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5 Steps to Wreck Your Life = 7-3-2011

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As a Christian, you are given principles to guide your sexual behavior.  Once again, it is important for you to see this area, as all areas, from the standpoint of Grace.  As with any area, sex can be a gift from God or it can be a curse.  It depends on what spirit and what motivation directs you.  The New Testament provides us with the following Scriptural principles:

PRINCIPLE 1 – SEX IS TO BE ENJOYED ONLY BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN WHO ARE MARRIED.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-10 NKJ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

GENESIS 2:24 NKJ  Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Fornication involves sex between unmarried individuals and sexual immorality that includes incest, pornography, and abuse.  Adultery involves sex between married individuals but not their own partners and sex between a married individual and an unmarried individual.  Homosexuality involves sex with another person of the same sex.  This extends to females who are now referred to as lesbians.  A sodomite is a male who sells his body and sexual abilities to other males.  Sexual activity is a beautiful thing between a married man and a woman.  Sex can be the most abused activity in society but the abuse does not take away from the beauty of a Biblical sexual encounter between one man who marries one woman.

PRINCIPLE 2 – THE MARRIAGE BED IS HONORABLE AND UNDEFILED TO BOTH THE MAN AND WOMAN IF THEIR SEXUAL ACTIVITIES DO NOT VIOLATE BIBLICAL GUIDELINES AND THE ACTIVITY IS CONSENSUAL BETWEEN BOTH PARTIES.

Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled:

The question often arises as to the Biblical view concerning the various forms of sexual behavior.  Are the various forms of sexual activity and various modes of sex a sin or not?   What about different positions?  What about oral sex?  The Bible does not speak to this issue, but it does say that the “marriage bed is undefiled”.  This requires, of course, the mutual consent of each partner.  No partner should force any type of sexual activity on the other.  The marriage couple should always respect the wishes and objections of the other.  The Christian couple should also be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  If the Spirit is leading a person to abstain from a particular sexual activity, the other partner should respect their wishes.  However, if both partners are consensual, the Bible does not teach it to be sin, and both spouses feel at Liberty with the Spirit of the Lord, the marriage bed is undefiled.  Consensual means that the partner is willing in their heart and are not being forced through subtle methods to consent against what their hearts are saying.  The real questions to ask are: Are you violating the great commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself”, the Word of God that says, “…as to the Lord”, or the teaching of Paul that states, “However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband”?  The goal of marriage is to edify each other and to be a blessing to one another.  Sex is not marriage, but it is one of the beautiful gifts that come from it.

PRINCIPLE 3 – MARRIAGE IS A COVENANT BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN AND IS INTENDED TO BE A LIFETIME COMMITMENT.  IT IS ALSO A BOND THAT IS NOT TO TAKE A SECONDARY ROLE TO PARENTS OR TO CHILDREN.

Matthew 19:4-6  “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator `made them male and female,’ and said, `For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’ ?   So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

There can be no doubt that marriage contracts between lesbians and homosexuals are sin.  They have no validity and are not to be accepted nor recognized by the Church.  The marriage is a bond between a man and a woman.  It is meant to be a lifetime bond that demonstrates commitment and selfless love.

The marriage is meant to be such a strong bond that it is equated with the two becoming one flesh.  Marriage is to be the central bond in the life of a husband and wife.  A man and woman are instructed to leave their father and mother and bond to one another.  This bond is never to be secondary to any other relationship except the relationship they have with Jesus Christ.  Husbands and wives often experience difficulty in their marriage because they see their marriage relationship as still being secondary to the relationship they have with parents or even their own children.

PRINCIPLE 4 – THE RELATIONSHIP IS ONE COMPARED TO THE BOND BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH.

Ephesians 5:22-33  Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church– for we are members of his body.   “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”  This is a profound mystery– but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

The relationship between a husband and a wife is to be one that is “as to the Lord”.  A wife is to submit to her husband as she does to the Lord.  This does not demote her in a place of slavery.  She is set free in Christ.  Therefore, she is not bound to an abusive relationship.  She is not bound to a man who is dangerous.  She is not bound to a man who is detrimental to her or her children’s emotional state.  The husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the Church.  This relationship of marriage is tied directly to Christ and His Church.  A Biblical marriage is one of mutual admiration, respect, and love.  It is a healthy and joyous relationship that edifies both.  Abuse in any way is not Biblical nor is the wife or husband commanded to stay in such a situation.  Both husband and wife are to communicate and share in decision-making.  Once they have reached a mutual understanding and agreement on a course of action, it is the husband’s responsibility to exercise the leadership role in the marriage to carry out the course of action.  The husband is not a dictator or sole decision maker.  The marriage is to be one of mutual consensus.

PRINCIPLE 5 – THE BODY OF THE WIFE DOES NOT BELONG TO THE WIFE ALONE BUT ALSO TO THE HUSBAND AND THE BODY OF THE HUSBAND DOES NOT BELONG TO THE HUSBAND ALONE, BUT ALSO TO THE WIFE.

1 Corinthians 7:3-5  The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.  The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.  Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

We are given great truths that need to be applied in today’s world.  First of all, sex is one that should be enjoyed mutually.  It should be a source of great joy and satisfaction to both husband and wife.  The sexual life of a husband or wife should be one of mutual love.  As a general rule, neither partner should seek to deny the other of any sexual desire except by mutual consent.  However, for the purpose of spiritual pursuit, withholding sexual activity should be done with moderation.  It is an area that satan can use to destroy your spiritual growth if not honored properly.

Second, the anti-life forces of the abortion movement vehemently declare that a woman’s body belongs to her and to her alone.  The husband has no right to her reproductive decisions or to her body.  This is a lie straight out of hell and it has caused much pain and suffering in women who have fallen for this falsehood.  It has caused loneliness and despair in these women.  Of course, satan is behind this lie.  Satan knows that the marriage is such a powerful force of agreement that he must destroy it.  He has used the lie that a woman has the sole right to her body to destroy the family, the value of life, and the right of an unborn child to live.  The truth is that a woman has a right to her body, but her husband has a right, also.  Likewise, a man has a right to his body, but a wife has a right, too.  They are to submit their bodies to their spouses as unto the Lord.

As stated, sex is to be a wonderful blessing between a husband and a wife.  Love one another and seek what edifies one another.  Do all things in love and God will bless those who do so!  The Bible teaches that if we strive to do all things in love, we will be faultless.  The Bible also states:

1 Corinthians 16:14  Do everything in love.

1 Peter 4:8  Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

The point of this teaching is not to encourage the drinking of wine.  Hear this again!  The point of this teaching is not to encourage the drinking of wine.  Its purpose is to teach the Church to apply Scriptural teaching to the issue of wine.  If the Church is found to be unscriptural in its application of Grace over this issue, it will not be respected on other issues.  The abuse of wine is rampant due to the fact that the Church does not teach about wine from a scriptural basis.  In fact, the Church has willfully violated the actual truth of the Word of God.  Why?  While this may sound strange, it is largely due to the fact that the Church doesn’t trust God’s teaching on this subject!  They don’t feel the Bible goes far enough and, therefore, the Church must compensate for this weakness.  The truth is that many Church people feel that God dropped the ball on this issue.  It is strange that many denominations and Churches think God has gone too far with the issue of homosexuality and should exercise more Liberty while other churches think God has given too much Liberty and should outlaw the use of wine.  Such is the case when we attempt to be wise in our own understanding.  The Bible states in Romans 1:22 that:

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

As stated before, the purpose of this teaching is not to encourage the drinking of wine.  Rather, this teaching is to provide you with Biblical guidelines in both its use and abstinence.  Any time this teaching refers to the use of wine, it refers to the Biblical use of wine and other alcoholic beverages.  This article NEVER making allowance for drunkenness!!!

First of all, you must decide if you are willing to be lead by the Word of God.  You may be tempted to add your own understanding to God’s Word – to improve upon it.   There would be nothing wrong with adding to God’s Word if the Bible did not declare it a sin.  The Old Testament states in Deut. 4:2:

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

That was the sin of the Sadducees and the Pharisees that Jesus so forcefully attacked.  They added, little by little, their own wisdom to the Word of God.  Soon they could not even recognize truth when it came before them.  That was the case in John 3 with Nicodemus.  He was a Pharisee and when Jesus shared spiritual truth to him, he was unable to understand.  He should have since he was a master of the Word.  The truth was he was a master of his own interpretation of the Word.  Jesus told him it was because he, as a Pharisee, had become so caught up in earthly things that he could not possible understand the things of the Spirit.  So it may be with you.  You may be so caught up in your own set of beliefs based on emotions and experiences that you cannot see truth.  However, it is truth and only the truth of the Gospel of Grace that can set you free.

The New Testament states in Revelation 22:18-19:

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

The Bible is our source of truth – not other teachings, manuals, writings, wisdom, or understanding.  The fact that we wish that God condemned wine in no uncertain terms has no bearing on the Biblical use of wine or other alcoholic beverages.  The fact is that God has made allowances for the Biblical use of wine.   But you say, “Lives are being destroyed by alcohol.  My father was an alcohol and I know how bad it can be.  God can’t be for something so dangerous!”

The reply is that it is possible to make evil use of anything, but the Bible declares, in Romans 14:14 that nothing is unclean or unholy in itself.  Not everything misused is sinful or evil.  Nothing is a sin unless the Word of God declares it to be so or the Spirit of God declares something off limits to you.  What the Bible says is sin is sin for everyone.  What the Spirit of God declares off limits to you is a conviction – it applies only to you and no one else.  Don’t let other’s personal logic or agendas lead you from the freedom found in the Gospel of Grace.  Just because your father abused alcohol doesn’t mean it is sinful for someone else to drink alcohol in a moderate and Biblical manner.  Seeing alcoholics laying on the street corner does not justify making the drinking of alcohol a sin no more than seeing adulterers walking down the same street corner justifies making sex a sin.  The reality is that the drinking of alcohol and engaging in sex has the potential of being sinful or being a blessing.  The Biblical use of alcohol and the Biblical enjoyment of sex brings blessing.  Giving up either alcohol or sex does not make you more spiritual or Biblical.

YOU SHOULD NOT ALLOW WHAT YOU SEE WITH YOUR EYES, FEEL WITH YOUR HEART, OR EXPERIENCED IN YOUR LIFE TO BECOME YOUR SOURCE OF TRUTH.

The Word of God must be allowed to stand on its own merit.  It does not require the assistance of the Church to make it work.  The Word is not required by God to measure up to the Church’s expectations or desires.  It is the Church’s understanding that is required by God to conform to its precepts and its guidance.  If you are afraid to trust the Word due to religious training or personal experiences, you must seek God for deliverance from this weakness.  This weakness is bondage and it will lead to serious problems with your walk in Grace.

It is important that you seek a Biblical view concerning the issue of wine.  The question is not whether or not you should drink wine.  Biblically, you are free to drink wine or you are free to refrain from doing so.  Neither choice, in itself, will hinder or enhance your growth in Grace.  The real question is whether you are willing to view the issue of wine from a Biblical perspective and conform to its parameters whether you decide to drink wine or to refrain from wine.

Wine was not the only strong drink, but the principles in the use of alcohol are the same.  The verse in Leviticus 10:9 teaches that neither wine nor strong drink should be drunk by the High Priest, Aaron or his sons when they are to enter into the tabernacle of the congregation.  They were free to drink wine or strong drink, but limited to its use in this instance.  The passage of Scripture in Leviticus 23:13 even teach the priest how to offer up wine as a drink offering to the Lord.

“And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto   the Lord for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.”

Deuteronomy 28 deals with the blessings that follow obedience to the Lord and the curses that follow those who disobey Him.  Specifically in Deuteronomy 28:39, we are given the curse that would follow disobedience:

Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them.

Deuteronomy 29:6 reveals that the Israelites did not drink wine for 40 years in the wilderness.  Did it make them more spiritual?  I would say not.  It might be pointed out that these people, without the influence of wine or strong drink, committed the most sinful of actions.  All the people, over the age of 20, except for Joshua and Caleb, died because of sin and disobedience.  Yet these same people were not influence by alcohol.  Here, we are taught that alcohol is not the problem; it is our sin nature that is the problem.

Psalms 104 is a praise psalm that lists the wonders that God has done.  Psalms 104:14-15 reveals wine to be a gift from God.

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.

This verse teaches us that the purpose of wine was to make man’s heart glad.  The purpose was not to intoxicate or to loose control of one’s faculties.  This wine is not unfermented grape juice for it is clear that it causes the heart to be glad.  Secondly, it is not grape juice because in its unfermented state, it would only last for a couple of days.  Even today, with modern chemistry and additives, grape juice only has a life of two or three days once the seal is broken.

Wine was given consistently as a blessing to a believing Israel.  However, to an unbelieving Israel, God removed the blessing of wine.  While Israel roamed in disobedience in the wilderness, the blessing of wine was removed.  Then the blessing of wine was restored during the early days of the conquest and during the reigns of King David and King Solomon.  God desired the wine offering during times of obedience.  During times of disobedience, God refused the wine offering as in Hosea 9:4-

They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.

The Biblical use of wine is a blessing to those who are obedient to God.  Consistently, wine was a blessing to an obedient Israel.  However, wine was consistently cut off to a disobedient Israel.  Therefore, it is not surprising that withholding the blessing of the new wine was part of God’s punishment on Israel as seen in Haggai 1:10-11:

Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.  And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

This context of the removal of wine as being a curse to an unbelieving people while its restoration is seen as a blessing to a believing people is consistently given throughout the Old Testament.  Wine was withheld as a curse to unbelievers.  It was given freely and abundantly to believers.  The Old Testament prophet, Zechariah, looked into the future and saw the Messiah ruling over the earth.  Part of the glory and joy that Zechariah declared was the return of the blessing of wine for a redeemed nation.  This is seen in Zechariah 9:14-17:

And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.  The Lord of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.  And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.  For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.

In the New Testament, you have the strongest and most powerful teaching concerning the use of wine.  Its Biblical use was demonstrated by Jesus, Himself, His Apostles, and by the early Church leaders and people.  It is important that you stop, once again, to reemphasize some very important principles that relate to this teaching, so as, to avoid confusion.  The purpose of this teaching is not to encourage you or anyone in the Church to drink wine.  At the same time, it is not intended to bring judgment on those who do drink wine.  Its purpose is to provide a solid Biblical understanding of what God has to say about the use of wine.  The Bible makes this Liberty available to the Church, so let’s look at what the New Testament has to say about wine.  Above all else, Christians need to seek Biblical balance in all issues.  This applies to those taking Liberty in a thing or to those refraining from a thing.

Jesus obviously saw no wrong in the Biblical use of wine.  He states that He used wine.  In Matthew 11:18-19, He spoke concerning Himself:

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.  The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

ONCE AGAIN, THIS TEACHING IS NOT TO ENCOURAGE THOSE IN THE CHURCH TO ENGAGE IN THE DRINKING OF WINE.  IT IS TO BRING BALANCE BACK INTO THE TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE ON THIS ISSUE.  IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS IN CONTROLLING YOUR USE OF WINE, YOU SHOULD AVOID IT.  THE SPIRIT OF GOD WILL SAY TO YOU, IN SUCH AN INSTANCE, TO REFRAIN FROM THE USE OF WINE.  AVOID WINE IF YOU ARE GIVEN TO DRINKING TOO MUCH OR IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO CONTROL YOURSELF EVEN WHILE DRINKING A SMALL AMOUNT.  SOME PEOPLE JUST CANNOT DRINK WINE IN MODERATION.  SOME PEOPLE JUST CANNOT KEEP CONTROL OF THEMSELVES IN THIS AREA.  IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE WINE SPIRITUALLY, PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, INTELLECTUALLY, RELATIONALLY, SEXUALLY, FINANCIALLY, OR DIRECTIONALLY, DO NOT DRINK.  IN SUCH CASES, WINE IS NOT A BLESSING; IT IS A CURSE.  GOD WOULD HAVE YOU USE GOOD SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT AND GOOD COMMON SENSE IN DECIDING WHETHER TO DRINK WINE OR NOT.

