accountability.....

Choice's have to be made as to what we esteem, what is filling our hearts and what we want our lives to reflect. So simply speaking, "the life we live in the flesh will pass away, but the life we live in the Spirit will endure forever." If it is the flesh that leads you, the winds will bring you to unpredictable places (John 3:3-8).

There just comes a point in time when you have to stand for the theology of your beliefs. If I proclaim Him, I have to do whatever it takes to love Him. I am burdened when I hear somene who struggles with righteousness because they are not willing to do what it takes to walk in it. Fighting the stumbling blocks with simple applications of accountability and sometimes hard choices. There is always a way to fight what holds us captive if we simply believe in the Power of what is greater. Stop allowing the enemy to have topography in our lives.

Nehemiah 4 speaks of the enemy trying to live among us by simply walking through the low places in our wall. The efforts of the enemy is to deter us from the "cross." All too often it means we have to work with a spear in one hand and continue the work building the fortress for our hearts, marriages, children and Him.

The burden is lifted in knowing I too was not willing to do what it takes....until I started applying the simple steps it then becomes easier to make the harder decisions.

highest honor....

I would consider it a monumental opportunity and blessing when someone comes to you with a request for prayer. Have always felt that, however it is not until my heart was right that I understand what is attached and the power that is unleashed. Had a friend once tell me as he was going through treatment for cancer, I replied "I will pray for you, it is the least I can do." When he responded, "it is the most you can do for me!" Dang, smacked square in the forehead with that one. It has always stuck with me, and now I believe!

Yesterday a friend came to me for that very need, prayer. As I kneeled before Him with my hands on his back I felt a burning presence as I prayed over him. To commit something to Him in prayer may just be the very highest honor I will ever be bestowed, certainly the greatest power I will ever know! It is not just saying a prayer, it is building the temple, feeling the weight of the timbers to glorify Him.

Then this morning I receive this nugget of truth from Pastor Steven, "EXPECTING God to show up goes beyond HOPING He will. Hope is an aspiration. EXPECTATION makes preparation....R U ready?" My response "Today I am, yesterday I hoped...today I know!" What's different...the preparation, the investment, the change that is my life.

Brother, thanks for allowing me the honor to lift that burden before Him. The battles already won, the victory known and the Glory His. He's paid the price to ransom you and I......

Invest in people...

Recently I heard the statement from someone "I'm changing churches; I'm just not getting fed there." To which I responded by asking, "what are you bringing & how are you serving?"

Hebrews speaks of investing our lives in the Kingdom of Heaven, the unseen. Trust Him with the seen (Matthew 6). The Kingdom of Heaven is made up mostly of one thing, people. You grow spiritually by investing yourself into people, using the gifts, talents and resources God has invested in you. Remembering the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). God blessed those who invested in faith and took risks with what He had given them. The one who buried his talent in the sand.... not so good. Spiritual stagnation, he went looking for another church because he was not being fed...by others.

"Revelation without application is only inspiration and will not lead to transformation." Pastor Steven

surrounded by greatness....

Just have to brag just a little on God, how He has surrounded me with incredibly instrumental people. From every area and aspect of life. Leaders, co-workers, friends and most of all my bride. Here's what spawns this whole thought. Yesterday, I received a text from a good brother that says this profound concept. "The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you!" Just look at Elijah in the Kerith ravine, the brook dries up, and enter in the widow!

This includes our children, which I have to give a shout out to Jessica. May not be a big deal to you, it is to me! She is now a "certified sitter" having taken the Red Cross Certification for Baby Sitting. Yeah, that's right top of the class, she gets that from her mom! She felt lead to take this course and stepped out of her comforts and allowed God to bless her and stretch her. I am both happy and sad. Jess, I love being your dad and I am so proud of you. This is just the beginning of God using you. Sad, simply because my little girl is growing up, dang God is great!

What's my take away from all this? Besides having an awesome wife! Just few years ago I surrendered to the fact that I do not know how to be a father, He has met me every step of the way. Sometimes I just forget. I may not get it right all the time, but hey I am listening and following Him with application. I'll just keep kneeling and asking Him to lead me.

broken again...

After writing a post "broken" the answer too was right there in the Book of James. James 4:6b "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

The difference in my life today is that I have been broken in humility, the need of a Savior, Healer and Redeemer. I have surrendered and submitted. I seek that I may be free from all that limits His power in my life. Repentance will allow the roots to grow deep in the living water that is Christ Jesus.

