Promise Land Preparation, Part IV

I commanded Joshua at that time, "You've seen with your own two eyes everything God, your God, has done to these two kings. God is going to do the same thing to all the kingdoms over there across the river where you're headed. Don't be afraid of them. God, your God—he's fighting for you."

Deuteronomy 3:21-22 (The Message)

Your Promise Land is in sight and Your spirit is being stirred...you feel a certain God-Ordained tension to take action and head straight towards it....You know you must move forward and take action but you keep wrestling with the decision to take that step of faith. No worries my friend, because God is fighting for you!

As Joshua as his men were preparing to enter their Promise Land, they definitely encountered resistance. However, all they had to do was remember how God had granted them victory in the past. God is not only God of the past, but He is also God of the present and God of the future...

With your own two eyes, I know there has been a time when you have seen what God has done...have faith and courage because He is going to do the same thing to all the "kingdoms" over there across the river where you're headed.

God Is Fighting For You

So what is holding you back from entering your Promise Land? What is holding you back from downloading that application, submitting your resume, turning in your two-week notice, enrolling in that class, calling that friend? Listen, if you are faithfully diving into God's Word and speaking and Praying to Him on a daily basis, if you are seeking counsel, trusting Him and Obeying Him, and being sensitive to The Counsel of The Holy Spirit, then God is going to reveal The Promise Land that He wants you to conquer.

To conquer it may not be easy...but don't quit before you try...allow faith to shape your decision's instead of fear...you need to identify the giants and the "kingdoms" in your life and have no fear from them..... Don't be afraid of them. God, your God—he's fighting for you."

Surround Sound Steward:Adrenaline Rush

In the "Whatever It Takes" series, I mentioned how to become a "Surround Sound Steward." That is, how to use every thing from every angle God gives you in order to live for Him...



So today I want to mention a new way of thinking and being this kind of a Steward from an approach I learned this weekend from listening to Mark Batterson in his "Wild Goose Chase" series....



>>> Be a steward of Excitement: God created our Adrenal Glands, he created the Epinephrine and Norepinephrine that the Adrenal Glands secrete, and these are the hormones responsible for our Sympathetic Nervouse system that kick in the "Fight Or Flight" response.



>>> One caveat: Being a Steward of Excitement and Adventure, a Steward of The Adrenal Glands is pursuing excitement in God-Ordained ways. Mark has a cool definition of sin that says, "Sin is meeting a legitimate need in an illegitimate way." So make sure you are pursuing this legitimate need of an adrenal rush in the legitimate God-Ordained way!

Crucified Life

Let's TALK about HOW WE LIVE as CHRISTIANS…

REAL VOICE

THERE are SO MANY VOICES that TELL US HOW TO LIVE…whether DIRECTLY or INDIRECTLY…everything INFLUENCES our LIVES…MOVIES tell us how to LIVE. TV SHOWS…OUR FRIENDS…THE INTERNET…LISTENING TO MUSIC can INFLUENCE how WE LIVE...COCA-COLA even has a good theme for LIFE…have you seen the Polar Bear commercials: “GIVE.LIVE.LOVE”. If COCA-COLA has a theme for life and a polar bear to show them how to live, certainly Christians have a way of life...maybe not a polar bear...but a PERSON...the PERSON of JESUS CHRIST! For Christians, the WORD of GOD is to BE THE MAIN VOICE in TEACHING US HOW TO “LIVE”. WHY? BECAUSE the “LIFE” of JESUS is found in the PAGES of SCRIPTURE!

REALLY LIVED

NO ONE “LIVED” a BETTER LIFE THAN JESUS CHRIST. NO ONE LOVED more…NO ONE was MORE JOYFUL and THANKFUL…NO one PRAYED MORE! NO ONE GAVE MORE…NO ONE LIVED MORE ABUNDANTLY THAN JESUS CHRIST! HE is EVERYTHING GOD is and EVERYTHING WE ARE TO BE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS SO AMAZING JESUS’ LIFE? HE LIVED IN ORDER TO DIE! HE CAME to “DIE”. He CAME to be CRUCIFIED. TONIGHT, I WANT TO suggest the ANSWER to our TOPIC: “HOW DO I LIVE?” is this: LIVE A CRUCIFIED LIFE. THAT’S HOW JESUS LIVED! 1 JOHN 2:6 says this: “The one who says he belongs to Christ should live the same kind of life Christ lived. (NLV)

REALLY CRUCIFIED
WHAT KIND OF LIFE DID HE LIVE? A CRUCIFIED LIFE. HIS CRUCIFIED LIFE SAVES OUR LIVES. OUR CRUCIFIED LIFE CAN TRANSFORM our FAMILIES, our CHURCHES, our COUNTRY, our WORLD. GALATIANS 2:20 will SHOW US 3 WAYS TO LIVE A CRUCIFIED LIFE...

I. TO DIE
THE FIRST THING WE MUST DO TO ‘LIVE” IS “DIE”. I don’t want to confuse anyone, so let me explain. Look at the very FIRST part of GALATIANS 2:20

ILLUSTRATION
Question for you...do you like Burger King?

• Burger King is HOME of the “WHOPPER”! Who knows the INGREDIENTS to the WHOPPER? grilled quarter-pound (113.4 g) beef patty, sesame seed bun, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, and sliced onion.
• Burger King is HOME of the BURGER KING
• Burger King is HOME of the SLOGAN “HAVE IT YOUR WAY!”

EXPLANATION
You see, a lot of times, Christians can get caught up in living “BURGER KING” CHRISTIANITY instead of “BIBLICAL” CHRISTIANITY.