One argument that some Christians take to ban the use of wine is that its abuse causes drunkenness and that it is the cause of so much pain in marriages, jobs, health, and family.  They are right!  No one disagrees that the misuse of wine or alcoholic beverages is the cause of many of the problems in society, the family, and the individual.  However, our reaction cannot be counter to the Word of God.  We must deal with this problem according to Biblical wisdom.  Wine and alcoholic beverages do cause abuse – even death – but listen, the abuse of marriage, children, sex, money, eating, cars, medication, etc has caused tremendous pain and death when misused.  Anything misused causes pain and suffering.  Wine is no different.  Our reaction to misuse cannot be to make it a sin.  This is not the Biblical method.  Instead, the Bible teaches in Philippians 4:5 that you are to “let your moderation be known to all men”.  Not abstinence, but moderation.  It is the taking control over all things, not the fleeing from them, which God desires for you and the Church.  You are to exercise moderation and self-control, not mere abstinence, before the people of this world.

The fact that the Bible teaches that Jesus drank wine has cause some to try to find other explanations.  It just can’t be that Jesus would drink wine or strong drink – even in moderation.  Some have suggested that the wine that Jesus drank was grape juice.  First of all, either you believe the Bible in this instance or forget its teachings in all instances.  If you don’t trust the Word of God to record correctly the events of Jesus’ life, then how can you trust anything recorded about His life.  Still they wish for wine to be grape juice.  It was not grape juice.  It was fermented wine that could cause drunkenness if not used in moderation.  That’s the Bible’s point.  From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible consistently states that drunkenness, not the moderate use of wine, is the issue.  It is drunkenness that is sin.  The Biblical drinking of wine is a Liberty and blessing given to us by God.  As with any Liberty- food, sex, friendship, money, golf, credit, etc, – it can be misused and it can cause terrible pain and suffering.  There is sin in the misuse, but gladness in the Biblical use of wine.  Wine is not for escape.  It is neither to be used as a means of hiding from nor to avoid dealing with your problems.  It is not to be used to take advantage of people.  It is not to promote other forms of sinfulness.  The drinking of wine is a gift from God that was intended to make the heart glad.  Wine is not to be used for drunkenness.  Jesus used wine in a Biblical way.  He practice moderation before all men, but He did not practice abstinence.  He drank wine to have a glad heart during times of fellowship.  He did not drink to escape or become drunk.

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.  The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.  Matthew 11:18-19

Jesus used this Scripture to demonstrate that neither refraining nor taking the Liberty to drink wine would satisfy the world’s view of righteousness. Neither will it satisfy the view of religious people.  Religious leaders condemned John the Baptist for not drinking and eating while, at the same time, condemned Jesus for eating and drinking.  Bondage always creates more bondage.  Trying to satisfy the protocol of law will result in an ever-widening circle of law and requirements.  Failure in the eyes of law keepers will always result in accusation.  The keeping of laws is a trick of satan and he is the great “Accuser”.  It is not surprising that the spirit of accusation will result from those caught in the snare of law keeping.  After all, Jesus could never live up to the preconceived expectations of a pharisaical mind.  So it is today with true believers in Grace.  We just cannot live up to the law-based bondages of those who judge and criticize those who live by Grace.

Bondage always creates more bondage.

Another argument some Christians use to justify their attack on those who drink wine in moderation is that it makes the Church look like the world.  They declare, “There is no difference between the Church and the world.  The Church is engaging in worldly things”.

Now listen to this: Nothing belongs to this world.  The world belongs to God and the Church has been given authority over it.  The world does not dictate what proper behavior is for the Church.  Something is sin only when God says it is sin.  What the Church engages in is not determined by the judgments of the world, but by the Word.  It’s is whether both the world and the Church engages in a similar activity; it is the spirit in which an activity is undertaken that makes it a sin or not.  Unless the Bible declares that something is sin, you are free to engage in that activity.  Just because the world engages in a similar activity does not justify placing yourself under bondage.  If you drink wine with a spirit of the flesh – to get drunk – to escape life – you are wrong.  If you drink wine with the Spirit of God in you, you are all right.  Jesus did.

Some in the Church even suggest that the Bible is its translation of certain Greek words for “grape juice” or for “wine”.  One Greek word for “wine” is “oinos”.  This is the word use in association with Jesus when He turned the water into wine in John 2.  It refers to “fermented wine” that is associated with the possibility of intoxication.

Another Greek word is “gleukos”.  In Acts 2:13, the Apostles were accused of being full of “new wine” or of the most intoxicating kind of fermented wine.

Acts 2:13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

This word in the Greek is “gleukos” and means “an highly inebriating fermented wine”.  The Apostles were not accused of being drinkers of grape juice; they were being accused of getting into very strong new wine.  New wine was the best.  The science of wine in those days had not developed the means to produce wine that became better with age.  Age, in fact, slowly turned wine into vinegar.  It was the new wine that was so potentially inebriating.  So we see that the wine that Jesus created from water was indeed real wine and not grape juice.  The wine Jesus produced was actually called “new wine” because only the new wine was newly fermented and full of vigor.  The older the wine got, the less inebriating it was.  New wine was sought after because it was the most inebriating unless consumed in moderation.

John 2:1-10 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”  “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.”  His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”   Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.  Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”   They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

The Greek word for wine is “oinos” in this passage.  The host had been serving “oinos” and Jesus created “oinos” out of water.  This wine was not grape juice since the guests could drink too much.  “Oinos” is fermented wine because another Greek word is derived from it.  The word “winebibber” or “wino” comes from the Greek word “oinopotes” which relates to “oinos”.  Jesus was called an “oinopotes”.  He certainly was not accused of drinking too much grape juice.  The people chided the host for keeping this wine last.  It was “good wine” or “new wine”, they said.  In those days, the good wine was the most powerful.  It was served first and when the guests were feeling very satisfied and glad of heart, the old wine was served.  Already feeling glad of heart, the people were not in a position to discern the quality of the wine being served last.  The people at this wedding could not understand why the host kept the “good wine” until last.  The word “oinos” is used to describe the wine Jesus made and it was “fermented wine”.  Jesus did create wine and God did give us the blessing of wine, but not for the purposes of becoming intoxicated or loosing control.  The Lord has given you a blessing and it is up to you to do as the Spirit leads.  You must seek to view the purpose and use of wine in a very Biblical and balanced way.  You must mold yourself to the Word of God; not to some preconceived argument to convince others you are right in your thoughts on the subject.

Many people suggest that the “cup” spoken of in the New Testament is not wine.  They even go so far as to declare that the Bible never uses “wine” but “cup” in teaching about the Lord’s Supper or Communion.  It is sad that people must twist Scripture in an attempt to make it say what they would like it to.  Neither the Bible nor Glad Tidings Church is encouraging you to drink wine.  On the other hand, neither the Bible nor Glad Tidings is trying to make the moderate drinking of wine a sin.   Glad Tidings is trying to teach exactly the Word of God.  We will not add to it nor will we subtract from it.  If you are convicted of wine, please do not drink it.  The Holy Spirit is obviously speaking to you to refrain from it.  However, please do not twist Scripture in an attempt to make wine a sin for those who are not convicted by the Holy Spirit.  It is a sin to make a doctrine out of a conviction because it is adding to the Word of God.   In 1 Corinthians 11:20-29, we are told much about the Lord’s Supper.

When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk.  Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!   For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Notice that the cup could cause drunkenness proving it was not grape juice, but wine.  Instead of participating in an act of celebration – The Lord’s Supper or Communion – which would require them to drink moderately from the cup of wine and eating moderately from the plate of bread, some of these early Christians were turning it into another practice called the Love Feast.  Paul reproved them for eating all the Elements of Communion and leaving none for others.  Communion was an act of celebration of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, but these Christians were greedy, drunk, and gluttonous.  Paul chastised them for both their improper use of wine and of food.  Paul did not denounce the drinking of wine; he denounced drunkenness.  He did not denounce eating; he denounced gluttony.  He was teaching that moderation should be exercise in all things, especially when eating the Lord’s Supper.  Rather than teach against the drinking of wine, Paul taught the moderate use of wine.

The Bible clearly teaches that the drinking of wine in moderation is for the purpose of “making the heart glad”.  It is not a sin before God, but a blessing from God.  The Bible teaches that moderation is essential.

Philippians 4:5  Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

The Bible teaches that drunkenness is the sin, but it also teaches that the drinking of wine to make your heart glad is a gift from God.  Balance, not abstention, is the key to living life God’s way.  If you drink wine moderately and it does not cause problems in your walk with the Lord or life with those around you, then enjoy the blessing of the Lord.

• Lost or missed opportunities,
• Chaotic lifestyle,
• Turbulent and unnecessarily long work hours,
• Stressed out lives,
• Lost of confidence from those involved with the procrastinator,
• Constant and overwhelming feelings of anxiety,
• Resentment towards others who don’t procrastinate, and
• Personal guilt for being a perceived failure.

I hope this article will reveal the causes of procrastination and provide some tools for overcoming it.  So what triggers procrastination?

First, some people have been raised around those who practice procrastination as a method of dealing with life.  They always waited till the last moment to pay the power bill, to pick up the laundry, to buy a birthday card, to get needed gas for their vehicle, or to file their tax return.  These people even thought, in a perverse way, that their late arrival to parties or other events made them look important.  I have seen people arrive late and immediately turn a well planned event into one of chaos as they rehashed their busy day and all the things that kept them from getting there on time.  The truth is they loved being the center of attention.  Unfortunately, what they don’t realize is that no one respects them or appreciates their lateness.  Still they manage to derive a perverse satisfaction out of being late.  It made them feel that they were being viewed as accomplished and successful for being so busy they had to arrive late.  The truth is that the euphoria they were feeling was not one of accomplishment, but one of procrastination.  They used lateness as a cover up for a late of self-esteem.

Second, many people suffer from the “I’ve got to get this done, now” syndrome.  Take time to look inward at yourself.  Do you have a list of things that you always have nagging you in the back of your mind?  Do you constantly feel like you are behind no matter how much you try to do?  Do you lack a sense of fulfillment in the things you get done because of the things that you have not tackled?  You are not alone!  The cause is procrastination and the result is imbalance.  As a result of avoiding doing certain things, you now find yourself turning molehills into mountains.  Wants have become needs.  When you avoid attempting to deal with any issue, problem, or opportunity because you feel inapt to deal with them, you have started to procrastinate.  This way of thinking is the major reason for procrastination.

Third, people engage in procrastination when something they would like to do turns into something they have to do.  A non-essential is turned into an essential when you will feel that you must accomplish it or fail.  Simply buying a birthday card can become a major issue when you don’t just do it.  The date arrives and passes and you feel awful.  Now you are faced with the need to, not only buy a card, but now you must come up with an excuse for failing to respond in time.  This almost always creates feelings of resentment and rebellion.  Desire is turned into pain.  You know what happens when we are faced with pain.  Worse, as the deadline approaches and even passes, the pain increases in disproportion.  Often people hit the deadline without ever dealing with the crisis and suffer great internal pain.  Sadly, it may be pain wasted on nothing.  Worse, the crisis was self-induced.

The solutions are to realize that being late doesn’t make you gain respect and admiration.  Rather you lose respect and people become resentful at your lack of respect their time and event.  Organize your life and your world around you.  Change your priorities by starting to be where you are supposed to be and start arriving on time.  Clean up your life.  Recognize that you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.  You can’t do everything, be friends to everyone, attend every event, or recognize every special moment in people’s lives.  Choose to limit your involvement.  Start taking control over your life by learning to say “no” unless you really, really want to be there.  Then, make sure that small problems or molehills stay small and are dealt with as small problems.  The rule is to refuse to turn molehills into mountains.  Even though there are consequences to every decision, you are always free to choose the path you will tread.   No one is forcing you to live you life the way you do.  You are living today as a direct consequence of the decisions you’ve made along the way.  Today is a result of yesterday’s choices and decisions.  Tomorrow will be a result of today’s choices and decisions.  You are always free to decide the paths you will walk.  If you don’t like where you’ve ended up, you have the freedom to start over by making different decisions.  New results will follow.

Focus on the positive.  You don’t procrastinate in every area of your life.  These areas are spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, sexual, intellectual, financial, or directional.  You probably don’t drag your feet in all areas.  Even the worst procrastinator has areas in which they love to take charge and get things done.  You rarely miss your favorite TV show or you always manage to make your golf game.  You always have time to dine out with that special someone.  The reason is that you feel that you are making the choice to engage in the activity.  So if you’re putting off starting that new project you feel you “have to” do this year, change your point of view.  Choose to do it of your own free will.  Take it away from the person or circumstance that makes you feel you have to do it for.  Instead, take it and make it yours.  Do it because you choose to do it.  Turn your boss into a customer.  Turn you wife into your best friend.  The Bible teaches us to, “Do it as unto the Lord.”  Procrastination is much less likely on tasks that you freely choose to undertake.

Fourth, people procrastinate because they feel overwhelmed.  This happens when they see a simple task as being of the same magnitude as the big whole.  If you see the same stuff as being the big stuff that must be completed, you will probably put it off.  It’s too big to undertake at any given moment.  It is virtually impossible to deal with the big project when you can’t envision the small daily tasks necessary for completion of a project.  You must be able to break the whole project down into manageable small projects to undertake.  You must be able to see the whole as small steps that have their own beginning and end.  If not, you will feel so overwhelmed that you will feel pain rather than excitement at starting.  You then associate this pain with the project and you avoid it as long as possible.  If you say, “I’ve got to do my taxes today,” or “I must complete this report,” you will feel overwhelmed and put the task off.  If you say, “I will work on organizing all my interest statements today” or “I will gather information on a certain subject for my report today”, you are much more likely to engage in these positive and manageable steps.

The solution is to think of starting and finishing one small piece of the task instead of feeling that you must finish the whole project at one sitting.  Instead of thinking, “How am I going to finish this?” think “What small step can I start on and finish right now?”  If one of the projects you want to complete is to clean out your garage, thinking of it as one big project can make you feel overwhelmed.  You know the result.  You put it off.  Instead, think of cleaning the garage as a series of manageable projects.  For example, go to your garage with a notepad, and simply write down what you want to keep and then roughly plan where they will go.  If you decide to put some of the items in a storage shed, write it down.  If others will go in the attic, write those down.  If some will go to Aunt Martha’s yard sale, write that down also.  If a lot of it is going to the garbage, list those.  Now, determine that on Monday, you will take 30 minutes and load al the items that go to the storage shed onto your trailer and move them there.  You are now in control.  Plan another trip to Aunt Martha.  Then tackle that task.  Continue to tackle each step until you have an empty garage and all you have to do is sweep, mop, and paint the floor.  Suddenly you will discover that you are finished and you will love the feeling of control and accomplishment.  It’s that easy.  When you approach a task, focus on what you can do right now.  Don’t worry about the details of the whole.  If you tackle the project as several smaller tasks that have definite beginnings and endings, you’ll soon be working on the final piece of the task.  This approach works for any area of your life – painting a room, landscaping your yard, writing your first book, composing your first song, or even eating a whole pizza.

