Random Ramblings Of A Church Gatherer

Live Like The Wise: Think Much About Death

2012-07-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

Been thinking on-and-off all day about the shooting in Aurora. Very sickened and sad about the whole thing. This kind of stuff is way too common nowadays.

Our life is so short, even if you live a long life.

We have to live life fully, but also wisely because how we live matters now and in the next life. I came across this verse while preparing for Sunday...

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 (NLT)
A wise person thinks much about death, while the fool thinks only about having a good time now.

Let's all live like the wise and not like a fool.

I Blame Eve

2012-04-23T09:41:00.001-07:00

My wife's 3rd book came out this month on April 1st. (No joke!)

Even though it's her third book, it's still fun to see it unfold.

Here's an interview she did recently....

And here are 25 blogs who have reviewed it so far... http://tiredsupergirl.blogspot.com/2012/04/check-out-i-blame-eve-blog-tour.html If you want to see more reviews of it on Amazon you can go here.

Amazing Friday: It Is Finished

2012-04-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

John Stott, in “The Contemporary Christian” tells this story…

”Not long before she died in 1988, in a moment of surprising candor in television, Marghanita Laski, one of our best-known secular humanists and novelists, said, "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."

Forgiveness is something we all crave whether we believe in God or not!

In, Today in the Word a famous psychiatrist is quoted on the topic of forgiveness and he said this…

Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day!

Good Friday is a day to remember when Jesus gave us hope by speaking the most incredible "last words" as he hung there on the cross.

The apostle John reveals these words, as one of the few who stood at the foot of the cross that first “Good Friday”. He says this in John 19:30...

When Jesus had tasted it, he said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

The words that give us hope are “It is finished!” Why?

For those sins that have been hanging over your head... It is finished.
For the shame from your past or current sins… It is finished.
For the debt of punishment you owed for your sin… It is finished!

Someone once said this about forgiveness, “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”

That day when Jesus said, “It is finished,” our possibility of our future changed forever. Our future in this life and the next.

Take time to look at your sin today. Take time to remember the price that was paid, so that it could be finished in your life.

In God's eyes, the issue of sin has been taken care of. He was the one who set the requirement to pay for sin and he's the one who fulfilled the requirement.

***Now our only requirement is to believe what Jesus did, receive it as payment for our sins, and live with and for Him.**

Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV) says...

"13When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."

There's now no condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)! If you have chosen to be "in Him", then it's finished.

That's why today isn't just "Good Friday", it's "Amazing Friday"!

Truth In The Movies Series - Movie: Soul Surfer - Can Bad Things That Happen In My LIfe Really Be Used For Good?

2011-09-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the audio of the talk I gave last night about the movie "Soul Surfer".
It's answers the question: Can Bad Things That Happen In My LIfe Really Be Used For Good?

In this talk you'll hear:

-The story of the day I got kidnapped
-My story of a flight I was on that had emergency landing in the middle of a snow storm and how it caused me to discover a way God uses bad for good
-An amazing prison-break story from the Bible that leads to a surprising conclusion
-How surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her arm in a shark attack and ended up seeing so much good from it that she wouldn't change it - even if she could
-4 ways that God can use bad things for good in your life

Click the link and then click the headphones icon to listen to it online or click the down arrow to download it and listen to it offline:
Content Management System by Ekklesia360

"Truth In The Movies" series: MOVIE: “127 Hours” - Topic: What are you willing to do to be free?

2011-09-19T21:56:00.000-07:00

The talk I gave to our church yesterday on the movie "127 Hours."
TOPIC: " What are you willing to do to be free?"

It wasn't recorded, so I don't have an audio link to post.

INSTEAD you can read my unedited, probably grammatically incorrect word-for-word notes. :) http://pathwaypaloalto.blogspot.com/2011/09/truth-in-movies-series-movie-127-hours.html

What Do You Have? The Unexpected Answer You've Been Looking For...

2011-05-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

I'm reading through the Old Testament for devotions and I'm in 2 Kings right now.

A few days ago I read 2 Kings chapter 4 and had an interesting thought that is important for many of us who are needing and wanting help from God.