Many times broken out of embarrassment, truly just pride. One allows for change and transformation, the other only leads to stagnation and limitation. When speaking with others, I can only pray they know the power that comes from our weakness...it is there grace enters.

Well there you have it, if I had only understood what I had read many times before. May just be the explanation of reading the word and living the word!

what just happened....?

Seems somewhere in time life transformed from reading to living.
1 Thessalonians 1:4-7

When just then it all seemed to explain itself. Past, present and future. The passage goes on to explain the Paul, Silas and Timothy lived among the Thessalonians so that they may learn. They imitate what they learn, then carry that which they have learned to be modeled by others. Seems that's how life change happens.

As I prepare my heart to counsel with another brother this evening, I have a confidence in those who have shared and lived beside me. Life change starts by investment in others allowing God's love to speak. What's even better my bride is out with his fiance' tonight too. An awesome feeling to know how God answers prayer.

For way too long I was surrounded by believer's that leaned against the cross, it was hard for me to see His glory as the eyes of judgement were cast upon me. Now I am surrounded by those who kneel before the cross with their eye's of imperfection cast upon the cross. Do not just speak the words, live them.

As I rip off the words of Perry Noble, "keep running up the score God!"

a violinist....

While watching a violinist I was floored by his focus, his whole body seemed to be caught in that moment. While watching his facial expressions, I began thinking about the music he was playing. As if he was the only instrument playing, he was consumed; oblivious to the sounds & world around him. He trusted the training, rehearsal and knowledge to be completely in tune. He was confident in his craft, skills of others and calling that his only focus was in the present moment. He was not lost in the moment he was focused on the moment. So as the violinist's bow draws across the strings, all sacrifice to that point emboldens him to know he has what it takes to make the next note.

A question I hear from men struggling is how do you resist temptation? Fight then resist, know where the enemy lives among you. Scripture says when tempted; not if. To fight temptation, I actively participate in the moment, on my toes not on my heels. If I am not resisting temptation I may be entertaining it. Submitting to Him I will find confidence in His strength, I can identify where temptation enters and prevent desire from becoming sin.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ends the passage with ...he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

The gospel as a living ever changing force in my life. I have read the book of James for it's practicality & as my ipod plays podcasts in my ears, I listen to Essential James series over and over. Pastor tagged so many one liners that continue to transform my thoughts. Although the line that kept playing over is from Real Change Campaign, "I would rather change little by little than never having changed at all."

In Essential James, Pastor kicked it square. Revelation & application lead to transformation. So in reading James 3:17, I see how He has worked on me. Once living with wrong motives, closed minded, judgement of others, unanswered prayers...living life in utter disregard for the claims of God on my life. When my eyes are opened to the reality of transformation as these things slowly but surely cease to be a part of me. Just then the answer appears, "If we come near to God, He will come near to us and our lives will change." I have peace.......

Way to go God the score seems to be running up!

hope....or Hope?

After speaking to someone who remarked something to the effect of "I hope I will find peace and freedom from what holds me back." When truly the bottom line is "what holds me back....me" As if to say "one day I hope I can go to Disney World." Certainly not if you do not labor for it!

When I suddenly realized hope has become some misrepresentation of it's meaning. In it's own distorted way it means wishful thinking. If there is one thing that I have come to believe is look back in my life, call on history. When I have let go of what holds me back; faith and hope step in to allow His past performance to prove His future faithfulness. In this conversation hope stepped forward and offered the words "Hope is a confidence that God will do as He has promised."

I prefer to live in the hope of His return rather than "I hope Christ returns?" There is no question in that statement for He has responded every time I moved to Him. Steadfast in Hope, I am changed because of that Hope.

"A memory from my past can be just the encouragement I need in a difficult time. When in doubt, think back." (author unknown by me) "The scars of sin will be gone..." Philippians

independence day....

Been thinking about what freedom is; or what it is not because I have more experience in that category.
Freedom is less me and more Thee.
Freedom is not mine but Thine.
Freedom is more Thy than my.
I was in search of independence when what I was really missing was freedom.
As I begin to think about the grace in His pursuing me, I see freedom was paid by those who came before, who gave for the cost of freedom from the law. Christ sacrificed His freedom so that He could pay for mine. He was and is the only way to find freedom. Bought and paid...through that comes real independence, knowing the Father's love for me. An intimacy with God.

That's freedom to me
Mark 10:45 45 "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."