A fifth cause of procrastination is a flawed sense of perfectionism.  Many people who procrastinate do so simply because they think they must do the job perfect on the very first try.  They have imposed a set of expectations that cannot be achieved.  Of course, faced with this rigid requirement, they never even start.  Perfection, as a beginning requirement, is recipe for failure and creates false stress.  This stress causes pain that leads to avoidance.  They avoid tackling the task since they know they won’t be able to achieve perfection to start with.  Not able to start the job perfectly, they tell themselves that they need more time to prepare.  They never finish and they have a built in excuse for not starting.  Perfectionism is the final goal; not the beginning requirement.  Perfectionism is a progressive task.

The solution to misplaced perfectionism is to recognize that you are not perfect.  You are, after all, only human.  No excuse, just fact.  No one is perfect and nothing is ever totally perfect when completed.  Bill Gates and Microsoft have transformed the world we live in.  Are they good?  Absolutely!  Are they perfect?  Give me a break!  Have you ever used a piece of software that you thought was absolutely perfect in every way?  Of course not!  Remember that the goal is to start the project or task with the knowledge that the results will not be perfect.  Microsoft is constantly striving for perfection.  They never get there, but they strive for it.  Striving for perfection is a growing process.  As you work on your project, you seek to make it better along the way.  You hope to yield a result that is near to perfect as possible, while understanding that you need not start out perfect and will fall short of perfection in the end.  Yet, you still strive for it.  Writing a book is the perfect example.  You start off by getting the basic thoughts on paper.  It will be full of misspellings, dangling participles, wrong verb tenses, shallow characters, dead end story lines, and endless clichés.  You then go back through the whole book and it is slowly transformed.  You will do this at least 10 times if not more.  The end result will be a book that you are satisfied with, but still not perfect.  Yet, it may still be a work of art.  No work of art has ever been called perfect.  It has been called genius for how it turned imperfection into a statement.

Perfectionism is also reinforced with the problem of thinking of the task as being one big whole.  Replace that one big perfect whole thinking with one small imperfect first step thinking.  If you wish to write a book, your first draft can be very, very rough.  You are always free to revise it again and again.  If you want to write a 5000-word article for a specialized magazine, feel free let your first draft be only 100 words if it helps you get started.  That’s less than the length of this paragraph.  Within this paragraph will be the framework for expanding it to proper length.  Start rough and strive to end perfect.

A sixth reason that people procrastinate is that they believe that in order to successfully complete a task, they will have to sacrifice their quality of life.  They will have to deprive themselves of other important enjoyments of life by undertaking the task at hand.  They feel that they will have to put the rest of their lives on hold.  Long hours, working in isolation, separated from family, missing out on fun activities, and facing their worse fears are enough to bring on procrastination.  Sounds horrible?  Well, this is what happens when many people try to force themselves to take on a new task without counting the costs.

The solution is to find balance in your lifestyle.  Learn to schedule fun into your life even as you work on stressful tasks.  You must put first things first.  Here’s a suggestion.  Try putting God first, your family second, yourself third and tasks fourth.   A personal relationship with God will insure balance, time spent with your family doing fun togetherness stuff will insure security and peace, personal time invested in hobbies, sports, or social outings will insure emotional health, and time spent of tasks will insure success.  By putting God, family, and self before tasks will create a willingness to give even the toughest task your best shot.  This balanced lifestyle will help you begin to feel much more in control, far more focused, and a lot more effective in tackling other tasks.  Many studies have shown that the optimal work week for most people is 40-45 hours.  Those working longer hours than this actually experience a reduction in productivity and motivation.  The result is that less real work is done in the long run.  By balancing your lifestyle with more spiritual, family, and personal time, you change the way you look at work.  What would happen if you could only work a certain number of hours a week?  What if your job told you to only show up to work for 15 hours each week with no reduction in pay!  Would you spend hours laying on the beach?  Would you float in your backyard pool for days?  Would you sleep until noon each day?  At first, you bet you would.  I believe that your feeling of deprivation would disappear.  Instead of feeling that taking on work task was depriving you of leisure time, you’ would actually begin to feel you were being deprived of work.  Sitting around all day would get old.  Instead of constantly saying, “I want to play”, you would begin saying, “I want to work.”  Your motivation towards a task would be changed and many traces of procrastination would vanish.  Your attitude would have changed and your desire would follow.

All the above causes lead us to understand that procrastination occurs whenever the tasks seem psychologically overwhelming to us.  The best way to deal with any activity that is overwhelming is to reduce it down to a manageable size.  This is best done by reengineering our thinking.

Years ago, I could never complete a task because it seemed so complex and endless in scope.  To paint a room seemed a week long task.  To build a deck was so complex.  To divide a large room into two smaller rooms seemed outside my skills due to the details involved.  To plant a garden seemed impossible due to my lack of knowledge.  I was always in a rush and thought everything had to be started and finished in a hurry.  I viewed small tasks and large tasks as one and the same.  So I tackled them the same.  The large tasks, I thought, could be completed in the same way as small tasks.  I only had to do them harder and faster to get them done.  The result was that I never finished them or they were finished very sloppily.  I was more concerned with finishing than I was with quality.  I spent years living under this false thinking.

One day, my dad was working with me and, as usual, I was in a frenzy – rushing all over the place trying to get everything done in a hurry.  After watching me for a while, he said something that slowly began to change my life.  He said, “Son, you don’t have to finish everything at one time.  Do a little something each day for a lot of days and before you know it, it will be done.”  I stopped and thought about it.  I noticed that my dad worked in his garden a little each day and, amazingly, he was able to keep a half-acre garden going all year.  He worked a 50-hour work week, watched NASCAR whenever a race was on, took naps in his recliner, took care of his garden, and seemed to always have time to help one of his sons.  How?  Because he did a little of each thing each day and after a while, everything got done.

I begin to think a new way.  I came up with a new strategy.  List what needs to be done and then do a little each day until it’s done.  Nothing has to be done in one day.  Now when I get up in the morning, I think of one thing I can do for Jesus and His Church, one thing I can do for my wife and family, and one thing I can do for myself.  I then invest the rest of the time into work and play.  Those small daily things I do for Jesus, His Church, my wife, my children, or myself add up.  I am much more focused and complete many more tasks each week.  I get a lot of stuff done each year because I don’t allow the whole to clog up my life.

Do the same with the many tasks of your life.  Don’t try to do everything at one time.  Do a little something each day.  You will find that just doing a little something each day will result in a completed task over the course of a week.  At that rate, you will have completed 52 tasks in one year.  That probably beats your completion rate now.  For example, instead of seeing the need to lose 50 pounds of weight as a one big task, look at it as 50 little tasks.  Instead of losing 50 pounds, start losing one pound per week.  To do this requires that you walk four miles a day for six days and make no other changes in eating habits.  One pound a week equals 52 pounds in a year.  You can change your life if you do so one small step at a time.  It’s your choice, but the alternative is familiar to you.  It’s called procrastination.

During the last 25 years, I have read nearly every success book that has been published and I have listened too many, if not most, of the tapes produced by so-called self-help mentors.  My determination was unquestionable; my resolve constant.  I wanted to be successful.  I have always wanted to discover the secret to success.  So I studied those who said they had discovered the universal principles of prosperity.  All this reading and listening didn’t hurt, but it certainly didn’t give me the real keys I needed.  Something was lacking and I didn’t know what.  I wasn’t getting there.

The reality is that I have met few who have become spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually, relationally, financially, sexually, or directionally successful simply by following a set of rules from self-proclaimed success gurus.   I have, however, met many people who became successful by traveling their own unique and often innovative roads to success.  When they tell their stories of achieving success through new approaches, systems, and technologies, I notice that three key factors seem to always emerge.

In this article, I want to share these three factors, not as another success formula, but to encourage you to achieve your own success your own way.  I have grown a lot from that young, starry eye, youth that wanted success.  I now know that anyone can be successful if they do the right things.  I also know that you can achieve your dreams if you make the right decisions.  Like me, I know that you want to know how to start on your journey and what to expect along the way.  Like me, you are probably at the age where you would like to know that you’re not wasting your time.  I believe that having some knowledge about these three factors will certainly help you start your journey and it will probable give you some assurance that you’re on the right track.

These three factors are important, not because I came up with them, but because they are actually based on spiritual principles taught by Jesus Christ in the Bible in Mark 11:23-24.  Success is aided along by understanding these three factors:

1. What you say
2. What you see, and
3. What you sow.

An understanding of these three factors will help you get started towards success and they will help you to stay focused.  Listen to what Jesus had to say.

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain (what you say), Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea (what you see); and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith (what you sow). Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
—Mark 11:23-24 KJV Bible

Jesus revealed that what you say, what you envision taking place, and whether you put your heart into it determines whether it will come to pass or not.  Jesus then went on to use His own teaching to empower us with these truths.  In the last part of this passage, He says:

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Jesus wanted us to have the power to say, see, and sow so He set this condition in motion by saying – “I say unto you.”  He then set in vision what He saw taking place – “What things soever ye desire.”  Finally, He says that when we sow these things in prayer and believing – “when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

These three factors of success, whether understood consciously or even unconsciously, will lead you in the direction you want to go.  These factors, what you say, what you see, and what you sow, will always produce results.  You will always be successful, but it’s much better to be successful at achieving success than it is to be successful at achieving failure.

Reality Check:
Everything about you up to this point is a result of what you said, what you saw, and what you sowed in your past.  By understanding these three factors, you have the power to create a new reality of success from this point on.

Attribute # 1 – What You Say

Words can achieve very powerful results.  They not only can give you life, but, in fact, they can also kill you!  That right!  Your words can give you life or they can kill you.

Your WORDS have the power to give life to or to kill your Dreams, Ambitions, Children, Visions, Marriage, Potential, Finances, Happiness, Tenderness, Peace, Hopes, Future, Love, Prosperity, Youth, Joy, Life, Faith, Health, Kindness, Plans, Humor, and on and on in your life and in the life of others.

Proverbs 18:21 -

The tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eat its fruit.

The vast majority of people are guilty of verbal murder and even suicide and they are not even aware that their words is the weapon that is doing the harm.

Jesus said in Matthew 12:36-37 (ASV) –

And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement.  For by your words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Your words are powerful, so release them with caution.

Attribute # 2 – What You See

The view you have of your place in the world directly affects the way you speak.  If you see yourself as being insignificant and powerless in the vastness and enormity of the world, then you will speak in terms of insignificance and inconsequence.  Those negative words will then reinforce what you see when you look out into the world.  Your actions will be limited by your negative view.  It’s a never ending cycle for most people.  Success is achieved by those who refuse to be small.  They look out into the world and, while they may see a huge challenge before them, they do not see themselves as being unable to make an impact.  The first thing they do is to stop using the negative words normally employed by others.  Instead they begin to speak in terms of empowerment, ability, conquest, strategy, and vision.  This changes the way the see the world which enables them to see the world as they see it should be and not what it is.  They see themselves as being change agents.  Thus, their view of the world is in sharp contrast to those who have never challenged their limited view.

The word “believe” is the same word as “faith” in the Greek.  Paul said in Hebrews 11:1 -

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Whatever you can begin to see in your spirit becomes the very substance of the things you are hoping for.  It is this substance that you must sow to bring your vision to pass.  Napoleon Hill understood this truth when he said, “Whatever a man can conceive and believe; he can achieve” in his book, Think and Be Rich.

Simply put, Napoleon Hill said, the Apostle Paul said, Jesus Christ said, and the Holy Bible says, “If you can see it, you can bring it into being.”

Of course, what you see must be very specific.  You cannot achieve success by seeing the world through unfocused and fussy eyes.  You have to focus on every aspect of what you are looking at in order to grasp what you have to do to bring it to pass.  Remember the old saying: “If you don’t know where you are going, you will always get there.”  How true.  Most people never have a vision of where they want to get to so they always get somewhere.  If they end up in a positive place, they call it luck.  If they end up in a negative place, they call it misfortune.  That’s not how the Bible teaches us to do it.  We are going to focus on a clear vision of where we want to end up.  We are not going to hold out for luck.  We are going to make our own luck.

Too often people just look ahead and hope for the best.  That’s not a good way to go through life.  Taking a broad view leads to a muddled view of the problems being faced and an inability to grasp the solutions available for tackling the problem.  This tends to highlight the problems rather than focusing on the solutions.  You must be able to clearly see what you are trying to achieve or you will be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.  In Numbers 13, we are given an example of what can happen when vision is focused on the problems and not the solutions.

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Of the dozen leaders who were sent by Moses to spy out the land that they were to conquer, only Caleb and Joshua came back with a focus on the solutions rather than a focus on the problems.  Each man looked upon the same cities, dwellers, soldiers, animal life, resources, landscape, and vegetation.  Each man received the same orders from Moses, walked the same distance during the mission, carried similar supply packs as they journeyed, ate the same food rations, suffered the same hardships, and stay away from camp the same duration.  Each of the men was handpicked by Moses, a leader in their tribes, and given the same great mission on behalf of the entire nation.  Everything was similar, that is, everything, but the eyes out of which they saw.  The ten went looking for reasons they would fail while the other two went looking for reasons to succeed.  Guess what?  Each found what they went looking for.  Joshua and Caleb saw a great struggle, but they also saw the opportunity they had been given by God during the forty days of their mission.  They saw giants, but they saw themselves as being equal to the task.  They knew that if they stood together, they could not be defeated.  Like Paul in Romans 8:31, they said,

If God be for us, who can be against us?

However, the other ten men could only see the hardships, the soldiers, the walls around the cities, and the possibility of defeat.  They could not see what Joshua and Caleb saw.  They spoke what they saw and they saw what they spoke.  Suddenly, the soldiers became giants and the ten spies made a revealing and truthful statement to the people gathered around them,

And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Do you hear what they were saying?  They were revealing the process by which they lost faith in their own abilities.   They lost the ability to take the land because they saw themselves as losers rather than conquerors.

You see what you say and you say what you see.  In other words, you become what you say and begin to believe that you are what you say.

At Glad Tidings, we teach the Three Laws of Life.  They are:

• You get what you ask for.

• You get what you settle for.

• You become exactly what you believe.

You often never get to know the truth because fear is already speaking loudly to you.  When you allow negatives to dictate your words and your view of yourself, fear is always the by-product.

This is demonstrated no better than in the movie, “Home Alone”.  Kevin, who accidentally has been left all alone during Christmas, has a great fear of his neighbor, an older man named Mr. Marey.  His brother has told him that Mr. Marey killed his family.  Below is part of the dialogue between Kevin and Mr. Marey while sitting in the Church around the corner.