• “BURGER KING” CHRISTIANITY SAYS “I am KING”.
• “BIBLICAL” CHRISTIANITY SAYS, “JESUS is KING!”
• “BURGER KING” Christianity is “HAVING IT YOUR WAY”.
• “BIBLICAL” CHRISTIANITY is “HAVING IT JESUS’ WAY”.

THE WAY
JESUS’ WAY is the CROSS. The CROSS calls us to COME and DIE. When Jesus called His disciples and said, “COME, FOLLOW ME”, He was saying, “COME and DIE”…DIE to “HAVING LIFE YOUR WAY” and START “HAVING IT MY WAY”! Just like one of my favorite SONGS: “THE WONDERFUL CROSS”. LOOK at one of the LYRICS –(MEDIA SHOUT)--:

O the wonderful cross, O the wonderful cross
Bids me come and die and find that I may truly live

Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all

ILLUSTRATION
When a PATIENT is on the OPERATING TABLE in a SURGERY ROOM and “DIES”, the DOCTOR will ANNOUNCE the TIME of death. Let me show a MOVIE clip from the TV SERIES “LOST” to explain what I am talking about—(SHOW the CLIP)—Sometimes, we JUST WILL NOT LET A “SIN” or “OUR OWN WAY of DOING THINGS DIE”. WE KEEP TRY to keep them ALIVE the JACK did in the CLIP. WE need to “CALL IT”. We need to “CALL IT RIGHT NOW”! Right now, as you are ready this blog, what time is it? ome of us need to LET “OUR OWN WAY DIE”…we need to CALL out a SIN in our LIFE that we are letting LIVE and WE need to LET it DIE…cheating, lying, cuzzing, gossiping, lack of serving others, lack of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, body of strength…I want to give all of us a time of silent prayer right now to announce the time of death of a SIN and SELF. LET’S PRAY. If you prayed those PRAYERS you have “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”. Remember, a person on a CROSS faces ONLY 1 DIRECTION…there is NO LOOKING BACK to the OLD “WAY of LIFE”. May each of you TRULY have JESUS “LIVE IN YOU” and FACE the DIRECTION of CHRIST…which brings us to our NEXT POINT→

II. CHRIST “LIVES IN ME”
LOOK AT THE SECOND PART OF GALATIANS 2:20

A. FLU “IN” YOU
Have any of you ever had the FLU? WHEN YOU HAVE THE “FLU” you have a NASTY VIRUS “LIVING IN YOU”…IT TAKES OVER YOU ENTIRE BODY…IT AFFECTS the way you THINK, FEEL, EAT, and SLEEP. You end up looking like this PUMPKIN—(MEDIA SHOUT)— you are either on the COUCH all day or hunched over in your bed. The “VIRUS” “INSIDE” YOU EFFECTS HOW YOU “LIVE” on that DAY or that WEEK!

B. CHRIST “IN” YOU
When “CHRIST LIVES IN US”…HE AFFECTS EVERYTHING in a POSITIVE WAY…HOW WE THINK, TALK, ACT, PRAY, READ, PLAY, LOVE, LAUGH, ENCOURAGE, ETC! SIN NO LONGER CONTROLS OUR “WAYS”…JESUS DOES! LOOK AT GALATIANS 5:24(NIV)

The SIGNS THAT YOU HAVE THE FLU are:
• Body aches, especially joints and throat
• Coughing and sneezing
• Extreme coldness and fever
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Irritated watering eyes

The SIGNS that “CHRIST LIVES IN YOU” are:
• YOU MAKE SIGNIFICANT TIME TO PRAY
• YOU MAKE SIGNIFICANT TIME TO MEDITATE on the WORD of GOD
• YOU REALIZE your LIFE is NOT about YOU…IT’S ABOUT GOD and OTHER PEOPLE
• YOU FIND WAYS to HELP others WITHOUT them having to ASK YOU
• YOU COMPLAIN LESS and PRAISE GOD MORE
• YOU TRUST GOD even if life does not go the way you expected it to
• THAT’S JUST A SHORT LIST

III. LIVE “IN” CHRIST
CHRIST LIVES “IN” US…WE ALSO “LIVE IN CHRIST”…LOOK at the LAST part of GALATIANS 2:20

A. ALL ABOUT THE CROSS
WE LIVE BY FAITH “IN” THE ONE WHO LOVED US AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR US! IN OTHER WORDS, our life IS ALL ABOUT THE CROSS of CHRIST! LOOK AT GALATIANS 6:14-18.

B. ALL ABOUT GOD and OTHERS (LOVING and GIVING)
WHEN WE “LIVE IN CHRIST” WE DO FOR GOD and OTHERS what HE DID for us on the CROSS: HE LOVED US AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR US! In those 2 WORDS, that’s how WE ARE TO LIVE THIS CHRISTIAN LIFE…(1) LOVING and (GIVING)! COCA-COLA HAD IT RIGHT THE WHOLE TIME: GIVE.LIVE.LOVE!

CONCLUSION

A. PAUL
PAUL SAYS IN GALATIANS 5:6b,14 “THE ONLY THING THAT COUNTS IS FAITH EXPRESSING ITSELF IN LOVE…LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF”…


I LOVE C.S. LEWIS’ QUOTE IN MERE CHRISTIANITY:

“Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”

B. PRACTICAL
Here is how you can LOVE someone. It's not a "magical formula" but it is designed to make us "intentional" about loving someone...remember, if you aim for nothing, you will hit nothing! Here is--> it's called the "7 times 3 times" rule (7x3x).

