Archive for June, 2009
How Often Do We Tell Him? June 18, 2009
The other day I was standing in Charisse’s play room and she came up to me and kept saying, “I love you, I love you…” over and over again.
I thought to myself, “hearing my child say that NEVER gets old!”
Then I felt the Lord speak to me and say, “it never gets old to Me either!”
I am so guilty of telling God I love Him right before I ask for something or when I am really sorry about a sin that I have committed…but…
I am understanding that He likes it best when I communicate my love to Him out of appreciation for who He is and what He has done…and not in desperation in hopes of manipulation to get Him to do what I want.
When was the last time you thanked God for all that you have…or simply said “I love you” just because?
He is the perfect Father…so He KNOWS when we are trying to “butter Him up!” AND…I am guessing it doesn’t really work with Him.
My prayer is that I will become more desperately in love with HIM because of WHO HE IS and not because of what I perceive He can give me! And a way to make sure that happens is to offer consistent and sincere praise and thankfulness to the ONE who has blessed me with more than I could ever imagine!
15 Things That Will Help Us Go Insane! June 17, 2009
Fifteen Things That Will Help Us Go Insane!
#1 – Get a fresh, life changing, hell emptying vision from God
#2 – Expect everyone to be excited about it, and to provide you will nothing but affirmation and support.
#3 – Let people who haven’t heard from the Lord begin to alter your vision because you are scared of them.
#4 – Try to continually defend the vision to everyone who attacks it.
#5 – Care about everything that anyone says…whether they know you are not.
#6 – Spend more time focusing on what negative people say rather than what God says.
#7 – Try to do what God has told you to do all by yourself!
#8 – Neglect correction from those who love Jesus, the church and you.
#9 – Don’t hold people accountable because you are afraid they may get mad if you call them out.
#10 – Hold people accountable for unspoken and unrealistic expectations.
#11 – Use your vision as a means to judge the vision God has given someone else…and if they aren’t doing it just like you then attack them so much that the Lord’s voice grows faint.
#12 – Become impatient with God’s timing and “help Him” by doing things that He doesn’t lead you to do.
#13 – Try to be “fair” to everyone you serve with.
#14 – When it gets tough…QUIT!
#15 – Spend all of your life saying that “one day” you are going to do what God has called you to do…just not right now because it isn’t convenient.
Bonus: Refuse to answer the question, “What would I be willing to attempt for God if I knew I could not fail?”
Asking God To Destroy Me! June 16, 2009
I shaved my gottee the other day…and didn’t really say anything to anyone about it. I wanted to see if anyone noticed and what their reaction was…
And the most unique reaction came from Charisse.
Keep in mind that I have had a gottee since she was born…that’s the only way she’s ever known me. Many times she has sat in my lap and played with my whiskers.
SO…after I shaved I walked into the living room and picked her up and began playing with her. She drew back from me and stared…put her hand where my gottee used to be and felt that it was smooth…and then proceeded to FREAK OUT!
Seriously…I was worried about her for a second. She wanted OUT of my arms because I had changed things up on her. She was used to me being a certain way…and when that wasn’t a reality for her anymore she had a hard time dealing with it…
I think I’ve had the same experience with God many times!!! I’ve thought of Him as being a certain way. I’ve placed Him in a box and built up my beliefs based on who I think He is…and He just keeps destroying my limited ideas and revealing Himself to me in ways I’ve never thought about…
Which makes me VERY uncomfortable…
One of the problems I believe I have had as a follower of Jesus is that I want to develop and idea of who God is and then have Him stay there…my desire for comfort has dominated my thinking…
But God never really invites us to a place of comfort…in fact, when He uses someone in the Scriptures He usually had to DESTROY a lot of their preconceived notions. (Isaiah 6 and Acts 9 immediately come to mind.)
SO…my prayer lately has been, “God, teach me to see as You see…and destroy in me what needs to be destroyed so that I can see you for who You are and not for who I want you to be!”
When is the last time you asked the Lord to make you uncomfortable? To destroy you? To reveal who HE IS to you rather than who you want Him to be? WATCH IT…seeking the Lord like this is dangerous…it will propel you into an uncomfortable place…but it is in that place that He ruins us and then uses us to make a difference for Him!
Don’t Give Up! June 15, 2009
I don’t know who I am writing to…heck…I may need to come back one day and read this myself…but I really feel like I am supposed to tell someone, “DON’T GIVE UP!!!”
Church work can be the most frustrating thing on the planet to deal with…but don’t stop now! What you are seeing as an obstacle God is using as an opportunity! Don’t give up!!! (Galatians 6:9)
People hate you just because of what you do…and if you begin to experience any aort of success they will despise you even more. Don’t give up…your calling is not to please them!!! (Galatians 1:10)
You feel like you are not successful because your church hasn’t exploded with growth. BUT…you’ve seen 10 people receive Christ in the past year! REJOICE IN THAT…THE ANGELS DID!!! Don’t give up because your church isn’t getting attention from men…it has the attention of the Almighty…and in the end THAT is all that will matter!