Church Scene:
Kevin hears singing.  He enters the church.  A choir is singing Christmas carols.  Kevin sits in a seat.  Across from him sits the old man.  He sees Kevin, gets up, walks over to him, and says “Merry Christmas.”  Kevin is scared and confused.  The old man sits down next to Kevin.
Mr. Marey looks up towards the altar and stage.  “The red-haired little girl is my granddaughter.  (Pause)  You live next to me.  You can say hello.  You don’t have to be afraid.  There are a lot of things going around about me.  (Pause)
“Been a good boy this year?”
Kevin says, “I think so.”
“Swear to it?”
“No.”
(Pause)
“This is the place to be if you feel bad about yourself.”
Kevin thinks a moment and says, “I’ve been kind of a pain lately. I’ve said some things I shouldn’t have. I really haven’t been too good this year. I said I hated my family even when I don’t.”
“I came to hear my granddaughter sing.  I’m not welcome here by my son.”
“You’re not welcomed in Church?”
“No, you’re always welcome to Church.  I argued with my son.  Lost my temper!  Said I didn’t care to see him anymore.  My son said the same.  We haven’t seen each other since.”
(Pause)
“If you miss him, why not call him?”
“Afraid.”
“Aren’t you a little old to be afraid?” asks Kevin.
“You’ll never to old to be afraid.  You can be too old for a lot of things, but you’re never too old to be afraid.”
“You should call your son,” says Kevin.
“What if he won’t talk to me?”
“At least you’ll know. Then you can stop worrying about it and you won’t have to be afraid anymore,” answers Kevin.
(End of Scene)

What are you afraid of?  I can guarantee that whatever you are scared of, it has stopped you dead in your tracks in some area of your life.  You have stopped living based on fear.  You have stopped sowing any seed in that area of your life.

Attribute # 3 – What You Sow

Having established that the words we say affects the way we look on the world around us; we need to go one step further in our understanding of success.  Our words and the way we look on our world also determine the very actions and activities we will undertake in our quest for success.  We need to establish this truth deep in our consciousness so that it influences our way of thinking.

How we speak to ourselves and how we see ourselves in our world profoundly influences the actions we will take to achieve success.  It will also influence the actions we will take when we are driven by fear to refrain from any attempt at success.

In life, we are living in a world we created days, weeks, months, even years ago by the actions and decisions we made.  But our tomorrows are waiting to be written.  We create our tomorrows by the actions and decisions we will make today.  Our lives are much like gardens and we are gardeners.

A man who wants to be a gardener must understand the same three keys that we do.  His garden will be influence by what he says, what he sees, and what he sows.  Metaphorically, our lives are our gardens.

When the gardener comes across a potential site for a garden, he can look to his wife and say, “This site will make a beautiful garden.”  Of course, he can just as easily say, “This site is awful.  The trees are too many, the pine straw is too thick, and the weeds are too established.”  Once he makes a verbal decision to adopt one of these two possibilities, he will begin to look at the site through the eyes of the words he chose.

Suppose he says it will make a beautiful site.  This affects his outlook.  As a result, each problem he encounters is approach in such a way as to release the hidden beauty he said was possible.  What he has said is possible has become what he sees.  He excitingly runs around the site describing to his wife how wonderful a rose trellis would look against the backdrop of firs growing high in the corner.  He steps off the path that he sees winding through his azaleas over to the waterfall that will flow between his dogwoods that exist only in his mind’s eye.  He points out that he will need to cut down two or three of the pine trees to let more light into an area of his garden that will become home to his wildflowers.  He looks at his wife and declares that it will take a lot of work and some money, but it will make a fine garden.  He has seen a beautiful garden and that becomes that.  He then points out how nice a swing would be to sit and relax in between the waterfall and rock garden that he can see in his mind.  Soon she is seeing it too and offering suggestions to bring the barren dead landscape to life.  It has stopped being a weed lot and has become a beautiful garden and, yet, not one plant has been planted.  That’s the power of the words you say and the things you can see.

On the other hand, if he says that the site is nothing more than a weed invested desert that will never make a garden, then he will see each problem through those negative eyes.  What he said is impossible is now, if fact, impossible.  He walks around the site pointing out how many roots are in the ground from all the pine trees.  She wants wildflowers, but he points out that there just isn’t enough light.  He says that planting new trees will take too long to grow to enjoy them.  The dirt is hard and there is no creek or pond.  He says that it will turn out to be nothing more than a source of back breaking work and a place to throw away good money.  He said he wanted a swing, but he doesn’t see any place he would want to sit and swing here.  Soon she is seeing all the problems and the weed lot has become just that.  It is a weed garden.  Once again, that’s the power of the words you say and the things you can see.

If you are going to succeed, you must get beyond the stage of merely focusing on what you say and what you envision and get involved in sowing.  Your words and vision are preparatory.  They prepare your heart and mind, but barren soil that is untilled and unturned will produce nothing but weeds unless you sow seed in it.  The seeds you plant, water, and nurture during this stage will grow to bear the fruit you so eagerly desire.  Shaka did not get what he wanted because he simply said the right things and envisioned a great nation.  He got what he wanted because he sowed the right seed based on what he said and what he saw.  He fought rival kings to get where he wanted to get to.  He defended his vision and shared it to people everywhere.  He worked hard to bring his words and vision to pass by conquest, training of new troops, fighting bloody battles, and setting up a new system of government for his new nation.  So it was with William Wallace.  Words and visions are great, but it is the sowing based on those words and visions that bring them into reality.

Once you make the decision to become a sower – to invest in stock, start your own business, get married, build the house you desire, own real estate, or go to college – you become a man or woman of action.  Sowing is action that you decide to engage in that you expect to produce much return.  You are sowing to get fruit.  This is because you know that when you engage in certain actions, you get certain results.  Wisdom is the understanding of which actions to take to get the desire fruit.  Once you discover what certain actions produce, you are well on your way towards achieving success.  In other words, when you discover what it is you need to do to get what you want to go, you will find that you are more confident in sowing your seed into a certain means of attaining wealth.  With more increase in wealth, you engage in even more acts of sowing.

Saying the right things and seeing the right visions is not a wasted activity.  Saying the right words and envisioning the right images influences your actions, your responses, and reactions.  It directs your mind towards possibilities that lay undiscovered before you.  Once you begin sowing, you find that the corresponding positive can-do words and images begin to motivate even greater acts of sowing.  Sowing begins to flow out of you.  Once you set the cycle of success in motion, you discover another truth.  It is easier to act your way into new ways of thinking than you can think your way into new modes of action.  In other words, once a gardener has gotten the knack of planting his first azaleas and getting beautiful flowers, he finds it easy to move on to planting other varieties of flowers and bushes.  He has developed a green thumb.

The act of sowing is powerful.  In fact, sowing is the most powerful action in the universe.  From sowing, life springs forth.  You get what you sow and if you sow nothing, you get nothing.  If you sow a lot, you get a lot.  That is why Jesus said the following statement in Matthew 13:12 (KJV):

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

You have to use what you have and if you use it, you will be given more.  The sower knows that a single seed will produce hundreds, even thousands, of additional seeds when the harvest is gathered.  Some people are afraid they will lose what little they have.  That is exactly the kind of thinking that successful people discard early on.  Listen – the act of not sowing does not save your seed from loss.  If you do not sow you seed, you have not saved that seed, you have, in fact, forfeited the potential creation of thousands of seeds.  You have killed the possibility of increase.  God considers this to be an act alien to His way of thinking and of doing things.  God takes it personally.  You are acting in disobedience to His Universal Law of Increase.

Success is actually very simple to achieve in this world.  You are already successful. You may not believe that you are because you’ve bought into some other person’s or institution’s definition of success.  However, each of us are successful, even successful at doing all the wrong things.  The reality is that you can’t control every outside circumstance that comes along.  I like to say, “Some things can’t be fixed because they are not broken.  That’s just the way they are.”  However, you are always in control of your responses.  You have control of the things you say, the things you chose to see, and the actions you sow in response to them.  Remember,

The Three Laws of Life

• You get what you ask for.

• You get what you settle for.

• You become exactly what you believe.

STEP ONE - START GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP

Growing up, I always thought it would be an awesome thing to stay up Saturday night until midnight and watch a show called “Shock Theater”.  All the other kids at school did and I wanted to do so too.  I thought it would be a biggest moment in my life if Mom ever gave me permission to do so.  I pleaded with her for months to let me stay up past my bedtime of 9:00.  Finally, my Mom said I could.  I was overjoyed.  I remembered that I watched television and snacked on cheese sandwiches and toast.  I drank glass after glass of tea.  I was a big boy now.  As midnight approached, things got a little difficult.  I had the most grueling time keeping my eyes opened.  I went to the refrigerator dozens of times to drink cold water to help keep me awake.  I walked back and forth from the front door to the back door.  I could hardly stay awake.  Slowly the appointed hour approached.  I only had minutes to go and I would see “Shock Theater”.  I went to the couch and eagerly awaited the beginning of the show.  The next morning I woke up on the couch where I had fallen asleep minutes before the show came on.  Mom said she did everything she could to wake me, but I was in too deep a sleep.  I didn’t see the show, but I do remember a special dream I had that night.  It was the first dream I ever had in color.  I remembered the details in such vividness.  It was a dream that has stood out in my memory to this day.

Half a century ago, Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” She couldn’t have been closer to the truth.  Today, most people suffer from a form of fatigue, not from hard work, but from a lack of sleep.  Scientists tell us that one of the most productive and restful part of our sleep takes place when we engage in the dreaming of dreams.  Dreams are important and, without them, we fail to provide ourselves with a valuable source of energy and vision.  I received the vision for this Church and its ministry through dreams and vision.  In looking back, it was a time when I was getting 8 hours of sleep, which was unusual.  I think there is a correlation.

The lack of sufficient sleep doesn’t just produce fatigue; it produces abnormal behavior patterns and brain functions.  At its worst, fatigue can cause death through vehicular or equipment accident.  The consequences of sleep depravation include more than just the general feeling of tiredness.  There is the lost opportunity for the dreaming of dreams.  There is an increase in fear.  Anxiety attacks are more frequent and intense.  The worst consequences are those that we are never fully aware of, such as, lost productivity, stifled creativity, and decreased competence.  We fail to produce our potential and we never even know it.  Our thinking becomes erratic.  Actually, a lack of sleep deprives most people of opportunities that never see.  Due to a lack of sleep, employers regularly bypass individuals for promotions and pay increases.  They don’t have the energy or drive.  They lack the zip employers need in those at the top.  It is not a trivial matter.  Much of the anger and strife that erupts at the workplace and at home can be traced back to sleep deprivation and severe fatigue.  Marriages suffer from it.  Children achieve less in school due to it.  One factor in obesity is associated with a lack of sleep.  In the workplace, at home, on the highway, and during recreation, people have died due to a lack of sleep.  Scientists have now traced some specific forms of mental illness to a lack of sleep.  Researchers have correlated suicide attempts with a lack of sleep.

Amazingly, for most people, the lack of sleep is not due to a lack of time for sleep.  People, who suffer from sleep depravation, most often have sufficient time for sleep.  The avoidance of sufficient sleep is a choice.  Most of us who suffer from insufficient sleep do so due to bad habits, poor planning, and a lack of understanding about the importance of sleep.  Among teens and young adults, it is almost consider a sign of growing up and is view as an admirable trait to be able to go without sleep.  Youthfulness may allow the body to function under these conditions for the short-term without noticable consequences.  The long-term consequences are less noticeable, but they are accumulative.  You will pay the piper one day.

Many people have the misconception that sleep is a waste of time.  It is not.  Sleep is an investment in our waking hours.  Without sufficient sleep, we are actually less productive, less creative, and make repetitive errors.  The act of staying up more hours does not correlate into more achievement.  It is actually the reverse.  So, if you want to be more productive, get enough sleep.  Sleep is what makes the waking hours matter.  Without sleep, the non-sleeping hours are useless and purposeless.  We don’t achieve; we merely go through the motions of activity.

Each of us should take time to recognize the importance of sleep to our overall health and to value what sufficient sleep means to our spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, sexual, financial, and directional well-being.  Here are some suggestions to help you enjoy a good night sleep – every night:

• Mentally train yourself to see sleep as an investment in a more productive tomorrow.
• Eat your last meal at least four hours before bedtime.
• Take a pleasant stroll outside, even if it’s only around your yard, to enjoy the beauty of nature.
• Avoid snacks, particularly those with caffeine, sugar, or other stimulants.
• If you need, drink only water the last couple of hours before bedtime.
• Relax and unwind.  Stop trying to accomplish tasks, even reading e-mail, the last two hours of the night.  Relax, watch television, listen to music, or take a hot bath.
• Reward yourself with a good night’s sleep.  It is important to see bedtime as a reward for a hard day’s work.

Sleep will directly benefit the spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, sexual, financial, and directional areas of your life.

STEP TWO - EXERCISE EVERY DAY

Say the word “exercise” and the image of sweating in a gymnasium suddenly pops up.  This is, of course, a valid option.  Many people really enjoy the regular and scheduled journey to the gym.  People put aside everything else and shift their attention to the systematic improvement of their bodies.  Sweat is associated with positively stressing the body through physical exertion.  This kind of stress is the key to good health, but there are other kinds of stress harmful to our health.  Mental and emotional stress negatively affects us and slowly kills.  That is why we should exercise.  Physical exercise induces positive stress and actually reduces the amount of negative stress a person encounters in other areas, as well, as helping to reduce the damage it does.  Therefore, it is necessary for good health, long life, and positive thinking for each of us to choose a physical activity that helps us to break a sweat.  Walking, jogging, hiking, swimming, aerobics, handball, tennis, bicycling, are all good forms of exercise.  These activities also help to curve cravings and appetite.

Another form of exercise is weightlifting.  It is an essential aid to building strong bones and muscles.  It helps to create a nicely toned body.  By increasing your lean mass, weightlifting also helps to increases metabolism.

However, if you are not able to engage in strenuous exercise, you can engage in less demanding forms of physical activity.  Walking around the yard, working in the garden, pruning the bushes, Christian forms of yoga, mild stretching, and even picking up pine cones in the yard are all good examples of mild activity that really help to reduce stress.  They also help the body to stay young.  Most of the aches and pains of so-called old age are no such thing.  Instead of being a result of old age, most aches and pains are a result of inactivity.  The old rule of “USE IT OR LOSE IT” truly applies here.

Teresa and I spent many hours walking the five miles around Greenfield Lake where we lived during the early 1990’s.  We dreamed big dreams, discussed our future, and encouraged each other during these walks.  To this day, we look back fondly at these walks.  Now, we still walk five miles each morning and we still enjoy dreaming big dreams, talking about our future, and discussing the joys we have each day enjoying our first grandson, Bennett.

Exercise directly benefits the spiritual, physical, sexual, intellectual, and emotional areas of your life.   It can also bring indirect benefits to the relational, financial, and directional areas of your life.

STEP THREE - CUT BACK ON PROCESSED AND JUNK FOOD

Here’s a shock.  Most of us are eating ourselves into an early grave.  Our parents raised us to fill our plates full with food and then forced us to eat until the plate was clean.  They even used images of starving children in Cambodia to impress us with the urgency to eat the last portion of our meal.  A hundred years ago, when our diets consisted mostly of proteins, fats, vegetables and a few complex carbs followed by hard strenuous farm work, this approach had fewer life threatening consequences.  Sugar was rare, simple carbs scarce, and soft drinks unheard of.  Water and homebrew alcohol were the only liquids drunk.  Since then, the food industry has profited by marketing simple carbs such as Snicker bars, Doritos, Twinkies, and Doughnuts.  We now cover our vegetables with sauces, dressings, and other fatty additives.  Most of us consume soft drinks with the passion of an addict.  Worse, our physical activity is often little more than walking from our television sets to the kitchen to grab a bag of chips and a soft drink.
The result is an epidemic of obesity, increased sickness, impaired immune systems, chronic health problems, less productive lifestyles, and shorter life spans.  The solution is simple, even if it’s not pleasant at first.  You must start eating proteins, especially fish, chicken, turkey, and lean beef.  You must start drinking healthier beverages, especially water.  You must start eating fresh or frozen vegetables regularly.  You should eat smaller portions of complex carbs such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and whole wheat bread.  You must stop eating sugar, processed foods, candy bars, chips, pies, breads, cakes, cereal, junk food, and other simple carbs.  Yes, you can occasionally have a simple carb or enjoy a little junk food, but the key word is occasionally.  This means no more than two or three portions a week.  The truth is that most people are carb junkies and sugar addicts.  You may not realize that you are addicted, but you are to some degree.  If you don’t believe it, just try to stop eating sugar for a week.  You will experience withdrawal symptoms just like an addict.  For a period of 2 to 5 days, you will endure headaches, mood swings, irritability, lack of energy, and a revelation of how weak your will power really is.  However, if you can hold out, one morning you will wake up and think clearer than you have in a long time.  The world will be brighter.  You will have much more energy and you will feel alive.  This new feeling is well worth the struggle to give up candy, sugar, carbs, and other junk food.  Better still, you will experience better health and a longer lifespan.