Love someone 7 times.

Tell them the Gospel of Jesus 3 times.

There is no telling how the Spirit of the Holy Christ will work on someone with the 7 times 3 times rule...remember, every time we love someone and witness to them about Jesus, we are the 2nd witness. The Holy Spirit is the 1st Witness in their lives...whispering to them about the Lord and Savior...then you come in and "incarnate--(flesh out)" what the Spirit has been telling them.

How do you love someone 7 times?
1. Invite them to lunch and pay for it
2. Invite them to church
3. Take them to a movie
4. Text them an encouraging text message or write them an encouraging letter
5. Tell them something you like about them
6. Pray for them
7. Play video games if you are a guy; go shopping with them if you a girl!
* Think of some more ways you can love them!

How do I tell them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ 3 times?
When you are loving them in one of the 7 ways, ask them if they worry about stuff. First, find a point of connection. While you are pigging out on Chick file, ask them if they worry about stuff. Tell them you do and then tell them how Jesus helps you overcome your worries. Let that be a bridge to begin talking about Christ. Another way is this: ask them what they get most excited about...tell them how Jesus loves when we live life abundantly and how we can use our talents for His glory...find out if they have received Christ as their Lord and Savior...tell them what it means to live with Jesus as Lord and with Jesus as Savior...it's a "Come, Follow Me" relationship. Pray with them...God save you and the people you love 7x3x!

Promise Land Preparation, Part III

Here is the follow up to Deuteronomy 1.19-25. The first part can be found by clicking here. This post focuses on Deuteronomy 1.26-36.


Complaining, Rebellion, and Fear
But then you weren't willing to go up. You rebelled against God, your God's plain word. You complained in your tents: "God hates us...'The people are bigger and stronger than we are; their cities are huge, their defenses massive—we even saw Anakite giants there!'" (From Deuteronomy 1.26-28 MSG, emphasis added).

I wonder how many times God hears us say, "God, where are you?" It would be great if we had the audio files of God. I believe sometimes He is saying, "Why are you rebelling against me?...Why are you complaining?... Where is your fear coming from?" We must hold ourselves accountable if we want to enter the Promise Land. God is waiting on us to Trust Him.

God, your God, is leading the way
I tried to relieve your fears: "Don't be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way; he's fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; you saw what he did in the wilderness, how God, your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you're here, you won't trust God, your God—this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go." (Deuteronomy 1.29-33 MSG, emphasis added)


Need I say more? Remember what God has done for you in the past. Give thanks to Him. Trust Him to lead you into your future!


Following God Heart and Soul
When God heard what you said, he exploded in anger. He swore, "Not a single person of this evil generation is going to get so much as a look at the good land that I promised to give to your parents. Not one—except for Caleb son of Jephunneh. He'll see it. I'll give him and his descendants the land he walked on because he was all for following God, heart and soul." (Deuteronomy 1.34-36 MSG, emphasis added)


I don't know about you, but the last thing I want is for God to explode in anger because of what I say. God gives us life, He expects us to live for His Glory. I want to follow Him with Heart and Soul straight into The Promise Land!


Promise Land Pearls
1. Big or small? Is God bigger than your 'Anakites?' Focus on God, not your challenges.
2. Praise & Thanksgiving. Praise God and Give Him Thanks instead of complaining.
3. Trust & Obey. Take your energy that you put into rebelling against God and use it to Trust Him and to Obey Him
4. God Our Warrior. God Fights for us, leads our way. Meditate on how He has delivered you in your past and know that He is fighting for your future!
5. Are you ALL for following God with Heart and Soul?

Promise Land Preparation, Part II

Welcome back to 'Promise Land Preparation' Series! You can review part one by clicking here: Preparation To Enter The Promise Land, Part 1


The next two posts will be from Deuteronomy 1. Today's focus will be on Deuteronomy 1.19-25. We will nutshell 2 crucial points today of What God teaches us about Entering our Promise Land


God Has Promised Us The Promise Land - Take It!
There I told you, "You've made it to the Amorite hill country that God, our God, is giving us. Look, God, your God, has placed this land as a gift before you. Go ahead and take it now. God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, promised it to you. Don't be afraid. Don't lose heart." (From Deut 1.19-21 MSG, emphasis added)


What more confirmation do we need? Fellow Christ Follower, don't hesitate-Take the land. God is giving it to you! No Fear. Your Fear should only be reserved for God, but you shall fear no one else. You shall fear nothing else.


Scout Out Your Promise Land
But then you all came to me and said, "Let's send some men on ahead to scout out the land for us and bring back a report on the best route to take and the kinds of towns we can expect to find." That seemed like a good idea to me, so I picked twelve men, one from each tribe. They set out, climbing through the hills (From Deuteronomy 1.22-25 MSG, emphasis added).


Scout out your land and by all means do your research and due diligence. However, realize that God did not have them scout out their land in order to determine if they should take it or not. To the contrary, God gave them the land to take, so they only needed to scout it out to determine what it was like once they arrived!


Promise Land Pearls
1. God's Promise: Realize that God has a promise land in store for you. Be ready to Take It!
2. God's Path: Know God's path to your Promise Land and do your research. Scout your land, not to determine if you should take it, but instead, to know about it when you do take it!

Whatever It Takes, Part IV: Jesus

Welcome back to the "Whatever It Takes" Series, here we will start part IV of the series by talking about our final point of doing Whatever It Takes: Following The Ultimate Example.

