the Rifleman )

Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me, Lord" is regarded as one of the greatest country songs ever written. It has been covered by a long list of legendary artists, including Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Conway Twitty.

Scotty McCreery sang "Why Me, Lord" on his new album, and his rendition has left fans in awe. Listen below >>

Eshon Burgundy - Thirty Three (Official Music Video) Johnny P's Caddy Remix (Song Of the Day , Hope your week started well church )

I Prayed And They Died Anyway

"Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."
John 11:21 (KJV)
You prayed harder than you've ever prayed in your life, and you stayed on your knees until there was nothing left to say.

The phone rang anyway with the news you were begging God to stop.

Now you're sitting in the quiet after the funeral, and there's a thought you haven't said out loud because it scares you.

If God was really listening, they'd still be here.

Right behind it comes a worse one.

Maybe they're gone because I didn't have enough faith.

You ever wonder if your prayer bounced off the ceiling because something was wrong with you?

Like if you'd believed a little harder, or said it the right way, the outcome would have changed?

Let me show you a woman who said the quiet part out loud, right to Jesus' face:

Her brother Lazarus got sick. She sent for Jesus.

Jesus loved this family, and He still didn't come in time.

By the time He showed up, Lazarus had been in the grave four days.

Martha walked out to meet Him on the road and didn't soften it one bit:

"Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."

That's an accusation. That's her saying "where were You, I called and You never came."

Here's what He didn't do:

He didn't correct her or call her faithless. He didn't hand her a tidy verse and keep walking.

You can say "where were You, God" and still be standing on holy ground.

What did Jesus give her instead of a rebuke?

Himself.

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."

John 11:25 (KJV)

He doesn't answer her grief with an explanation. He answers it with a Person.

Notice He says I am the resurrection.

The thing she's crying for is standing in front of her wearing skin.

Watch why Jesus cried.

We read "Jesus wept" and figure He broke down because death is just that sad, because He's standing there feeling our pain right along with us.

"Jesus wept."

John 11:35 (KJV)

Read the verse right before it:

"When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled."

John 11:33 (KJV)

A whole crowd standing around that grave, crying like it was finished. Like the One who made Lazarus couldn't do a thing about a tomb.

This is the part that should stop you.

What hurts Jesus most isn't the death. It's the unbelief standing next to the death.

The heaviest thing for the most faithful man who ever lived to watch is people deciding He can't do the very thing He came to do.

Telling Jesus a grave is the end is telling Him there's something He can't undo.

He can do all things. That dead man walked out of the tomb a few verses later still wrapped in his grave clothes.

Hear me out before you carry one ounce of guilt.

This isn't about your tears. Cry as hard as you need to.

The tears were never the problem.

What troubled Jesus was a heart that already nailed the casket shut on what He's able to do.

Here's what I want to set you free from today.

You were never in charge of when they died.

When it's somebody's time, it's their time, and that clock was never in your hands.

Prayer was never a vending machine where the right amount of belief buys back the outcome you wanted.

That is exactly why their death was never your faith's fault.

What you do get to decide is whose hands you put them in now.

You can stand at the grave and call it the end, or you can place them in the hands of the God who raises the dead and leave the verdict with Him.

Stay with me on their soul too, because this is where people torture themselves for years.

You don't know everything that passed between them and God.

You weren't with them every second of their life, and you for sure weren't in their head at the end.

You don't know what they heard, or what they settled in a moment nobody else was in the room for.

Even somebody who told you straight up they didn't believe, you don't get to be the final judge of their heart.

That was always God's call, never yours.

The Bible even says your faith reaches further than you think:

"And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

Acts 16:31 (KJV)

Believe Him for your house. Put the ones you've lost and the ones you love in the hands of the One who can do all things, and lay down a judgment that was never yours to make.

Jesus walked out of His own grave, so death doesn't get the last word over anybody He holds.

The goodbye is not the end of the sentence.

Here's how to start handing this over today:

Hand them to the only One who can actually hold them.
You couldn't choose the day they died. You can choose whose hands they rest in now. Say it out loud and leave them there.

Say the angry part to God, not about Him.
Martha brought her "where were You" straight to Jesus and the conversation didn't break Him. He can hold yours. Don't take it to everybody except the One who can actually carry it.

Plant yourself somewhere you'll hear the resurrection promise on repeat.
Get around people who keep pointing you back to the empty tomb when your grief tries to tell you the grave wins. You won't out-think this one alone.

PRAYER
Lord, I prayed and it still happened, and I've been scared to tell You how angry and confused that left me.

I've been wondering if I didn't believe hard enough.

Today I lay that lie down.

You are the resurrection and the life, and my prayer was never strong enough to be the savior.

That was always Your job.

Thank You that You cried at a grave too.

Hold me in this until the morning comes.

In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Johnny Chang

The heart is deceitful above all things Jeremiah talks about this.

#Johnny Chang Live

Faith without works is Dead? by Pastor Johnny Chang explain through context.
#Johnny Chang Live

#Pastor Johnny Chang

Me and Pastor Johnny at BridgeFest!!

[mention]

How to Deal with Hatred Biblically

"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"
1 John 4:20 (KJV)

I hated people for years and didn't call it that.

I called it "protecting my peace."

The thing nobody told me about hatred: it doesn't start where you think it starts.

Most people think hatred starts with the terrible thing somebody did to you.
They hurt you, lied to you, chose somebody else.
That pain is real.

Hatred is more than the pain though.
Pain fades.
Hatred hardens.