When you learn to eat healthier, you will experience spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, sexual, financial, and directional benefits.

STEP FOUR - LEARN SOMETHING NEW EACH DAY

Much like a muscle, you must exercise your brain.  However, instead of physical exercise, the brain needs constant intellectual stimulation.  People, who do not use their brains, mentally become weaker and weaker.  After a while, the brain ceases to pursue new ideas or thoughts.  Thinking becomes just too hard.

The best way to stimulate your brain is to think outside the box.  You must constantly force your brain to engage in thinking activities such as crossword puzzles, reading, and creative hobbies instead of passive activities such as watching television listening to the radio.  Nothing beats reading books, magazines, articles, poems, plays, and newspapers that build up your knowledge base.   Find a group of friends that make your stretch your understanding with discussions that involve more than merely nodding your head in agreement.  Challenge the accepted way of thinking.  Make everything you believe have to stand up to your investigative scrutiny.  Constantly think in the “what if” mode.  Write as much as possible.  Engage in computer games that require active thinking.

Take time to enroll in college courses.  Learn for the sake of learning.  Every class you enroll in doesn’t have to be taken to further your career.  Take classes to learn about gardening, sailing, or oil painting.    A ‘Renaissance Man’ was a man or woman whose expertise spanned a wide range of subject areas.  They were often talented in music, engineering, inventing, painting, and even exploration.  They valued learning and sought the opportunity at every turn.  Renaissance Men centered their lives round learning and the pursuit of knowledge.  Discovering new truths was the goal of each day.  The truth is that today we need more Renaissance Men.

Make a vow today to be a Renaissance Man and open yourself to learning.  Doing so will benefit the spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, sexual, financial, and directional components of your life.

STEP FIVE - LIVE A BIBLICALLY BALANCE LIFESTYLE

What you put into your mind determines your state of spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, sexual, financial, and directional balance.  We best achieve that biblical balance by taking time to develop a Biblical perspective on life.  That is why it is so important that we take time to read the Bible.  It is the source of solid spiritual protein and spiritual vitamins.  You need all its truth.  Like the taking of vitamins, you want see the results immediately.  Only, over time, do their benefits become evident.  Likewise, it takes time for you to see the benefits that come from reading the Bible.  While it takes time, the benefits are worth waiting for.  Amazingly, the results are more than what you see taking place in your life, but also the things you prevent from occurring that are much harder measure.

Balanced thinking influences every decision, choice, and action you will make in your life.  Imbalanced thoughts skew the thinking process.  Never forget that your thinking is influence by what you put into your mind.  Useless television, trashy magazines, non-analytical books, and senseless video games can negatively influence your thinking.  You don’t need too totally avoid these habits.  In moderation, they do no harm and serve as helpful distractions to rest your mind.  The Church often labels such distractions as sin, but they are in error.  There is nothing wrong in exploring all areas of reality within the framework of Scripture and the principle of moderation.  In fact, it is harmful to live in ignorance and fear of knowledge.

Prohibiting people from experiencing aspects of life, not condemned as sin by the Bible, is just as wrong as the sin itself.  Such action by the Church is in violation of the Biblical principle of moderation.  The Bible, for example, does not prohibit the drinking of wine, but it does command that we consume wine in moderation.  The Bible also teaches that drunkenness is a sin.  It is moderation or balance that God teaches.  This is important because children and adults often experience long-term harm by the Church when it prohibits certain knowledge and experiences not prohibited by the Bible.

This is especially true in the arena of books.  Churches and parents often react negatively to fantasy and science fiction books due to false fear and bondage.  They then try to prevent their members or children from learning anything about the unknown or the things they fear.  They feel that exposure to certain knowledge will weaken their members or children.  By preventing their exposure to certain knowledge, they are sure they are protecting them.  The truth is just the opposite.    The well-adjusted member or child actually grows stronger by moderate exposure to truths outside the normal experience.

This principle of providing moderate exposure to create strength is a principle used in medicine.  We all take our children to the doctor for vaccinations.  Children receive vaccinations in moderate doses so their bodies learn how to defend against certain diseases.  Like the body adjusting and becoming strong to withstand disease, the mind adjusts to knowledge and learns balance as a reaction to it.  All things must be done in moderation to create Biblical balance.  That is why the Bible speaks of murder, rape, sexual sin, idolatry, lust, selfishness, witchcraft, sorcery, lying, stealing, incest, and all sorts of wickedness within its pages.  By exposing us to the reality and consequences of sin, we become balance in our determination to resist it.

Remember that we are talking about Biblical balance.  While a Christian may be free to seek after knowledge, including those things that are not necessarily of God, it is not healthy when knowledge becomes an obstacle.  Knowledge for the benefit of information is fine, but we must avoid knowledge that feeds our weaknesses.  Each person is different and must recognize their weaknesses.  Some people can eat chocolate in moderation and lives healthy lives.  Others cannot control themselves and must refrain from eating it.  To do so could result in obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.  The same principle is true of learning.  Some people can read fictional stories found in books that include fictional witches, warlocks, werewolves, vampires, and be strong in the Lord.  Others can’t.  Each must find their own balance.   Churches and parents should help guide those under their care, not seek to withhold information.  History has consistently shown that those who have knowledge hidden from them suffer terrible personal and social consequences.  Experience has shown that overly rigid and protective parents often create rebellion in their children.  While their intention was only to protect their children, in reality, they created mental and intellectual malnutrition.  The result is often rebellion.  Children, by nature, seek to explore their world.  Books are a good way to explore in imagination that, which would be impossible or dangerous for them to explore in reality.  So let your children, let your teen, let your Church members read about realities that they don’t intend to engage in, but only seek to be entertain by.

Teresa and I have noticed in 30 years of ministry that those parents, who restrict their children by labeling everything a sin, are often the ones who experience the greatest rebellion in their children.  In Havelock, where we started a new Church, parents often raised their children from a military mindset.  Strangely, many of the Children begin to engage in active satanic worship.  We fought a long battle there.  It was a battle that we won and one from, which we learned a lot about bondage.  Today, many Christian writers and Churches worry that Harry Potter books will draw our children into satanism and witchcraft.  The only course, in their opinion, is to avoid this book to protect their children from the world of witchcraft.  The result, to their dismay, has been exactly the opposite.  By exploring the imaginary world of broom–riding witches, wizards taking the forms of animals, and dragons through books, the children have learned a great truth—the world of Harry Potter is imaginary.  The world of Harry Potter is not one of reality.  This form of mythological witchcraft is fantasy.  They learn to laugh at it.  They know it’s not real.  To them, it is entertainment.  Thankfully, they can learn this through books and not fall into real sin by becoming involved with true satanism and witchcraft.  Those who force a world of false “spiritual Christianity” onto their children only force their children to seek this world in real life.  Isolation tends to transform the imaginary world into one of “false reality.”  It is natural for children to explore and ask questions.  By isolating our children from experiencing the real world, we create rebellion in our children since rebellion is the only way to do what is natural.  The Bible is clear that witchcraft is the same as rebellion.  So in reality, we are backdooring our children into a type of witchcraft.  We need to recognize that reading about witchcraft is far from rebellion and active participation in witchcraft.  We must decide the option we will give our children.

I am not suggesting that we allow our children to experience what the New Testament Scriptures condemn.  However, I am saying that we must be able to explore our world while, while at the same time, learning to maintain Scriptural parameters and operating under a spirit of moderation.  Remember that the spirit of the Old Testament and the spirit of the New Testament are vastly different.  In Deuteronomy, God often told the children of Israel, operating under the Law and not having the Holy Spirit, to kill those among them serving false gods.  There is even an instance when He told the Israelites to kill their own children.  However, the born-again children of God (you and I), operating under Liberty and Grace and, having the Holy Spirit, are told by Paul in 1 and 2 Corinthians that we have the freedom to sit down with those who worship false gods and to eat meat that has been offer to false gods in the temple of false gods.  Why?  Because we know that there are no real idols.  There are no false gods.  We made them up.  In dealing with Church members and our children, we must never forget that we are now living in the era of the New Testament.  We must stop thinking with an Old Testament mentality of bondage and isolation and start living with a New Testament mentality of Liberty and Grace.

Above all, there must be balance and moderation.  Imagination is important, but it can also lead to isolationism.  Imagination is fine, but when the only source of information is imagination, you will also suffer mental malnutrition.  Your spirit needs balance.  Avoidance of knowledge and imaginative creation is ignorance and ignorance is never positive.  Ignorance leads to fear and fear to bondage.  Likewise, imagination that seeks to avoid life and its stresses is negative.  We need balance and balance lies in the middle.  You must be careful to avoid an overabundance of television that does not arouse your intellect.  Shows that evoke strong reactions from you and challenge your way of thinking are good.  ‘Junk television’ is just as bad for your brain as ‘junk food’ nutrition is for your body.  You should also avoid excessive ‘trashy’ and ‘sexually explicit’ magazines, books, and videos that do not stimulate the brain in a positive manner.  Printed material should serve to engage you in constructive reassessment of your current viewpoints.

The key is balance.  A little is all right, but a lot is too much.

The greatest problem facing the Church today is the mindset that being spiritual is equivalent to feeling good.  This tendency permeates the Body of Christ manifests itself in a “Christian that is so spiritually minded that they are of no earthly good.”  This is especially evident in the area of prayer and Bible reading.  People somehow have equated prayer and Bible reading as being an activity that one engages in when moved by the Spirit of God.  It is not.  You need to engage in reading the Bible and prayer regardless of how you feel.  Prayer and reading the Bible daily is similar to taking your medication.  If you suffer high blood pressure, it doesn’t matter how you feel, you take your medication.  Like medication, regular prayer and Bible reading is not just to receive something, it is also important for what it can prevent from happening.

However, regardless of the habits and beliefs of the average Christian, a balanced Christian engages in prayer and Bible reading systematically.  You should have a daily plan of prayer and Bible reading.  Without a systematic plan, you will not regular read the Word of God.  It doesn’t matter when you read, only that you read.  It doesn’t matter whether you read several verses or a chapter per day.  What is important is that you open your Bible and take in some of its potential power.

Each of us should make prayer a daily part of our life.  Once again, it isn’t when you pray or how you pray.  The most important times of prayer should be done in private when you can share your innermost thoughts with the Lord.  It is a time when you can rejoice with the Lord, but also a time when you can wrestle with Him.  Prayer is a natural part of corporate worship, but it can never be as powerful or intimate as when you are alone with the Lord.  Find what works for you.  Just because someone prays, a certain way at a certain time, doesn’t mean it’s what you should do.  What is important is that you have a systematic method of spending time with the Lord in your own way.

Prayer and Bible reading benefits the spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, financial, material, and directional areas of your life.

STEP SIX - DIRECT YOUR ATTITUDE

Do you recognize that your attitude limits or empowers your strengths?  Attitude determines how you view life, responds to stress, deal with relationships, and many other things.  It affects your faith and your self-image.  Your spirit determines the attitude you manifest.  Do you display a spirit of contrariness when ask not to do something?  Do you refuse to do things with a willing spirit when others ask you to?  Do you see things negatively or positively when looking at your marriage, career, or Church?  Do you find that it is hard to find and hold onto friends?  It a good bet that your attitude has a good deal to do with it.

What can you do to develop a more positive and cooperative attitude?  First, recognize that the way “YOU” choose to direct your attitude in dealing with issues of life determines who you are.  Recognize that the way “YOU” choose to deal with stress is the key to long-term stress management.  Recognize that opportunities will be lost and friendships destroyed by negative or hostile attitudes.  A positive attitude sees the good and potential in each situation, whereas, a negative attitude eliminates your ability to draw out the best in any situation.  A positive attitude provides a balance perspective of a situation, whereas, a negative attitude skews the picture.  All you can see is an out-of-focus mind picture.  As a result, your reactions are inapproapriate and this can cause serious problems in all areas of your life.  Face it, the dog that bites you is less likely to create a sense of safety and relaxation than the dog that cuddles around your feet and looks at you with positive approval.  You aren’t a dog, but people will react to your negative attitude the same way.

When dealing with a stressful situation, a negative attitude actually increases your stress levels.  Your negative attitude creates a negative outlook on any situation.  By reacting to your negative attitude, you, in turn, cause others to react negatively to you.  This feeds your negative attitude.  It’s a vicious cycle.  On the other hand, a positive attitude does the exact opposite.  This is because a positive outlook creates the ability to see all sides of the issue more clearly.  Thus, your decision-making comes across as more rational and is received by others as fair and thought out.  You find that your decisions create noticeably more positive outcomes, which help to reduce your stress levels.  You will have more friends, more opportunities, and become a more relax and positive person.

A positive attitude even helps you to recognize that your failures are actually learning experiences.  When a serious situation presents itself to you, learn to react with a positive attitude.  Ask yourself:

1.     Is this a problem or an opportunity waiting to be set free?  You will rarely find an opportunity that is not clothed with problems.  By scrapping off the problems, one finds great opportunity.  Napoleon Hill stated, “In every adversity lies the seed of equal or greater benefit.”

2.     Do I know someone who has faced this problem and succeeded in dealing with it?  A wise man is one who asks and takes advice from those who have already wrestled with a problem and succeeded.  You must ultimately make your own decision, but it doesn’t hurt to get other’s advice.  It may help to confirm some thoughts you have and possibly warn you of unforeseen dangers.  Never let others make decisions for you.  In the end, you must always make your own final decision, but a positive outlook helps to make your best one.
3.     Is this a big problem or can the problem be broken down into more manageable issues?  A negative attitude sees only huge problems.   A positive attitude allows you to see the various elements that make up the problem.  Thus, you can transform a large insurmountable problem into smaller, more manageable ones.  This allows for better management because you can delegate smaller problems to others who can handle its details.  It’s better to prioritize smaller issues into a series of solution seeking tasks than find yourself stuck with one seemingly unsolvable problem.   The smart man turns a huge problem into a “To Do” List.
4.    Does this problem really matter?  A negative attitude causes you to see problems as being more important than they may be.  A negative attitude can’t seem to be able to laugh at a problem because you decide it isn’t that important.  A positive attitude allows you to prioritize your problems and decide some are insignificant enough to warrant your attention.  You may see that they have no immediate need of attention and only need addressing in the long-term or need no attention at all.  The old saying is that 90 percent of what we worry about never happens, 9 percent involves something we can’t do anything about anyhow, and only 1 percent of all the things we worry about warrant our attention.  I don’t know about the overall accuracy of this statement, but it is true nevertheless.  Negative attitudes make mountains out of molehills.  Positive attitudes reduce mountains back into molehills.