The Mac OS X Dictionary, of course the ultimate of all dictionaries, defines the word ultimate as:

• being the best or most extreme example of its kind : the ultimate accolade.

So when I talk about following The Ultimate Example when it comes to doing whatever it takes, I am talking, of course, about Jesus The Christ!

He is The Ultimate = The Best example that we could ever imagine following. He is the ultimate person to pattern our lives after. 1 John 2.6 says, "If we say we are his, we must follow the example of Christ. (CEV)"...other Translations say that we should lives as Jesus did, and that we should walk as Jesus did.

So over the next few "Whatever It Takes" posts, I am going to turn this final point of Following The Ultimate Example into a subcategory. It's going to be a Character Study of Jesus in the context of Leadership and doing whatever it takes. So our first look into The Life of Jesus will come from what John Maxwell calls "The Law of Sacrifice."

Matthew 26.47 through 27.54 tells us how Jesus gave up His life, how He laid it down for us. No one took it from Him. He did whatever it took for you and for me in order that we would have life to the full (John 10.10)

• Jesus gave His life so that we could have ours
• We must live as Christ died...thus we must live like Warriors for Christ!
• Jesus lived a life that pleased God His Father
• Like John Maxwell says, "This is the mark of a true leader. Leaders pay any price to get the
job done." ...Translation: Jesus did whatever it took!

Preparation To Enter The Promise Land, Part 1

32 “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 33 You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

Deuteronomy 5.32-33 (NKJV)

I believe it was Bob Costas who once said, "Champions are not made on the field, they are simply recognized there." Champions must pay a price for glory. They must put in the blood, sweat, and tears in the off-season, in the camps, and in the every day practice in order to enter their promise land of victory. It's the same way for your life and in your walk as a Christ Follower. You must follow certain principles of success.

If you want to enter your promise land, the principles you must follow are God's Commandments. Not that they are a magic formula, but they are definitely a requirment, if you are to be in The Presence of God. He is calling you to be Holy as He is Holy. God will not be in the presence of sin; just as oil does not dissolve in water, God and sin simply don't mix...

Join me in the next few days as we walk through Deuteronomy together to see how God gives us this gameplan for success. He gives us the preparation we need so that we will be ready to enter our promise land. Then we will always remember that it is God Almighty who delivers us from slavery (sin) and gives us the land flowing with milk and honey.

23 Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. 24 And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’

Deuteronomy 6.23-25 (New King James Version)

The Three T's of Triumph

Triumphant:adjective; having won a battle or contest; victorious

If you want to be Triumphant in your business, your family, your sporting events, etc, start applying the Three T's of Triumph:

Trust: People need to trust you. Relationships are built off of trust. Business Deals are built off of trust. Championship teams are built off of trust. You can have all the talent in the world, but when it comes down to it, Trust can be the deciding factor in you landing the promotion over your co-worker. Your success will possibly hinge on your relationships. It may not be that you have to have a stronger faith, or work harder, or even work smarter. You probably have all those attributes. What could be hampering your success is that people frankly don't trust you. Treat people with respect, become trustworthy (which has to be earned), and you will be Triumphant.

Talent: This is obvious, but often overlooked. Make sure you train like crazy to improve your talent, but at the same time, make sure you own your talent. Set a goal that you are only going to invest your talent into areas where you rank either #1 or #2. If you are in 3rd or 4th position, stop devoting your time to those areas. In other words, keep it simple. Steve Jobs, is the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple Inc. When asked about Apple's success, he said, "I am proud of what we have done at Apple, and also proud of what we have not done." So don't fall into American Idol Syndrome and do something you were not created to do. Zone in on your specific talent and take it to new heights!

Tenacity: Tenacity is defined as "not easily dispelled or discouraged; persisting in existence or in a course of action." You must begin now to train yourself for persistence instead of quitting. You are going to have challenges where you feel that if God does not come through, than you are through. This is when you must take everything deep inside of your gut, all your soul, all your heart and live out the line from the famous Rocky movie that reads, "The body says stop, but the spirit cries NEVER!"

God Sized Accomplishments

Are you ready to make some HUGE GOD SIZED ACCOMPLISHMENTS?

See below some things God has said to me with His inaudible yet unmistakable Voice as I have searched for purpose and meaning. I Pray The Spirit speaks to you only as He can through them...

1. Jesus & Living Water
Jesus is at the well with a samaritan women. she thinks the well is too deep in which to draw water. Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Jesus is saying to you now, "(Your Name Here).... If you only knew...ask for living water...don't think the well is too deep."

2. Pray for a need to be met & Be an Answer To God's Prayer
• Focus on others and how your passions and gifts can fill a need
• Friedrich Beuchner defines "vocation" as the place where our deepest passions meet the worlds deepest need

3. Worry less what other people think & more about what God Thinks

4. Be willing to look foolish
• Take a look @ these "Fools".....
• Noah built an ark
• Zaccheus climbed a tree
• Peter walked on water
• David slung a stone
• Moses walked through a sea
• Joshua took a step
• Gideon fought with few
• Jesus hung on a Cross

5. Pray "Wet" Prayers = Gut Wrenching Prayers (i.e. See Christian's Sermon that will be posted in a few days)...& Always,Always,Always "Bother" God with Your Prayers

6. "Invest" where you are for the time being in order to bloom where you are headed
For the time being, make the investment with what you have, because God rewards what He can trust. Be faithful with a few things and He will put you in charge of many things!

'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'Matthew 25.21-23 NIV

7.Embrace Uncertainty ("Uncertainty" is another word for "Adventure")

• At most we will only be 80% certain, this is where the leap of Faith and Risk taking come into play. Don't wait for 100% certainty, you may miss your opportunity.

