Year: 2013

Keep your Vows even when it Hurts

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A few weeks ago, I felt compelled to meet with a brother from our congregation. I didn’t want to scold him, nor rebuke him, I simply wanted to talk to him about standing me up several times. He is one of those guys who’s very quick to volunteer for a project. You know, guys with very good intentions, willing to help, but really do not realize that they are over committing. I didn’t want to break out in a brand new teaching series on how to make and keep your vows; neither did I want to discourage his enthusiasm. But I had to tell him that he didn’t have to approach me every week to commit to something and not actually do the thing. I wanted him to actually think and plan about how he wanted to serve, than pursue it passionately. However, I did share the following scripture and thought with him: the faithful followers of the Lord, keep their promises even when it hurts. Psalm 154 NLT What I do not mean by keeping …

I am a work in progress!

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Have you ever wonder why start-ups often keep the Beta test phrase label on their products long after their launch? They leave it on there to stress that the product is not finished – it is a work in progress. There is still room for improvements. What do you think will happen to us if we could embrace the idea of “Permanent Beta” and apply it to every area of lives – Allowing space for growth in our spiritual, social, and professional life. Permanent Beta – is a one day at a time commitment to personal, professional and spiritual growth and development. Each day represents an opportunity to develop you craft, sharpen your skills, improve your serve and show Christ in his ever-increasing glory. I have heard people dismiss or cover up their sluggishness with the phrase – “I’m a work in progress.” But this is not a passive excuse to spiritual, or professional laziness. The goal is to open up your life to the Lord, to trusted friends with continued humility and a teachable spirit, …

Detours

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Life is sometimes full of twists and turns: You are up – than you are down. You are in love – you are out of love. You are Healthy – than you are ill. You are Employed – than, unemployed Other times, life is great, you are moving toward your dreams, goals and your destination is just around the corner and boom – roadblock. All of a sudden, you hit a brick wall. What do you do when you find yourself on this roller coaster ride of ups and downs? What do you do when disappointment hits? How do you handle detours, opposition and roadblocks? Quite often, when life serves us an unexpected blow or a pill too hard to swallow, we quickly get discouraged and think it’s the end of the road. Sometimes we blame others or simply just give up. A few years ago a young violinist by the name of Lukas Kmit was playing at a Jewish Orthodox synagogue in Prseov, Slovakia. While he was performing, the cell phone of one of …

UnFollow: 7 People you may need to Unfollow

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We live in a day and age where people and things continually scream for your attention. We are constantly being asked to follow something. For example, these request might look like the following: Follow me on Facebook Follow me on Instagram Follow me on Twitter Follow me on Tumblr Follow me on Foursquare Follow me on WordPress Follow me on Google Follow this trend, website, celebrity The list goes on and on. It is not hard to see how people can easily start following people and things they have no business following. Let me suggest some people or trends you might want to consider unfollowing: Unfollow your favorite porn star It may be the one in your favorite movie, TV Show or dirty magazine or website. If they’ve ever exposed themselves – you need to unfollow them. Unfollow your favorite author or blogger If their words incite lust. profanity and all shades of sexual perversion – you need to unfollow them. Unfollow your favorite Rock star If they curse God or his people in their …

I am 100% Recycled Trash

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There is a growing awareness and an increasing effort to recycle in our world today.  It is going on all around us: I read an article some time ago about a house in Colorado called the Earthship. It is not only beautiful, it is also an environmentally friendly, 10,000 square foot home-made of used tires, aluminum cans and other recycled materials. The Earthship is made of junk, but it has been featured on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Home and Gardens, the Discovery Channel, and PBS. If you want to buy one, it is all yours for only 3.3 million dollars. There are not many things that are not being recycled today:• Recycled paper products• Recycled glass and metal products• Salvage yards recycle car, truck and machinery parts• There are many reports that Habitat for Humanity opened a used building materials outlet   in Denver a few years ago• Even our thrift stores and garage sales are ways people recycle. What am I trying to say to you? God is in the recycling business. He’s been in the business longer than anyone. It …

Things that are Better

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Ecclesiastes 7:1-29

A good name is better than precious ointment… verse 1

It is better to have a regular quite time than to be a party junkie… verse 2. The house of feasting often shuts out thoughts of God and eternity

Godly sorrow is better than all the laughter in the world… verse 3

It is better to be sensitive and sympathetic to the hurts and needs of others around you, than to be thoughtlessly lost in diversion and amusement… verse 4

It is better for a man to be rebuked than for him to listen to all the pop culture and make me feel good sermons in the world… verse 5

Two Steps to a Miracle

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The Lame Beggar Healed/ ACTS 3:1-9 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.  But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.  And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.  And all the people saw him walking and …

Seven things you need to seek with utmost urgency

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The First Blesses the Rest Matthew 6:25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ …

Steal my Show – go ahead take it away!

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If You wanna steal my show, I’ll sit back and watch You go If You got somethin’ to say, go on and take it away Need You to steal my show, can’t wait to watch You go So take it away My life My friends My heart It’s all Yours, God Take it away My dreams My fears My family My career Take it away Take it away It’s all Yours, God Take it away Take it away It’s You I wanna live for  

God hates visionary Dreaming?

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. Source Is there a difference between a true visionary and visionary dreaming? Yes! I believe that there is a difference between a true visionary and visionary dreaming. It is a subtle but very critical difference. A true visionary is a man who actually gets his vision from God. There is no presumption or assumption. The vision is given to him by God. He doesn’t act as if he knows it all and have all the answers. He is willing to abandon his ideas about the work of God and embrace God’s Visionary dreaming is sometimes tied up in ambition, ego, idealism or even cynicism. A …