Developing a more positive attitude will benefit the spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, financial, material, and directional areas of your life.

STEP SEVEN – ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE

Have you ever met people who are always in a crisis?  They seem to contrast greatly with those who always have everything under control.  So, what is the difference between the lives of these two types of people?  At the end of the day, the biggest difference has to do with the way people organize their lives.  For most people, their lives are out of control.  Most don’t even know their lives are out of control since chaos has become their norm.  Since they live on the edge, anything out of the ordinary creates overload in their world resulting in another crisis event.

If you are in this state, it is important you gain control over your life.  Control over your world helps you deal with the stresses you face so they don’t devolve into a crisis event.  Control helps maintain a steady positive attitude.  Control is necessary for those who want to determine the paths you will take in life.  When you are out of control, you have no power to decide anything.  Overwhelmed by the problem, you can’t stand back and see a way around it.  What most people fail to realize is that the world looks different to a person in crisis than it does to a person in control of their world.  It’s as if you are on a space ship traveling at the speed of light.  You see everything differently than the person who standing on the ground does.

Being in control is a matter of attitude.  However, as said before, there must be control.  A lack of balance in maintaining control leads to obsessive behaviors that can become negative.  Don’t become obsessed with control, but don’t become obsessed with a lack of control either.  If you are going to err on one side or the other, err on the side of control.  There is less negative consequences from being a little more in control than there is in being out of control.

The difference between being in control and out of control simply comes down to how you organize your world.  Control is crucial.  A lack of order and control shows up in the spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, sexual, financial, and directional areas of your life.  Either you will take control of the world around you and create order or chaos will take control of your life and turn it into one of constant crisis.  Internally, you can never be in control if your external environment is out of control.

The question always asked is, “What must I do to get control of my life?  It’s totally out of control.”  It’s very simple, but so very hard for a person whose thinking is out of balance.  You have to get your thinking straight and the best way is to engage in simple activities, which give you control over specific areas of your life.

1.  First, you must engage in practical activities that will help you to organize the world around you.  This will lead to order in your life.  For example, when you get up in the morning, make your bed and vacuum your home.  These two activities set you up mentally to take control in other areas.  You will never be able to organize the rest of your life if you live in chaos and disorder.  People who tell you they’re not bothered by clutter in their home have grown harden to it, but the truth is they constantly live in a state of crisis.  They are always apologizing for the condition of their home.  This is very stressful in itself, but the constant presence of the stress compounds its harmfulness.  They may grow hardened to it, but the stress is still harmful to them anyway.  Stress always does.

By setting a goal to keep your home clean, you do three things.

a.  First, you create an atmosphere of order.  Most people that I have suggested this to are   very receptive and later tell me that it made a great difference.  Others, however, have challenged this concept and suggested that I was anal and had an obsessive personality.  That may be true.  We are all obsessive in some areas.  But isn’t it better to be obsessive that results in order than to be obsessive in a way that creates chaos.  The reality is that those who are obsessive in a way that brings disorder are the ones who cry out for help.  It isn’t the obsessive desire for order that causes the problem of crisis and chaos.  The reality is that you can choose to stay overnight in a rundown motel or an excellent hotel.  The same is true for your home.  It’s your choice.

b.  Second, since you discover that you can have order in one small area, you gain confidence that you can achieve order in others.  To gain control over the important areas in your life, you must start exercising control over the little areas.  Living in a clean environment is very peaceful.  It is very satisfying to leave your home in an orderly state with the knowledge that after a hard day’s work, you can return to it.  Order and cleanliness is very important to our emotional health.  How many people would accept a dirty and disorderly hotel room at Disney World?  Would you think that it was really a pleasant place to check into?  Would dirty towels on the bathroom floor, toys strung all around the living room, beds unmade, and trashcans overflowing make you feel stress-free?  Of course not!  Then, why do we settle for anything less than order and cleanliness in our own homes?  Why do we force our families to face this same scenario when they return home each day?

c.  Third, you stop living on the edge so that any problem creates a crisis event.  Most people live so on the edge that even having company over at their house becomes a crisis.  If you keep your home clean, then company is no longer a crisis event.  The truth is that it takes no more energy or effort to keep your house, car, office, or life uncluttered than it does to let it fall apart.  A child spends as much energy throwing a toy on the floor and walking away as it does walking over and throwing the toy into the toy box.  It’s a matter of choice and you get to decide which kind of world you want to live in.  You can choose whichever one you want, but the reality is that, by not throwing the toy into the toy box, you are creating an environment ripe for a crisis event.

Most people fail to recognize that they create their own crisis by allowing chaos and disorder to rule their world.  Developing the habit of cleaning is the first step in taking control of the chaos around you.  It takes very little to maintain your home once you have control.  When you get a phone call from your in-laws, you don’t panic.  Why?  You’re in control.  The person who doesn’t clean their home daily is always in crisis mode because the call from the in-laws, the neighbors, or a friend always creates stress and a state of panic.  You stress out.  However, get this important point.  The crisis didn’t just happen; it was created.  What is true about cleaning our homes is also true about every other aspect of life.  It applies to the friends we keep, the way we raise our children, the way we handle our finances, and how we deal with spiritual matters.  If we don’t have control over them, they will have control over us.

Now I know that you may think I am stressing out on a single issue.  I’m not.  I’m using something that each of us faces each day to teach a practical truth and a greater principle.  Take control of the world around you or you will live in chaos.  It will negatively affect your spiritual life.  It will negatively affect your relationships.  It will leave negatively imprints on your children in ways you can never foresee.  It will negatively impact you intellectually and emotionally.  Some, in the past, have been accused me of being anal when I have suggested that they start bringing order to their failing marriages by being order into their households.  They said that I was stressed out, fixated on the unimportant, and wrong about the state of their homes having an impact on their marriage.  They suggested that I needed to chill out and get a life.  Of four couples I have dealt with in the past, three are now divorced and two of them are directly related to not having order in their homes.  These same people are the ones who said that those who clean their homes regularly need to chill out and needed to relax.  The problem is that whenever the husband called to say a business associate was coming to dinner, who was the one who was stressed out?  They were.  The stress of having to clean the house and fix dinner was so stressful, they then screamed and yelled afterwards about not having enough notice and not being appreciated.  Once again, who is chilling and who is relaxed?

The truth is that we all face stress.  Managing stress means spreading it out instead of having it deal with it all at once.  Here’s another scenario we all face.  How many of us make it a habit to drive around on empty?  The same principle applies to cleaning the house applies to the person who drives their cars regularly with the needle on or near empty.  This person lives on the brink of a crisis.  Once the house is clean, it takes no more work to keep it clean as it does to keep it dirty.  It’s a matter of creating order or disorder.  The same is true with filling up our gas tanks.  Once we fill our gas tanks with gas, it costs no more to keep the tank full than it does to keep it barely above empty.  When the gas tank is always near empty, we are always having stop to pump 3 dollars of gas.  It’s an everyday event.  We stress over where to get our next 3 dollars of gas.  Of course, everything is fine until the gas station that you were depending on is closed or you are forced to take a detour or you end up waiting in a traffic jam that is moving 5 miles an hour due to road construction.  Suddenly, you are in a crisis of your own making.  Sadly, most people live this way in nearly all areas of their lives.  They are sabotaging their potential and don’t even recognize it.  By cleaning our houses, filling our gas tanks, dealing directly with a relationship problem before it gets out of control, we create order by taking control.

Most people find that the most enjoyable and gratifying work is the efforts made to achieve long term goals.  Daily goal achievement is part of this process.  Part of each day should consist of planning and goal setting that centers on improving the state of the world you live in.  People, who begin to organize their homes, find that they have a better self-image.  They feel they can achieve other goals that lead to success.

2.  Second, you must embrace change.  Only by welcoming change in your life can you learn to adapt to life and its stressful variables.  A person, resistant to change, is crushed by change, but a person who welcomes change is able to prosper in it.
When Wal-Mart first began to invade the smaller communities around the nation, people protested that the giant merchandiser would run the smaller competitors out of business.  They complained that the small business owner could not possibly compete with the giant.  They couldn’t have been more wrong.  It is true that those who wanted to keep on operating like the good old days did lose customers and many had to close their stores.  However, many businesses adapted by finding new niches created by Wal-Mart.  Dozens of new businesses begin to spring up around the Wal-Marts.  Many small business owners found that by embracing the new change, they could successfully prosper next to Wal-Mart.  Small businesses became large businesses by learning how to cope with rapid change by finding business niches not exploited by Wal-Mart.  They also positioned themselves around Wal-Mart to take advantage of the huge crowds the giant retailer drew.  Instead of resisting change, they embraced it and so must you.

3.  Third, you must create harmonious relationships with those that are important in your spear of influence.  Getting along with people is part of organizing your world.  Just as you must clean up your world, you must clean up your relationships.  A balanced life requires that we know who to embrace into our world and who to avoid.  Some people should never enter into our world.  Some of them are relatives.  We need to avoid negative personalities.  They will suck the life out of us.  Our circle of family and friends should be those who are positive and empowering.  Personally, we must approach people in a positive manner.  Positive people draw others who are happy and optimistic in their approach to their side.  A positive person can make a difficult situation bearable.  Take care of your personal grooming.  A well groom person projects confidence and success.  Take time to compliment people for what they are doing well.  People have enough negative self-images of themselves.  They do not benefit from your negative comments.  The old adage: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” is very true.

If you don’t organize individual areas of your life, you will live in chaos and disorder.  Your will complain and fuss about how unfair life is, but in the end, these three rules apply:

1. You get what you ask for.
2. You get what you settle for.
3. You become exactly what you believe.

Organizing your life benefits the spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, relational, sexual, financial, and directional areas of your life.

STEP EIGHT - LEARN TO FOCUS

Last, but probably the most important, you should start focusing on the things that really matter to you.  Ask yourself these following questions:

1. Do I really know what I want out of life?  This is your vision!
2. Have I any idea how I will accomplish my vision?  This is your mission!
3. Am I engaging in activities that support my mission to achieve my vision?  These are your goals!

Now stop and really look at your life.  Do you have a vision?  You may say, “Yes!”  If so, have you decided just how you will make your vision happen?  Are you waiting for God to make it happen or are you operating under the authority God gave you to bind and loose the world around you?  If you think you have a sense of the means that will help you to achieve your vision, then are you spending each day engaging in actions that accomplish it.

Often we know what we must do, but we spend our days avoiding the very activities we need to engage in to succeed.  Why?  Fear of failure, fear of change, fear of the unknown, lack of knowledge, and many other factors cause us to avoid doing the things we know we must do.  Fear paralyzes most of us so that we engage in other activities to avoid facing our fears.  I once knew a man who knew what he had to do, but was afraid to try.  He knew his calling was to start a new Church and to lead the Church in a new direction, but he was afraid.  He didn’t have the money, the total understanding, the knowledge, or the experience.  To avoid dealing with the unknown, he spent each day building buildings and working in his yard.  If he wasn’t building a new playhouse, he was planting flower beds.  He hid from his fear by putting his whole being into his favorite pastime.  You may know someone like this or you may recognize that you are like this.  Understand that planting flowers and building buildings isn’t the problem.  He was pretty good at gardening and building buildings cheaper than anyone else.  Lots of people wanted to pay him to work on their yards and build them buildings.  He actually made some good money doing so.  However, he knew he was not content to just plant plants and build buildings.  He had turned his ordinary liking for the hobby into an obsession simply because he feared the path he knew he had to take.  He used plants and wood to avoid pursuing his real purpose.  Finally, he recognized what he was doing and began to engage in real daily activities to achieve his true passion.  Today this man is doing what he really wanted to do all the time.   He found that his worst fears never happened and that he was so much happier doing what he was supposed to do.  Of course, that person is me.  As a result of facing my fears, this Church, Glad Tidings, and its vision are now on its way to becoming a reality.

I challenge you to step outside your box and attempt to undertake your real purpose.  It is so easy to become discouraged and to pour your heart into another activity to escape dealing with the struggle to achieve your true purpose.  Here is something else I want you to consider.  My father spent a good part of his early years drinking his life away.  He hid in the bottle.  Instead of confronting his fears and pursuing his real purpose, he engaged in anything that allowed him to avoid doing the things he knew he had to do.  He hid so often in the bottle that he became an alcoholic.  The truth is that I, too, early in my life hid in a bottle.  Not an alcoholic bottle, but a bottle just the same.  My bottle wasn’t alcohol, but it was a hammer and a rake.  Whether alcohol or a hammer, I was no different from my father.  We both chose our own way to run from our destiny.  Whether you are an alcoholic or a procrastinator, the results are the same.  You waste away your potential and your life.

Now let me ask you a question!  Are you running from yourself and spending too much of your energy in areas that allow you to avoid your true purpose?  If so, you must deal with your fears.  It isn’t necessary to give up the things that you love to do as a hobby.  Hobbies make life more pleasant and enjoyable.  However, they must not become escapes from the real purposes of life.  I still build buildings and I still plant plants.  The difference is that I now engage in these activities as sideline hobbies.  I do not allow them to interfere with those activities that are essential for achieving my vision and dreams.  Like the wine bottle, you have to be very careful.  The difference between an alcoholic and an occasional drinker is a fine line.  It lies not in the number of beers you drink, but in the motivation for drinking them.  My father could drink two beers and be so drunk that he was totally out of control.  I drink two beers and I’m unaffected.  He drank to hide and I drink to enjoy.  It’s a fine line, but a line that either makes you or breaks you.  I crossed that line for years with my carpentry and gardening activities.

You can improve your life starting right now, but you must be willing to take charge of your world.  These 8 steps are good starting points to begin that journey.  They can help you achieve greater wholeness in the spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, sexual, financial, and directional areas of your life.

Then, one day, while reading the story about Jesus and the fig tree in Matthew 21:18-22, I came to a sudden and surprising realization. Suddenly, it dawned on me that the lack of faith was only an illusion. First, I realized that there is more faith in today’s world than ever before. Second, I came to understand that the problems confronting the Church have nothing to do with our faith. Instead, it has everything to do with our distorted way of thinking.

The Bible states in Matthew 6:33 that we should – “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The original Greek states this much clearer. It says – “But seek ye first God’s way of doing things and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The Greek word for kingdom is basileia and this word can be used two ways. In this sentence, basileia is not talking about God’s possessions and physical holdings, which we would call His realm. Instead it is referring to His authority and power which we would call His reign. It is not talking about what He has, but what He does.

Our faith is out of whack

Do you remember what people use to say when they were verbally attacked? They would respond, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” As a child, it seemed to help because it was a good comeback. Unfortunately, it was one big lie. Now, as a grownup, I realize that words, indeed, do matter. More than ever, I have come to realize that those things that I speak have great power over my life. Words not only matter now, but they will matter for all eternity.