• All you have to do is know "Why?" and God provides the "How?"

8. Consecrate Yourself
For us to be in The Presence of God we must Consecrate ourselves (i.e "to be set apart", or "to be Holy because God is Holy")...in other words, God can not be in the presence of sin, just like a bulldog can not stand to be in "The Grove"...the two just don't mix...take a look what God leads Joshua to say in order for God to work His Promise Land Miracles....

Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you." Joshua 3.5 NIV (emphasis addede)

The Message paraphrase uses the word, "Sanctify" and that The Lord will work miracle-wonders among you

And then, two verses later, Joshua 3.7, The Lord told Joshua, "Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses.

I will close with this quote from "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day,"

"The genealogy of blessing always traces back to God-ordained risks." (Pg 104)


-- "The height of your achievements will be determined by the depth of your convictions." ~ William Scolavino ~

Whatever It Takes, Part III

Welcome to part III of "Whatever It Takes." Today I will "nutshell" the next 4 points that talk about how to do "Whatever It Takes" to follow Christ with Character so that you can lead with confidence.

• Set Goals: Be disciplined and Be responsible
• Be a "Surround Sound Steward" in every part of your life
• Be Concrete In Your Convictions
• Be ready for the 2 minute drill


Set Goals: Be disciplined and Be responsible
Two of my favorite quotes about goal setting actually have to do with not setting goals: "If you don't aim for anything, then you will miss everything," and "You miss 100% of the shots you never take." These quotes place the emphasis of the importance of setting goals because we need to focus on what we want, but we need to understand what we miss out on as well.

As you follow Christ and claim that He is not only #1 in your life, but that He is your life, I want you to focus on 3 "pearls," specific areas of goal setting that will help you do "whatever it takes" to make your relationship with God all that it is meant to be.

#1 Discipline: setting goals and making promises that you keep to your self. Be disciplined to set goals of Prayer, Bible Study, Serving, going on Mission trips, tithing, etc. and keep these promises

#2 Responsibility: setting goals and making promises that you keep to others. When you make a promise to teach Sunday school or Disciple a small group, then be prepared, establish relationships, and be on time. You have not only made a promise to others, but you are filling a need that God wants for His Kingdom, so be responsible and do it with a great attitude

#3 Committment: this is what makes discipline and responsibility work. Committment is the feul and the life source that makes your discipline and your responsibility fruitful.

2 Chronicles 16:9 says, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

"Surround Sound Stewardship"
I love watching a great movie and nothing is better when you get to watch it with surround sound. The music, the voices, the sound effects all have such rich detail because you are hearing them from all angles. Your are surrounded with sound. The same goes for our stewardshipt. Don't just think of stewardship as giving the three T's: Time, Talent, and Tithe. Those are amazing and definitely the foundation of being a good steward, but you must have more of a "surround" mentality. In other words, be a "Surround Sound Steward" and give back in all areas and from all angles of your life. You and I need to be stewards not only of the 3 T's, but also our gifts, our thoughts, our belief, our faith...our creativity...we need to be good stewards of our attitude and our deciscions. Think about this: the only part of creation that God gave the gift of deciscion making to is to humans, all other creatures live off of instinct. So make decisions a sense of steward ship. Seek God's Counsel, listen for His Wisdom, and then "man-up" and make great deciscions! i.e. doing "Whatever It Takes!"

Concrete Convictions
...what message are we sending our children, our family, our co-workers when we don't do whatever it takes...if we tell our kids it's ok to miss Prayer time or church services, then we are communicating that Jesus Is not number one, and then later in life, they will always push Him aside and not give one thought of not making time to follow Him...

"So what?" you ask, "So what if I push Him aside, I have got work to do...I have a game to go to." Here is the point: small compromises turn into BIG compromises.

If you skip your talks and your Prayer with our Warrior Jesus in the morning, then you will give into the enemy in the afternoon. If you bail on God in your committment to Bible Study or going to Church, then when it comes to ethical deciscions it the business world, you will give into temptation like a kid in a candy store.

It's all about making the "pre-deciscion" of having convictions and standing on principles that will give you a frame work of living. This is why it is so important to do "Whatever It Takes" because there will be pressure packed moments that arise in your life, and like Joe Montana during the "2 minute drill" in a football game, you are going to need the foundation that will allow you to be ready for whatever comes your way.

2 minute drill:
The last two mintues of a football game can be one of the most pressured packed moments in all of sports, but the greates champions (Favre, Montana, Elway) were always prepared because they did whatever it took, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to prepare themselves to always be ready whenever, wherever, however to make the right plays and the right deciscions to take their teams from the jaws of defeat to the heights of victory. Will you be ready, will your children be ready when the 2 minute drills of life hit? Will you live a lifestyle of following Christ and living on Biblical Principles? Here's the deal: our true measure and our true character comes out when we are battle tested, and we will not be ready if we constantly put Jesus off...but think about how we will be able to doing anything through Christ who strenghthens us if we "workout" with Him on a 365, 24/7 basis!!!

We must understand that God created us physcially, but He also creates our relationships, our time, our opportunity....He is The Creator of all, yes He gives us free will and the Spiritual Gift of Decision making, but His Will is still determined by His Creativity...just think how God will Bless your life and the lives of those around us if we would just do "Whatever It Takes" in our relationship with Him. Christ is the foundation, the source, and the way. We will discuss the last principle of doing "Whatever It Takes" in the next post, which is to Follow The Ultimate Example...