You feel like you aren’t a good leader…or a good speaker. You want to walk away and do something else because you just don’t feel qualified. Remember…Jesus took some very unqualified men and CHANGED THE WORLD!!! (Acts 4:13)
Someone doesn’t like something you did recently…and they are not afraid to tell you about it. Remember…they didn’t like Jesus healing on the Sabbath either…but He kept on doing it because He knew He was pleasing His Father!!!
Your past haunts you…the enemy constantly thtows it in your face. You want to walk away when you focus on who you WERE…STOP IT and see who YOU ARE in Christ! (I Corinthians 6:9-11 – REALLY focus on verse 11!) Don’t give up!
People close to you have abandoned you…and you are hearing the things they say. You feel betrayed…hurt…and wonder if it is all worth it. Demas betrayed Paul…Judas betrayed Jesus…yet they hung in there and refused to allow that type of betrayal to take their eyes off of the goal.
Don’t give up! Don’t quit! Stay in the fight!!! God called you to be a warrior…and sometimes warriors get wounded. BUT…wounds should not take the desire to fight out of us…but rather cause us to want to fight even more.
I heard about a guy who was going through a rough time once and asked Bill Hybels, “With all of this stuff I am going through…why shouldn’t I just quit right now?’
Bill replied, “because one day you and I will stand in front of One who had an assignment much tougher than ours and He didn’t quit…that’s why!”
BAM!
Don’t quit…don’t give up…fight the good fight! (Galatians 6:9) Pray, fast, preach, witness, memorize Scripture…and give satan a swift kick in the cookies as often as possible!!
But whatever you do…don’t give up! He called you–He gifted you–He empowered you and He will sustain you! (II Corinthians 4) – the WHOLE THING!
Don’t give up!
Sunday Night Reflections June 14, 2009
Here goes…will probably be EXTREMELY random! :-)
- Had the honor of having Craig Groeschel speak to NewSpring today as a part of our “God Is” series…
- MANY decisions were made for Christ as a result of the message…that NEVER gets old!
- His opening line about believing that God can love others but struggling with God loving me was POWERFUL! WOW!
- BTW…some people don’t have a hard time thinking God loves them…in fact, they are sure of it and are also quite sure that He doesn’t love anyone else! :-)
- Many of the people I mentioned above twitter!!!
- Craig has been one of the guys that Jesus has really used to shape, encourage…and rebuke me over the past three years! He is honestly one of the best leaders I know and it is a privilege to call him a friend.
- I think he and Amy (his wife) should write a commentary on the Song of Songs…THEY HAVE SIX KIDS…I think they have things figured out!!!
- Greenville campus had an amazing first day at their new location…I honestly believe God is setting the stage for an EXPLOSION of HIS GRACE this fall!
- I am SO proud of the staff and volunteers that BUSTED IT over the past week to make things happen so fast!
- I am continuing to hear AWESOME stories from our Florence campus…can’t WAIT to see what happens there this fall as well!
- Had some news come our way this week in regards to our Columbia campus that, if it works out, is going to be AMAZING!
- Next week is Father’s Day…get dad to church!!! (You should bring him!)
- BTW…Mother’s Day is usually one of the highest attended church days every year…and Father’s Day is one of the lowest–what does that say about the men in the church? (Or lack of!!!)
- I spend MOST of my day in a car driving back from Panama City Beach, Florida…got to spend some much needed time with ‘Cretia and Charisse and was able to rest a little as well.
- Tomorrow I head out to the West Coast…get to meet with Larry Osborne on Monday and Tuesday and then Mark Driscoll on Wednesday and Thursday. I consider myself to be very blessed to have this opportunity to learn from these guys who are much wiser than me!
- Would appreciate your prayers for the trip I mentioned above…for safe travel and that I would be completely open to the Holy Spirit and all He wants to teach me!
That’s about it…going to set the coffee maker (gotta get up @ 4:40) and then head to bed!
16 Questions That Will Help Us Make It In Ministry – Part 13 June 12, 2009
13. Will Be Controlled by Fear or Will I be Faithful?
Fear is a reality. The man that says “I fear nothing” is a liar. We all are scared of something. Personally I am scared of spiders. I hate them. I hate them more than I hate cats. I think all spiders and cats go to Hell when they die. There have been times in my life when I have seen a spider and literally been paralyzed with fear and could not move because something that I feared held me captive.
Now if you think about it it’s a pretty ridiculous scenario. I’m 6’6” and weigh 225 lbs. and I wear a size 14 shoe. I can crush a spider at any time that I wish. But my perception of the problem is that the spider can somehow rise up and kill and eat me and I will exist no more. We laugh, it is ridiculous, but many of us as leaders let very small problems to hold us captive in fear.
One of the things that we constantly need to remind ourselves of is that the same power that conquered the grave lives in us. God is sovereign, He’s supreme, He reigns and if we’re operating under His authority and following His instructions have nothing to fear. Fear many times should drive us to desperation for Him so we can see how awesome He is.
What are you letting control you? If the answer isn’t “Jesus” then something has got to change!