If only the people in the Church today understood this powerful revelation – words matter. They create, build, shape, and transform each of us. To prove this truth, we only have to consider the words spoken by a man named Descartes in 1644. These words sparked the development of a philosophy that has, in one sense, done more good than any other earthly system of thinking. But on the other hand, it has also done more harm than any other influence. The words he uttered were, “Cogito, ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am.” It was the influence of these words that started men towards our present day Age of Enlightenment. As a result of this age, we have benefited from some great and wonderful advances in mathematics, science, education, communication, medicine, reasoning, invention, and electronics. We have sent men to the moon, created frozen food, cooled our homes in the summer, and invented sliced bread. We have cured small pox, healed diseases, and transformed magnetism into electricity. Life is much, much better in most ways. Rational thinking has brought about many positive changes. However, not everything that has come from the Age of Enlightenment has been positive. Of all the changes, the most radical change occurred in the Church, itself. It brought about a change, not only in how the world viewed God and the Church, it changed how the Church viewed God and itself. As a result of this new Age of Enlightenment, people, including Christians, began to think that following God should be a fairly rational and reasonable thing to do. In Bible school jargon, it became known as “strong rationalism.” In everyday language, it meant that if a reasonable person heard a reasonable argument that proved the existence of God, then they would accept the existence of God without any further argument. Thus, those who accepted rationalism viewed faith as an intellectual endeavor.

“Strong rationalism” heavily influenced the Evangelical and Protestant movement during the last two centuries. Its influence was immediate and its consequences are being felt today. On the positive side, as a result of “strong rationalism”, a lot of people started going to Church. On the negative side, while people were making an intellectual decision to attend an institution called the Church, they were not experiencing a heart change that transformed them into the Church. Therefore, they ceased seeing themselves as the Church- the Body of Christ.  Instead, they saw themselves as members of the institution called the Church.

Even though they lost the heart of Christ, the Church exploded in prestige and influence and continued to maintain its dominance for over a hundred years. Then everything started to fall apart. In the 1960’s, people started to look inward. They begin to question the need for attending the institution called the Church. They begin to feel that Church had become more an activity than an inward experience. They felt that the Church had adopted a set of values that seemed to contradict the Bible. Where was Christ? Why belong to an ancient institution that no longer seemed able to relate to today’s world? To many people, Christians just did not seem to get it. The result was that people ceased having any reason to be a part of a failing institution. When today’s generation is pressed to explain why they have left the Church, they usually point out that the Church cease to relate to them. It had become just another meaningless institution. They had no problem pointing out the many failures of the Church. In the Church, marriages are falling apart. Divorce rates among Churchgoers are as high as those outside the Church. Adultery is all too common. Homosexuality has become accepted in spite of Biblical teaching to the contrary. People in the Church are living together and engaging in sexual behavior much like those in the world. Many in the clergy, called to protect the flock, have been caught actively engaged in child molestation. As a result, children are leaving the Christian community in a mass exodus. Churchgoers give only slightly above that of non-Churchgoers. Those in the Church appeared to be more interested in being politically and socially correct than in following the teachings of Jesus Christ. So, it is not surprising that beginning in the 1960’s, the time-honored tradition of going to Church on Sunday began to plummet. The Church lost most of its youth and much of its ability to influence social and political issues. With all these problems, it would appear that sin was the major reason for the decline of the Church. That is, of course, what the Church advocated. The truth is that sin is still as prevalent today as yesterday, but it wasn’t the reason for the decline. Sin is a reality, but it is only a symptom of the Church’s problems. It was not the cause for the Church’s troubles. Rationalism, rather than faith, is the cause of the decline. We lost the ability to live by faith, which is the only power to save.  We are saved by faith.  Rational thinking has no spiritual power.

We have now entered into the 21st Century and the Church is still faced with the same problems and the same revolt against it as an institution. Everywhere you turn, the Church is confused. The Church doesn’t know who it is anymore. Everything seems to have turned upside down. Churches keep trying to reverse the trend by engaging in the things that seemed to have worked so well in the past, but with little to show for it. Many Churches try every new program that comes around, but with the same negative results.  No matter what it tries, it doesn’t work. The Church desperately wants to understand why they have lost the ability to influence the world. Anything and everyone seems to be able to influence the world except the Church. It doesn’t make sense. After all, the Church is doing all it can to get the Word out to the world. That cannot be denied. At no time in history has the Church spent so much on mass marketing. There is more television and radio exposure than ever before. No other faith system in the world devotes more time to books and the spread of their theology than do Christians. Christians have the opportunity to know more about God than any people in history. Never before has so many people been doing so much of what they suppose are the right things to be doing. The result! It isn’t working! But why?

The answer is found in a revealing passage of Scripture that illustrates the thinking processes of Jesus as He went about doing the work that His Father had sent Him to do.

Matthew 21:18-22

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry, and he noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs on it, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” And immediately the fig tree withered up. The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” Then Jesus told them, “I assure you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,’ and it will happen. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

This passage of Scripture reveals much about what is wrong with the Church today. As I said before, the problem of the Church has little to do with our faith. Essentially, it has everything to do with our way of thinking.

To be fair, we must give the Age of Enlightenment credit for the positive results that have come from its new way of thinking. Rationalism has transformed our thinking processes from one based on mere faith to one based on reason. Today, this change is continuously improving the quality of life here on Earth. The power of reason has helped us to learn to create a new world with the ability to transform the very building blocks of creation. We have gained a new power to influence those things that we see and touch. Knowledge has given us great power. No matter what the subject, anyone can learn to alter their world simply by going to the library and absorbing the knowledge found in books. The knowledge needed to create and the knowledge needed to destroy is readily found in books located in any public library.

Now all of this has been wonderful from a non-spiritual standpoint. However, from a spiritual standpoint, it has been disastrous. Why? To put it simply – the Church, in adapting an almost purely rational-based system of thinking, shed much of its faith-based thinking. It abandoned much of its spiritual philosophy in order to adapt the new rational philosophy. The result is that the Church has gotten its thinking all wrong. Now understand that the answer to the problem of the Church is not to abandon reason or rational thinking. It is only that the Church must restore faith back into its thinking. It is not necessary to choose one over the other. They can co-exist together.

Without faith, people end up doing many good things for all the wrong reasons. Without faith, people reason themselves into hopelessness and moral decay. Without faith, people lose heart even when they pour their hearts into some worthy goal. That is why we need faith. We need faith to connect our desire to better the world with the God who created it. With faith, we have connection with God. With reason, we have the ability to experience meaning in life even as we work to better it. Faith gives us real relationship with God while reasoning helps us to understand God’s way of doing things. Together, we have clarity of truth, while separately, we only have facts.

Unfortunately, the Church abandoned its faith as it adopted reasoning as its new way of thinking. The Age of Enlightenment provided the secular world with a new way of thinking that enabled them to shape and transform the world. It would seem rational to assume that by imitating the techniques and thinking of the world, the Church would find itself having the same success. That’s where the Church went wrong. In its attempt to influence and change the world by employing the same techniques as the secular world, the Church hopelessly failed. Why? Secular society is the result of its own way of thinking. It is its own creation. The Church on the other hand is not the result of its own way of thinking; it’s the result of God’s way of thinking. To put it simply, secular society and the Church are two totally and distinctly different worlds. The Church forgot that it was not of this world. In losing sight of its true origins, it began to act and imitate the secular world. As a result, it suffered malnutrition and disconnection.

The secular world is trying to understand the physical universe it lives in while the Church should be engaged in trying to understand the spiritual universe it lives in. While they do occupy the same physical space, the secular world and the Church do not occupy the same spiritual space. The secularists have no ability to connect with the spiritual, but the Church does have the ability to connect with the physical. We are, in fact, the only ones who can truly connect fact and moral reason together into real truth. Understanding the laws that govern this physical world is the key to manipulating the physical universe in such a way that all mankind benefits. The goal of the secular world is understanding and knowledge of creation. However, the Church has a different mission. It is striving to establish a relationship with the Creator in order to receive the benefits from His creation. Therefore, the goal of the Church should be establishing a relationship with the Creator even as we use reason to create a better world.

The problem is that the Church mistakenly thought that it, too, operated primarily in the physical realm. As a consequence, the Church thought all it had to do was incorporate God into the world’s great pool of knowledge. This would provide the world with a reasonable and rational explanation for God. Thus, the Church would also be able to share in the secular world’s ability to influence the world. The Church would also have the keys to unlock the secrets of the universe. It only stood to reason – if rational men, in listening to rational theories of science, could transform the physical world, it only made sense that the Church could also transform this world through the rational approach. So the Church began assembling a vast library of knowledge that they believed would convince rational men to believe in the existence of God. In the process, they abandoned the Word of God. It was no longer vital. Bible Colleges stopped teaching the Bible and began teaching theology. They no longer sought to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, they sought to understand His place among the many other religious systems of belief. This seemed to make sense. The Church was sure that any rational person, once presented with their great treasury of knowledge, would be willing to accept the concept of God. As a result, it only stood to reason that men would also accept Jesus Christ as an extension of this knowledge.

Today, the Church is loaded with books of every possible description and on every possible subject. It has more books than any other institution except the scientific community. The trouble is that when it is all said and done, all we have are books. This doesn’t mean that the Church is against books or opposed to knowledge. The problem lies in the fact that the Church is now loaded with reasoning and knowledge, but has nothing else. It has lost its connection, its relationship with Jesus Christ. To have a relationship with Jesus Christ does not require that we give up our search for knowledge and understanding. We don’t have to give up anything. We only have to understand that the things of the spirit can only be grasped by the spirit. We are physical and intellectual beings and our minds need to be fed with logic, reasoning, and knowledge. However, we must understand that we are also spiritual  beings. As such, our spirits need to be fed the things of the spirit: faith, hope, and love. It is not necessary to give up rational thinking or reason; only that we begin to include the things of the spirit in our search for truth. Never forget that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no man goes to the Father except through Him. In other words, we cannot go to the Father without learning to do things His Way, excepting His Truth, and receiving His Life.

The process of regaining the power and influence necessary for the Church to reshape and restore this world back to Jesus Christ will require that we shed our institutional mentality. We must come to understand that we are not members of a Church; we are the Church. We are a new kind of created being and we are a new creation. We must get back to being Christians that imitate Christ in every part of our lives. Our proclamation of Christianity must be reflected in our lifestyle, our actions, and thinking. The people of God must become the best educated, the most learned, and the greatest seekers of truth. At the same time, we must become the creative shapers of the world around us, and the embodiment of rational thinking and spiritual faith that co-exist harmoniously. The Church is both a spiritual and a physical being, existing with one foot in a spiritual universe and the other in a physical one, empowered by the Word of God, citizens of a yet unseen Kingdom, led by the Spirit, and awaiting the coming of a King. The power of the Church lies, not in proven knowledge and reason, but in unseen faith. That faith is grounded in the Word of God.

Unfortunately, people spend a lot of money buying books to read what others think the Word of God says instead of reading what God, Himself, has to say. They spend enormous energy traveling to hear the experiences of other Christians. All of this, to no avail! People still seem to lack any real evidence of faith. The reality is that you simply cannot find Christ by merely reading the regurgitated Word of God as revealed by others or by listening to regurgitated life experiences of other Christians.

The Bible makes it clear in Matthew 4:4 when Jesus said:

“It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

In order to become a Church endued with the power that Jesus Christ in His Word declares we are, we must recreate ourselves into the image of Christ. Therefore, we must begin to personally digest the Word of God and to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Church is presently losing the battle of winning the world to Jesus Christ and there is a reason for this phenomenon. It is because we are only thinking rationalistically. We have come to believe that if we can furnish people with certain knowledge, they will be transformed. On the reverse side, we have also come to believe that if we avoid certain kinds of knowledge, we will also be transformed. Knowledge is great, but our error lies in believing that knowledge can replace spiritual faith. People go to the library to get rational knowledge and facts; they come to Church to get faith, hope, and love. Put together, you have a balanced and learned person. You don’t have to abandon one or the other. You should be trying to connect the two.

Far too many Christians view themselves from a non-faith perspective. Those in the Church who advocate this rationalistic perspective have a very limited understanding of God’s power to transform. Unable to see by faith, they attempt to justify poverty and to condemn wealth. Why? Because it is the only rational way to make sense of the poverty, pain, and suffering that they see in the world. They find it easier to condemn that which they cannot rationally manipulate than to exercise great faith. They have abandoned the command of Christ to teach all the nations all the things, which he said. Why? Simply because in a world of sin, corruption, and failure, they have chosen to abandon all hope of overcoming the world. They have retreated into the safety of their walls. They even call their haven – a “Sanctuary.” They have slowly grown weak in faith because they do not use it.

Understand this, they still have faith, but it lies untapped. As a consequence, they have become a product of our own creation. Jesus said it best when He said, “You have not because you ask not.” People do not expect success and, therefore, they do not get it. People do not expect a great marriage and, therefore, they do not get it. They do not expect a promising future and, therefore, they do not get it. They do not expect to achieve their life’s dream and, therefore, they do not get it. People of the secular world understand failure. They are experiencing it. They are not interested in becoming a part of institutionalized failure espoused by the institutionalized Church. Why become a part of a institution who is trying to justify failure when they are already living it. The Church is not able to set people free from failure because it can’t give what it doesn’t have. The Church has lost its ability to give people faith and hope, so it seeks to justify its inability by blaming the world around it. The truth is that the Church has not because it ask not.

Other people see Christianity from the viewpoint of association. They like Church because they can be associated with it, but they don’t have to be involved. After all, it’s only a service. To be a Christian only involves going “to Church.” Therefore, they don’t have to experience change and they don’t have to establish a relationship with the Lord of the Church. They don’t have to worry about what they believe, do, or say. It’s only a service! Whether they are experiencing real life change or not is non-essential. Why? It’s only a service.

Other people view the Church much like sports. Like sports, Church is just a matter of being a spectator. Christianity is viewed from the standpoint of a fan. Like a fan, they wear the current fad in religious jewelry, clothes, and crosses. They go to “Christian Events”, hang around Christian people, and root for Jesus. They enjoy speculative discussions about Church much like baseball. They easily share their opinions, because there is no consequence to being wrong. Faith is never an issue, because it never needs to be exercised. What they believe is not connected by faith. Since they are only spectators, it doesn’t matter.

However, in eternal issues, faith matters. To Jesus, it mattered more than anything else. In Matthew 21:18-22 of The New Living Translation, we have the following incident revealed:

Matthew 21:18-22

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry, and he noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs on it, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” And immediately the fig tree withered up. The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” Then Jesus told them, “I assure you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,’ and it will happen. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Jesus was having a hard day. He was heading to a showdown with religious leaders who, not only were rejecting Him as the Son of God, they were rejecting God by their very actions. They were religious as long as it didn’t involve faith. They were religious as long as it involved only association and not relationship. They were religious as long as they could be spectators. Their lack of faith, lack of relationship, and lack of connection was revealed by their inability to recognize Jesus as the Son of God. This climate awaited Jesus in Jerusalem. He knew He had only a short time to live. He would soon take on the sin of man and face death alone. His numerous disciples had earlier abandoned Him. Now, His twelve Apostles, the only disciples who stayed with Him, included one who would betray Him. He woke up hungry and He was not having a very good day. Confronted with all this, Jesus walked up on a fig tree that bore no fruit. In a surprising act, He cursed the fig tree and He immediately entered the city of Jerusalem. The first thing He was confronted with was that the Court of the Gentiles had been converted into stalls for moneychangers. Jesus knocked over the moneychanger’s tables, physically flogged those involved, and then tossed the people out of the court. Instead of using this area to proclaim truth and faith to the Gentiles, they had abandon trying to reach out to the rest of the world. Jesus was angry as only God can get angry at His creation that has abandoned their destiny. Our God and Savior was mad.