To God Be The Glory! Amen!

Whatever It Takes, Part II

Here are some bullet points about what we talked about on the track:

• Do "Whatever It Takes" To Strengthen your relationship with God
• "Manipulate" your Management & Be Relational
• Balancing is Unifying, Separates become Fused
• Give your first fruits
• Set Goals: Be disciplined and responsible
• Be a "Surround Sound Steward" in every part of your life
• Be Concrete In Your Convictions
• Be ready for the 2 minute drill
• Follow The Ultimate Example

I will briefly touch on each point over the next 3 posts, this post will cover the first 4 points:

Whatever It Takes: Christian taught me this: Devotion time is not something we do, it is Someone We are with....it is time invested talking with Jesus...so if you wake up late and have to rush out the door...then do whatever it takes to Pray, Fast, Serve, Read at another time of the day...just make sure the next day you get back on track and keep your responsibility of talking with our Brother Jesus.

Management Manipulation/Be Relational: make up time....if I don't workout in the morning, then I do whatever it takes to do it in the evening...If I don't study in the morning, then I manipulate my time and set a goal to study at night. The same goes with Worship and Talking with Christ...that is also what separates being legalistic versus relational. Legalistic says "I must do my quiet time in the morning and only in the morning,"...Being like this is doing devotions just for the sake of checking it off your busy to-do list. Being Relational says, "I will speak and Pray with Jesus in the morning and throughout the whole day, just like you would speak and spend time with your family or best friends...it's not something you speed through and check off, It is a conversation and a relationship invested in.

Balance: Doing and accomplishing what God has called us to do and then at the same time, follow Him, Pray, attend Church, serve, etc, are not separate categories...they are fused together, they are one, they are synergistic...so don't look at it from the perspective as, "O.k. I got my Bible study in, now I can go to work and forget all about being a Christ Follower." No my friend, everywhere you go, everything you do is to be done for The Glory of God. Once you understand that following Him is a lifestyle, your life will no longer be separated in to "God-Boxes" versus "Culture Boxes." Balancing your life becomes unifying and your separates become fused. Your relationship with Christ creates synergy, where the sum is greater than the whole of its parts. You will then gain momentum and live as Christ has called you to live.

First Fruits: You always need to focus on giving God your best. He gave us His best when He sent His Son Jesus to die for us. Leviticus 23.9-10 tells us how we are to give God the first of our bests (our first fruits). Everything we are Blessed with comes from God; give Him the first portion back...The first of your paycheck, the first day of your week (Sunday), the first of your days (morning time)...Look when Jesus Prayed:

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed
Mark 1.35

You must give Him every second of your life, but I am talking about Tithing your first fruits as mentioned above. Your whole day will be set off right when you gain wisdom and strength from Him in the morning. Giving God your first fruits also gives you a framework in which to not only be a part of building His Kingdom, but it reminds you to be Thankful and remember where your good gifts come from.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19

I will talk briefly about the next four points in the next post! Have a great day, Victory In Christ! Amen!

Whatever It Takes, Part I

Christian wrote a post back in 2007 called "Whatever It Takes" and it rocked my world about how 4 buddies did whatever it took to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus, because they knew if they could get their friend in the presence of Jesus, then their friend would become healed....

So that post in combination with Discipleship Moments on The Track with Christian, have inspired me to write this new series of posts.....

"Whatever It Takes," "You've Got To Want It," "You've Got To Live It, Eat It, Dream It..." These are some very common sayings we hear when it comes to being successful in life, sports, and business, which are all extremely important endeavors. The sad thing is though, I can not remember ever hearing these statements or anything close to them when it comes to putting Jesus Christ first in our lives...

We say Jesus is first in our lives, but then we skip Church to attend a practice. We say we love God and He is our life, but then we miss Sunday Worship because of a football weekend. We want to Pray every day but our daily routine is too busy that we make no effort to speak to The One who has blessed us with all the opportunity in the first place....We do "Whatever It Takes" in order to succeed in almost any area of life yet we are not willing to even put in the bare minimum when it comes to following and loving Jesus Christ with our Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength (Mark 12.30 NIV).

Perspective From The Track
Christian and I were talking the other day after an intense training session on the track, and he really hammered home the importance of putting Jesus Christ #1 and doing whatever it takes in building our relationship with Him.

I will bullet points some of the key issues in the next post, but Here's the deal. Don't stop giving it your all in sports, business, relationships, and in life. Please continue to go all out and do whatever it takes to become your best with what God has blessed you with...we are called to do everything for God's Glory (1 Corinthians 10.31)...we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2.10), but what we all must understand, definitely what I must understand, is that there is nothing more important than our life relationship with our Creator God, our Savior and Brother Jesus, and our Counselor The Holy Ghost.

So what is the solution? How do we balance what God has called us to do, using the talents and gifts He has Blessed us with, while at the same time maintaining our commitment to following Him and speaking with Him on a daily basis?

Tune in to part 2 of this post to find out more...

Divine Download

I am 'MacAddict'...an 'AppleFreak'...I admit it, I am very intrigued by computers and what you can create and learn from them...

One of my favorite things to do is to download information and absorb it like a sponge, learning anything and everything I can about particular subjects so that I can then go and apply my new found knowledge out into the world...

Divine Download
Better than any information superhighway download is the download we receive from something that technology will never be able to measure up to: The Holy Scriptures - The Word Of God.