The reason it hardens is that underneath the anger sits something you probably haven't looked at yet.

A broken expectation.

You don't hate people because they hurt you. You hate them because they fell off the pedestal you put them on.

Think about who you hate.
If hate feels too strong, think about who you can't forgive.
Who tightens your chest when their name comes up.
Who lives rent-free in your head years after the situation ended.

Now ask yourself this.
What did you need them to be?

Did you need them to validate you?
To stay loyal when everybody else walked?

Whatever the answer is, that's the real wound.
Not what they did. What they were supposed to be for you.

When somebody holds that kind of place in your life, their failure doesn't feel like a normal disappointment.
It hits like something sacred got broken.

You're not a bad person for feeling it.
You put a human being on a pedestal built for God. Nobody survives up there.

Strip it all the way down and hatred is grief over a fallen idol, anger at a person for failing to be what only God could be.

In the gang, loyalty was everything to me.
Those guys weren't friends, they were family, the people I believed would never let me down.
Looking back, that was worship. I just didn't call it that.

When some of them turned on me, hurt isn't the word to describe. I was demolished.
My security was riding on their loyalty, my identity on their acceptance, and when they turned, the whole thing came crashing down.

That's where hatred lives.
Not in the offense. In the expectation underneath it.

It's also why hatred runs deeper than anger.
It's grief and pride mixed together: grief over what you hoped they'd be, pride that says they owed you it.

John says something that should stop every one of us.

"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar."

He doesn't say "he's struggling."
He doesn't say "he's working through it."
He says liar.

John isn't being harsh here, he's being surgical.

Hatred and love for God can't live in the same heart, and it has nothing to do with God demanding perfection.
Hatred keeps your heart tied to the offense, and a heart tied down can't move toward God.

When you hate someone, they still own space in you.
They're in your thoughts when you wake up and in your reactions when somebody new does something that echoes what they did.

You think you cut them off.
They're still running your emotional life from the outside.

Hatred doesn't punish the person who hurt you. It chains you to them, and they own a piece of your peace they never paid for.

Letting go was never about being the bigger person.
It's about getting free, and I don't mean free from the memory.

The grip breaks when you do one thing.

Take them off the pedestal.

I don't mean "forgive and forget" or "pretend it didn't happen."
I mean recognize you placed an expectation on them that only God could fulfill, and hand that expectation back to where it belongs.

When Jesus is your security, people can betray you without taking you out.
When He's your validation, rejection stings but it can't erase you.

"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."
Romans 12:19 (KJV)

Vengeance is Mine, not yours.
The gavel was never yours to hold.

Gripping it anyway is telling God, "I don't trust You to handle this."
That grip is what's destroying you.

The hatred you're nursing isn't hurting them.
Most of the time they've moved on, living their life, feeling none of it.
You're the one who feels it, every morning it's still there.

Letting go of hatred is not letting them off the hook. It's letting yourself out of the cell.

It doesn't happen by willpower either. It happens by worship.

When you hand the role back to God, when you can pray "You are my security, not them. You are my justice, not me," the grip loosens.

Not overnight, but it loosens.

The hatred was never really about them anyway.
It was about the role they failed to fill, and once God fills it, the hatred has nowhere left to live.

"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
Ephesians 4:32 (KJV)

Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
You were forgiven while you were still the offender.
Colossians 2:13 calls it all trespasses. Already covered.
God didn't wait for you to earn it. He just gave it.

That's the engine for letting go: you were forgiven something far bigger than anything they ever did to you.

When that lands, the hatred starts losing its lease.

Here's how you start walking out of it today.
1. Name the expectation underneath the hatred.

Not what they did, what you needed them to be. Validator, protector, the loyal one. The hatred lives in that expectation, and once you name it, you can hand it back to God where it belongs.

2. Hand the role back to God.

They were holding a spot in your heart that was built for Him. Tell Him out loud you're giving it back, and release them from something they were never built to be.

3. When the hatred flares up again, and it will, aim it at the cross.

Pray it plain: "God, I was forgiven everything. I release this person, because holding on keeps me chained to something You already freed me from." Pray it as many times as it takes.

PRAYER

Father God, I've been carrying hatred and calling it protection.

I've been holding resentment and calling it justice.

All it's really done is chain me to somebody who doesn't even feel it.

Today I take them off the pedestal and hand the whole thing to You.

They were never supposed to be my security or my judge. You are.

Free me from the hatred that's been renting space in my heart.

Walk me out of this cell, the door's already open.

In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Johnny Chang

Somebody came to mind while you were reading this. Send it to them. It might be the exact thing they needed to hear today.

Today is National Raggedy Ann and Andy Day?

What a delightful celebration! As we’ve journeyed through 163 days so far this year, let’s take a pause to honor these beloved rag dolls that have captured hearts for generations. Raggedy Ann and Andy are not just toys; they embody friendship, loyalty, and adventure! Why not dive into their whimsical world through a nostalgic tale today? Share those magical stories with loved ones or create new ones with your own Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls!

It's amazing how a simple rag doll can spark so much joy! The beloved tales penned by Johnny Gruelle remind us of the beauty and wonder that can be found in the simplest things. Just look at how inspiration can come from his daughter’s childhood discovery—a faceless doll transformed into a beloved character! Those cherished memories can be like our faith—precious, personal, and passed down through generations!

So let’s celebrate not just the joys of the day but also the simple moments that can bring us closer to one another and to God. Just like Raggedy Ann and Andy, may we carry kindness and joy into our daily lives while nurturing the young hearts around us!