The next morning the disciples wandered by the tree again and immediately noticed that it had withered. They recalled that Jesus had cursed the fig tree. The disciples were amazed at His power and sought Jesus for understanding. Jesus’ replied, “If you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more”. Jesus and the disciples understood that the fig tree, biblically, was the figurative representation for the nation of Israel. Jesus was powerfully declaring that if Israel claimed to be a fig tree, looked like a fig tree, and had leaves like a fig tree, it had best be producing fruit or figs like a fig tree. Israel was not. This incident were used by Jesus to send a powerful message to Israel and to the Church. It declared that it was time to start thinking right again. A time was approaching when men must live by faith and not just by intellect. The same message is being sent to the Church. We must start to live by faith and not just by intellect.

It is time for the Church to take a new, fresh, and Biblical look at faith? The Bible declares in Romans 1:17 that:

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’”.

We must discover what it means to live by faith.

For one thing, faith is not an intellectual exercise and faith is not possible without corresponding action. According to James 2:17, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”. Faith is acting on what Jesus says. Here is an amazing thing. Too many people are searching for truth to increase their faith. They are convinced that to increase their faith, they need to read more, study more, learn more, see more, and experience more. They are absolutely wrong. In their desire for great faith, they cry out, “Give me more faith!” The reality is that God has already given people great faith. Faith is a gift from God and everybody in this Church has it. They don’t need more faith; they only need to start releasing their present faith through faith-based actions. Since they only want more faith, they get none. Instead of exercising the faith, they end up losing what they have. For faith to grow stronger, it has to be used.

Romans 10:8 says:

“The word is near you, it is on your lips, it is in your heart, that is the word of faith.”

If you have the Word of God inside you, you already have faith inside you. Faith is not something that you need to be convinced of. Look at the evidence. Faith is near you. It is on your lips and it is in you. The reality is that every Christian has the powerful seed of faith inside them. Jesus appeared to be angry and shocked when He found unbelief. Why? He was shocked because He knew that His Father had created us with faith. Jesus often asked people, who were struggling, where their faith was. God has endued all Christians with faith. “Where is it,” you might ask. It may be that it is hidden behind all the skepticism, sarcasm, criticism, and negativity that you are storing inside of your spirit. These negatives don’t come naturally from inside of you. They are the by-products of a broken world. If you will empty your life of these negatives, you will find faith hidden beneath the rumble.

You have faith. You use it all the time. You couldn’t live without it. How do you get to Church, to work, or to the mall? By driving a car. That requires faith. You have faith that your car will start, that you won’t be in an accident, and that you won’t have a flat tire. You move towards your destination exercising faith along the way. Everybody has faith. Not only does everybody have faith, they have enough faith to achieve God’s plan for their life. There is not a person reading this that needs more faith. They only need to use the faith that God has given them. In Romans, it says each of us can achieve, “In accordance with the measure of faith that God has put in you.”

Whenever people approached Jesus to be healed, He always said something like, “It will be done according to your measure of faith”? or “According to the faith that you have, it will be done to you.”

Matthew 28:16-17

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. They worshiped Jesus even though some of them doubted.

Do you think faith is intellectual certainty? It’s not. Sometimes you must act on faith even if you doubt. You can worship the Lord by obedience even when you have doubt in your heart. Faith is an action founded on the Word of God. It is not wishful thinking. It’s acting on the Words of Jesus even when you don’t totally understand or believe. It is acting by faith and not by reason. Faith is acting on the directives of Jesus at any given time in spite of what you feel, think or believe. There comes a time when God’s people must stop thinking and take a leap of faith. The key is to be sure that that leap of faith is based on the Word of God and not wishful thinking.

Listen Church! Stop and think back to the last time you felt God calling for you to take a leap of faith. When was the last time you knew God was telling you to go forward and you knew it violated common sense? Is it possible that it has been so long that you have forgotten what it felt to step out by faith founded on the Word of God? It is very possible that you have only known the Church from a rationalistic relationship. Unfortunately, it is so easy to look like a Christian in this culture that we don’t have to be one. We have the false belief that sitting and listening to the Word of God is faith. Non-engaged faith is no faith at all. Faith is recognized by faith-induced action. Faith is released by your actions. Faith is not what you say you will do; it is what you do with what you say. When you fail to act, when you wait when you should go, and when you go when you should wait, it is a sign that you are acting based on your own senses, not on God’s Word.

Movement isn’t necessarily faith. The Israelites spent forty years moving in circles. While the trip could have taken ten days, they spent forty years walking in one giant circle. They never did what they said they were going to do so they engaged in activity. It was religious activity and it was the direct result of a lack of faith. The Israelites failed to act on God’s directives out of fear. Today, fear is still a major driving force that controls many lives. People are afraid to engage in the battles that living by faith will bring. If you are doing the same failed actions today as you did yesterday, it is a result of a lack of faith. Guess what? It will fail today as it did yesterday. If you are engaged in the same failed behaviors today as you did yesterday, it is a result of a lack of faith. Guess what? It will produce the same fail results today as it did yesterday. If you thought God told you something yesterday that did not work, it wasn’t God. If you are hearing God tell you the same thing again today in a new form, it still will not work. It still isn’t God. If your God is continuously changing His direction for your life, you are not hearing God. You are listening to your own flesh. If your God keeps changing His mind, you need to stop listening to the voice. It isn’t God. If you are caught up in movement that keeps taking you in a circle, it’s a result of a lack of faith. You must stop listening to the voice. God doesn’t send you on useless journeys. As long as you keep listening to the voice, you will continue to engage in useless movement. At some point, you must stop running in circles. Whatever action the voice has you engaging in, you must stop. To stop the failure that comes from the voice, stop the actions.

I Timothy 6:12

Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Faith is an aggressive and deliberate action. Faith is not the absence of fear, it is not the absence of doubt, and it is not wishful thinking. It is acting under the directive of the Word of God in spite of what you feel, believe, or think.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith is our actions, acted out, based on our picture of God’s promised future. This is God’s definition of faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the acting on, the conviction of things not yet seen. If we can picture God’s plan for our lives in our spirit, we can achieve it. Some may think this writing is teaching the “name it, claim it” heresy that has damaged the Church. It is not, but it is teaching that if God names it, if He says it, then you had better claim it. That’s the powerful truth that we need in this Church today. We must seek to fulfill the plan of God in our lives.

Jesus doesn’t create fruitless fig trees. He does not create fruitless people. This isn’t the only time in Scripture where God takes such a stand.

Jesus used this illustration again in Luke 13:

“A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. Finally, he said to his gardener, ‘I’ve waited three years, and there hasn’t been a single fig! Cut it down. It’s taking up space we can use for something else.’ “The gardener answered, ‘Give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, you can cut it down.’”

A good sign of faith is good fruit. If you are not producing good fruit, it’s a good bet that you are not engaged in faith-based actions centered on God’s Word. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, doesn’t have time to spend on fruitless imitations and you don’t either.

So stand up and take charge over your situation. Exercise your faith by allowing the potentials that exists in your life to bear fruit.

The banner said:

GLAD TIDINGS COMMUNITY CHURCH - A New Kind of Church with a New Kind of Vision

Glad Tidings had started. Eleven people, besides Pastors Henry and Teresa and their two children, showed up that day for its first service. We didn’t have any funding or support, but we did have a great vision and a great calling from the Lord. We had little in assets, but we had a lot of determination that we would succeed no matter the cost. Teresa played on a keyboard bought from Brendle’s at their “going-out-of-business” sale for $250.00 and a sound system bought from Radio Shack for less than $100.00.

The next week we had seven people in attendance. Over the years, we have grown from these initial seven and have weathered the trials that, more often than not, forces a Church Planter to give up. Any Church Planter can attest to the fact that starting a successful new Church is even more difficult than starting a successful business. It is one of the most joyous endeavors that a man and woman can make. It is also one of the most bruising experiences. Yet, when the battles are over and the victory has come, it is something remarkable to see. Glad Tidings of Wilmington is remarkable. We should not exist, but we do. We have broken all the rules and, yet, we have succeeded. We started out with absolutely no financial support, no spiritual support, and no personnel support. We had no one to turn to, but God. So we turned to Him. Often! God has never let us down. Today we exist because His Vision has become our vision. The lives that have been changed and the miracles that God has done in our midst attests to His faithfulness to His people. We could not recount them all here, but they are constantly talked about in our fellowship. We know that we have a great calling to carry out a great vision. Come join us and see what God is doing. There is always room for more.

Below is a Historical Time Line. A more concise history of Glad Tidings is in the works. It will be published shortly. It is an interesting account of God working today as He has always.

Quick Time Line

January 7, 1996

The first service is held at Roland Grise Middle School with 15 people in attendance. Glad Tidings grows to 35 during the next several weeks. Pastor Henry is directed by the Holy Spirit to be very careful who the first members are. Pastor Henry shares with the Church, “Just as the first twelve Apostles were the most important people that Jesus brought together, so it is with the first twelve members of Glad Tidings. In fact, Glad Tidings will become what the first twelve members are.   If they lack faith, they will draw those who lack faith. If they want to grow a great Church, they will draw those who want to grow a great Church.” Most of the first 35 people are from a Church split. Seeing that they were not interested in connecting in a new vision, Pastor Henry asked the 35 attendees to continue their search for a Church elsewhere.

July 7, 1996

We moved from Roland Grise to the Christian Karate Center located on South Kerr Avenue.   Again, we begin to grow and soon over 35 people begin to attend there.   Again, this group of people are not inclined to grab hold of the vision Pastor Henry was attempting to share.  They would rather he grab hold of the vision of a television evangelist they were interested in.  Pastor Henry, as he will become known for, stands on the vision God has given to him and will not settle for less.  Again, he asked this group to find another Church. As they begin their exit, a new couple named Gary and Marsha Osborne begin attending.   They become great friends who become instrumental in the success of Glad Tidings.

January 5, 1997

Glad Tidings moves to two small rooms located in the back of Ernie’s Hair Styling. At this time, the Church has 12 people attending which are the family members of Gary and Marsha and Pastors Henry and Teresa. The two families become very close. At this time, the Church will seat 12.

Spring 1997

Pastor Henry and Gary become one in heart for Glad Tidings. They vow that they will work together for the vision of Glad Tidings.

July 6, 1997

Growth continues and an addition room is rented from Ernie’s.  We can now seat 40.   During this year, Glad Tidings again grows to 35 members.  These begin to catch the vision. Glad Tidings is on its way.

January 4, 1998

We begin to hold Sunday Services at Holly Tree Elementary School because of limited room to grow.  We continue to meet at Ernie’s for mid-week activities.  We grow to 50 members.

January 3, 1999

Glad Tidings renovates a vacuum cleaning repair facility at Market Place Mall near Home Depot. We move into this facility and continue to grow to 60 members.

June 4, 2000

Glad Tidings moves to 6724 Amsterdam Way in the Dutch Square Industrial Park.  We lose some members during the move.  We now have 50 members.  We hold services as we remodel this warehouse.

August 27, 2000

We have our dedication service and 120 people attend.  Many of these people become members. We continue to grow and soon have 175 members.

January 2002

Glad Tidings is offered 20 acres of land which we purchased for $110,000.

May 2003

Glad Tidings faces division and a threat of take over by several scheming members of the Elders.  Recognizing that a certain group of people in the Church are determined to direct the body towards a different direction, Pastor Henry begins praying for wisdom from the Lord.   Soon he is made aware that some are teaching and confronting others behind the scenes over the watching of certain movies.   He learns that people are being told that if they are reading Harry Potter, they are committing sin.  A video tape is being secretly distributed among our people teaching them that they are sinners if they watch or read Harry Potter.   Many of these people are from another Church with Pentecostal leanings, but who had become members.  In secret, they begin teaching our people strange doctrines and promoting non-biblical ideas such as:

• Christians can be possess of demons,
• That those who speak in tongues and jump around the Church are more spiritual than those who don’t,
• Demons possess objects in people’s houses such as pictures and closets and believers must throw these items out of the house when directed by this group,
• That speaking in tongues is required to have the Holy Spirit,
• and even that the ceramic frogs in the Pastor’s front yard are demonic.

A few in leadership positions make an effort to force Pastor Henry to bend to their control and change his approach.   They want a more Pentecostal Church.   They do not want the concept of Liberty and Grace taught any longer and they want to control the teachings that Pastor Henry has brought to our Church.   In reality, they want to return to their comfort zone of bondages, rituals, and traditions that didn’t work before and couldn’t work now.   The reason is they are unbiblical.  Still they want to return to them.

During a meeting called by these Elders in an attempt to take control of the Church and oust Pastor Henry, he rejects their attempt to redirect the Church and its vision. He tells them, “You have been called by God, not to determine the vision, but to fulfill the vision.”  Pastor Henry declares, “You must choose the path you will take, but understand that while there are some things I can change, changing the vision of Glad Tidings is not one of them.   You have to make a choice to buy into the vision of this Church or to leave.”   He dissolves the Board determined to find Godly men and women of vision to fill the positions of leadership.   It is a dark time of struggle.

June 8, 2003

Pastor Henry spends two weeks reading the Harry Potter series.   He then spends time searching the Bible for guidance.  He finds it.   As a result, he preaches his famous “BLACK SUNDAY” sermon in which he refutes the unbiblical claim by those who say that watching Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or reading Harry Potter is sinful.  He stands against the attempt by some to bring bondage into the Church through false teachings.  He refocuses the Church on the Word of God and the New Testament teaching of Liberty and Grace and declares that Glad Tidings is and will always remain a Church of Liberty and Grace.   This day is called “BLACK SUNDAY” because Pastor Henry stood against darkness and ignorance.  It was a dark time for the Church, but Glad Tidings came out a better and more vibrant Church because of it.

Glad Tidings lost over 60 people the day Pastor Henry preached truth, but the Church was again at peace and continued to grow.  An even greater result was that those who chose to stay, stayed for the right reasons.  As a result, the vision of Glad Tidings became their vision.  We have recovered from that period and the Church is stronger, more united, more at peace, more excited about the future, and more determined to fulfill our vision even though we are fewer in numbers.  Another result was that Gary and Marsha felt the call into ministry and Pastor Gary became a full-time Associate Pastor of Glad Tidings.

October 2, 2005

Overcoming “Black Sunday” was not instantaneous.   It had taken time to recover, but we have. Now, Glad Tidings must make another move due to limited space.  We have outgrown our old facility and must begin the process of trying to build our own.   During the transition, Glad Tidings will meet at Noble Middle School to allow for continued growth.

December 2007

Due to the downturn in the economy and the recession that hit the nation and is still felt today, we were unable to build our own facility.  We are disappointed, but we will continue to do what God called us to do.  Thankfully, we find a facility that meets school and Church building codes.  We enter into a five year lease so that we can open our Christian Academy called the Academy of Excellence.  We start with 7 students.  During this time, we experience the problem of having several families leaving our Church to attend the new large Church recently started in Wilmington.   This places great financial stress on the Church since they had pledge to support our move to the new location.  Regardless, we move forward and stay true to the vision of God.

Today – We have discovered how wonderful our members are.  They are strong and steadfast in their support.  We are growing stronger with several new members and the Academy of Excellence now has 27 students.  God is Good.  We are now committed to reaching out to the Un-Churched community around us and grow our Church with renewed focus and energy.  Come join us in our walk of faith and the excitement of a new future.
wilmington nc, wilmington, wrightsville beach nc, carolina beach nc, leland nc, hampstead nc, 28401, 28403, 28405, 28409, 28412, 28428, 28451, uncw, unc wilmington

Glad Tidings Community Church

Phone Number       (910) 343-3321

R. Henry Carroll – Senior Pastor                  henry.carroll@ymail.com

Teresa Carroll – Worship Pastor               teresa.carroll@ymail.com

Dawn Donato - Counseling Pastor