If you want to understand who you are to become and what your purpose in life is, then you need to log into God's Word and do a "Divine Download". Psalm 37.4 says:

Delight yourself in the LORD

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

How about that for a fast download! Do you want the desires of your heart? Then delight yourself in The Lord! Erwin McManus paraphrases this verse as, "Love God, then do what you want." If you are truly a Christ Follower, then you will begin to desire what God desires, and what you desire is what He will give to you. He is your Creator, not only physically, but also through creating the desires of your heart.

The "Diamonds" of The Divine Download

I like to meditate on what I call "Pearls of Wisdom." In this case though, I am going to use "Diamonds" in place of "Pearls" for the "D Cubed" Title of "Diamonds" of The Divine Download.

The Diamonds are the key words, the nuggets, of How to access this download...the "enter" button on your keyboard that allows the download to start...

Take a look at the surrounding Scripture to Psalm 37.4 and you will see the Diamonds I'm talking about:

Trust in the LORD and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. (Psalm 37.3, emphasis added)

Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this: (Psalm 37.5 emphasis added)

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
(Psalm 37.7 emphasis added)

You must Trust The Lord, Commit heart, mind, body, and soul to Him, and then be still and watch for His works. One of the biggest issues we deal with is thinking that we have to be in control, so we end up freaking out at a franctic pace. One of my favorite quotes is from the great UCLA former Championship basketball coach, John Wooden, who said:

Don't mistake activity for achievement

Just because you may be busy and doing stuff, does not mean you are achieving anything. You may be doing things that are keeping you from doing things...important life changing things.

Ask yourself if you are really trusting in The Lord. Sometimes I feel like God is saying, "Your name here, I would love for you to finally free up your schedule so that you will allow me to work in your life...now would be a good time."

God created you, I think it is wise to believe that He can create circumstances in your life. So let Him. By all means, do your part, Pray like it depends on God, work like it depends on you, but dude, at some point you have to take Psalm 37.7 to heart.

Sun Block and Sin Block
You go to the beach, want to keep the sun from getting to your skin. You reach for the SPF 50 rub it in good, and boom, the sun is blocked from your skin. Can't get in. Nope, because you have on Sun Block.

It's the same way for sin. If you are saying that you are doing the Divine Downloads and living out the Diamonds of Psalm 37 but your desires are not being fulfilled, then it could be that there is a Sin Block in your life. Sin is keeping you from entering your Promise Land.

Only two men from the original Israelite's entered the Promise Land. Why? Because sin and immaturity were blocking the entry of those who would not stop complaining. Fast Forward to Joshua...God calls Joshua to lead the people to enter the Promise Land and has Joshua say:

Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."

The word Consecrate means "to be set apart," to be "other than,"...in essence, to "be holy."...i.e without sin...to have righteousness..

Psalm 37.6 says, He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. (emphasis added)

Focus on that, He is making our righteosness shine. He is not making our sin shine, or our fear shine, or our lust shine. He is making our righteousness shine and the justice of our cause shine like the noonday sun! The importance of being holy and righteous come from The Mouth of God...

...for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy - 1 Peter 1.16 (NIV). You see, we are to be holy, because He is holy. If we want to experience the desires of our heart, we must be holy and get rid of the sin in our lives, the sin block that is putting up a wall of division from God Almighty. God can not be in the presence of sin. That is why He sent Jesus to die and resurrect for us so that we could be in His Presence. Jude 1.24-25 says that we are presented before God, in His glorious presence without fault and with great joy, because of the power and authority of Jesus Christ.

God With You
I want you to put your name, the name of your family and friends in this following verse:

And the LORD said to _____, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.

This is what The Lord said to Joshua as He lead him through the Jordan River and into the Promise Land. Joshua was consecrated, holy, set apart. He delighted in The Lord and received the desires of his heart. Because of his Trust, Committment, and being still, he was then able to activate his faith and use the military gifts God granted him to take action and enter the Promise Land, bringing all his people into their Promise Land and dividing the land so that they all could benefit as well.

The Diamond of All Diamonds
Joshua followed all the diamonds of Psalm 37.4, but you know what His favorite diamond was. It was the diamond of obeying. Obeying is the key to becoming holy, the key to becoming prosperous and successful.

I will close with Joshua 1.6-9, and it is Loaded with diamonds: Strength, Courage, Meditating, Obeying. You must obey God, not so He can use you as a puppet, but so that He can free you to receive your desires. And focus on verse 9...realize that everything you do and everywhere you go, you have God Almighty with you. Just as I mentioned in Joshua 3.7, God is with you, Meditate on that and you will be able to fulfill the desires of your heart and you will be focused on what God desires, then you will be living in your sweet spot, the epicenter of God's Will for your life! Doing so will not only bring you into the promise land, but your family, friends, and community as well because you could be the person God is calling to lead your people into the land of milk and honey!

6 "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

Embrace Uncertainty

The following are excerpts from "EXTREME FAITH" in the series, "Extreme," written by Mark Batterson.

Andy Stanley wrote, “There will always be an element of uncertainty. Generally speaking, you are probably never going to be more than eighty percent certain. Waiting for greater certainty may cause you to miss an opportunity.”

It’s hard to explain, but that released me from the second-thoughts I was having. Most of us want certainty—we love 100% money-back guarantees. But the problem with that is this: there is no such thing as risk-free faith.

In his book, Divine Appointments, Erwin McManus says, “Don’t wait for God to remove all the uncertainty. Realize He may actually increase the uncertainty and leverage all odds against you, just so that you know in the end that it wasn’t your gifts but His power through your gifts that fulfilled His purpose in your life.”

Thoughts: Faith and Fear

The following are excerpts from "EXTREME FAITH" in the series, "Extreme," written by Mark Batterson.

God's Goals
"...until they recognized Jesus’ voice inflections and heard him say, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

That phrase—“don’t be afraid”—is the most repeated phrase in Scripture. The significance of that is this: one of God’s primary goals is to help us overcome our fears!

I love the way John Ortberg says it. “God has an inextinguishable habit of asking people to do things that are scary to them.”

Fear Makes Us Feel Alive
It’s tough to describe, but there’s something about fear that makes us feel alive. I like the way David Whyte said it. “The price of our vitality is the sum of all our fears.” I think another way of saying that is this: the alternative to fear is boredom.

Following Christ is anything but boring! John Ortberg says, “The choice to follow Jesus is the choice for the constant recurrence of fear.”

Unlearning
Let me give you a definition of faith. Faith is the process of unlearning your fears. If you look in a medical reference book you’ll find about 2,000 classified fears or phobias. There is even phobiaphobia— the fear of phobias. Here’s what’s interesting. According to psychologists, we’re only born with two fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. That means that every other fear is learned. And that means that every other fear can be unlearned.

And that’s where God enters the equation. God is in the business of bringing us face-to-face with our fears so that we can unlearn them. I John 4:18 says, “Perfect love casts out all fear.” In other words, as we grow in our love relationship with God, we unlearn those fears that paralyze us emotionally and relationally and spiritually. And we learn to live by faith.

Matthew 14:29 says, “Peter got out of the boat, walked on water and came toward Jesus.”

Burden, Passion, And The Will Of God

God was determined to start over when He saw the wicked and self-serving nature of mankind...so He uses Noah to build an ark

Israelite's are held in captivity as slaves under Egyptian rule...God uses Moses to lead them out

God needs leaders to bring His people into The Promise Land...He calls upon Joshua and Caleb

God needed a warrior to take down the Philistine army...David accepts the call

Humanity needs a Savior...enter Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ, The Messiah

Do you see the pattern. Where there is a need, where there is a burden, a purpose is created.

What Is Your Burden?
Do you have a burden for something or someone? What are you passionate about? Where is there a need that must be filled?

Answer these 3 questions and you can find God's Will for Your life! Ask God what is His Passion...what is His Burden...what is His Will...

All you have to do is listen and then obey. Noah, Moses, Joshua and Caleb, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jesus, you name it, all had those 2 qualities in common. God needed them so they listened and obey.

Pray
Pray for God to give you a burden...a passion...a need to be met...keep your eyes open to culture and to yourself...notice what it is that gets you all worked up...listen to God and obey His command!

God created you to fulfill a need...His Will for your life is to fulfill that need. God's Burden will become your burden...will become your passion, and His Will is for you to see His Revelation of that passion and then act on it in Obedience and in Faith!

Pleasing People or Pleasing God?

One of the best lines in the movie "Speed" comes from Dennis Hopper who plays the antagonist of the film. He is an expert with explosives and creates bombs throughout the city. He gives Keanu Reeves, the protagonist, the hero, hypothetical's about how he would respond to different situations of how to handle a bomb situation...he essentially challenges Keanu and says:

"What do you do?"

What do you do?

Allow me to give you some hypothetical's:

1. You are in a circle of friends or colleagues and they are gossiping about someone across the room. You can laugh along with them and degrade the person, or you can call them out and make them aware of what they are doing, or you could also simply leave the room and choose not to be a part of that trash....What do you do?

2. You are at a crossroads of a BIG decision and you know the right thing to do, but you are tempted not to offend anyone. You know what to do and what will please God, but you are tempted to please people instead of pleasing God...What do you do?

3. You have been offered a joint at an office party, everybody else is getting high. What do you do?

Pre-Choices
I will tell you one way to give you a head start on situations like the aforementioned. It's called a "Pre-Choice." You must make the decision ahead of time that you will please God instead of pleasing people. You must choose ahead of time whom you serve: God or people...

"But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15 (NIV)

No Limits
I want you to meditate on the following excerpt from "Pre-Choices," part 3 of the series, "Choices," by Mark Batterson of National Community Church.

But Daniel makes a choice. He would rather offend the king than offend God. I’m not sure what situations and scenarios you’ll find yourself in, but here is what I do know: God rarely uses a person whose main concern is what other people think. But there is no limit to the way God can use someone who refuses to offend God even if it offends others.

Bottom Line: You are going to serve someone or something. You are going to please someone or something. God or people....What do you do?

Make The Decision

The following is an excerpt from "Big Choices," part 2 of the series, "Choices," by Mark Batterson of National Community Church.

The Third Temptation

Once you examine the walls you’ve got to make a decision. The worst decision is indecision.

I recently read Patrick Lencioni’s bestselling book The Five Temptations of a CEO. I found temptation three fascinating. It’s the temptation to insure that your decisions are correct. That seems like a good thing, but Lencioni delineates. He says, “It’s the temptation to choose certainty over clarity.” Some people fear being wrong so much that they wait until they’re absolutely certain about something before they make a decision.

One of our core values is everything is an experiment. We aren’t afraid of making mistakes. In fact, if we aren’t making mistakes we aren’t trying enough new things! You’ve got to overcome that fear of being wrong.

I think the three most powerful words you can say are “I love you.” But next to that, the three most powerful words you can say are “I was wrong.” And the only way you get to say those words is if you make a bad decision!

Theodore Roosevelt said, “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

Some people live in suspended animation —they try to avoid the anxiety of saying yes and the guilt of saying no by living in indecision. Make a choice!