A Widow In Need
It's the story of a widow of one of the prophets who is being harassed by creditors, because she can't pay what's owed. It's gotten so bad they've threatened to take her two sons and make them bondservants to pay off the debt. (This was a common practice back then.)

She comes to Elisha to tell him her problem, because her husband was a fellow prophet and friend of Elisha's.

Elisha is puzzled about how he can help her and thinking out loud he says, "How can I help you? What do you have at your house?" She tells him, "I don't have anything except for a small flask of oil." (This was special oil she was probably saving to be used to anoint her body when she died, as was the custom.)

And that was all that Elisha needed to hear.
He came up with a very strange plan for her to try.

He told her, "Go around and ask all your neighbors if you can borrow their empty jars. And ask for as many as you can." Then he said, "After that, go back to your house with your sons and close the door. Pour the oil you have in that flask into the other jars and when a jar is full, set it aside and fill the next one."

She went off and did exactly what he told her to do.

As she began filling the jars something miraculous happened. She filled the first jar and still had more left! She set it aside and asked her sons for another. She filled that one too and still had more oil in the flask, so her sons handed her another one.

This kept happening over and over until finally she asked for another jar and her sons told her there were none left! At that exact moment the oil in the flask stopped flowing.

She went back to Elisha and told him everything that happened. I imagine he smiled and then said, "Take all that oil and sell it. You'll have enough to pay off your debts. You and your sons can live off of what's left."

A Pattern To How God Works
When I got to that part of the story this thought hit me...

Many times when we're asking for God's help and looking for an answer, we usually look "out there" for the answer. We're expecting God to create some answer out of thin air.

And he can do that. But that doesn't seem to be the pattern of how he works.

The pattern seems to be this: he starts with what we have.

What did God ask Moses? "What's that in your hand?" And Moses said, "A staff..." God used that staff to perform the miracles that eventually were used to set the Israelites free.

When Jesus needed to feed the multitude he asked the disciples what? He asked them what they had. And he used that small amount of fish and loaves to feed the whole crowd. They even had extra left!

Is it just me?

Or doesn't it seem like God likes to use what we have and use that to help us to do beyond what we ever imagined could be done.

What if our normal habit of looking and expecting "out there" is the wrong?

That reminds me of a story Russel Conwell is famous for telling.

In case you don't know, Russel was a famous baptist minister, lawyer, writer, and communicator. He was the founder and first president of Temple University in Pennsylvania. His famous story was called, "An Acre Of Diamonds."

An Acre Of Diamonds
This is a story of a man in ancient Persia named Al Hafed. Al Hafed owned a very large farm with orchards, grain fields and gardens.

He was a contented and wealthy man -- contented because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented.

One day a Buddhist priest visited the old farmer and sat down by Al Hafed's fire. He told that him how this world of ours was made. Then he told him about how diamonds were made.

And the old priest told Al Hafed a story that would change his life forever.

He told Al Hafed that if he had a handful of diamonds he could purchase a whole country, and with a mine of diamonds he could place his children upon thrones through the influence of their great wealth.

Conwell describes how Al Hafed reacted to this...

“Al Hafed heard all about diamonds and how much they were worth, and went to his bed that night a poor man -- not that he had lost anything, but poor because he was discontented and discontented because he thought he was poor.

He said: "I want a mine of diamonds!" So he lay awake all night, and early in the morning sought out the priest.”

He woke up that priest out of his dreams and said to him, "Will you tell me where I can find diamonds?" The priest said, "Diamonds? What do you want with diamonds?"

"I want to be immensely rich," said Al Hafed, "but I don't know where to go."

"Well," said the priest, "if you will find a river that runs over white sand between high mountains, in those sands you will always see diamonds."

"Do you really believe that there is such a river?" said, Al Hafed. "Plenty of them, plenty of them; all you have to do is just go and find them, then you have them," said the priest.

Al Hafed said, "I will go."

So he sold his farm, collected his money at interest, left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search of diamonds.

He began at the Mountains of the Moon.

Afterwards he went around into Palestine, then wandered on into Europe, and at last, wandered on into Spain.

At last, when his money was all spent, and he was in rags, wretchedness and poverty, he stood on the shore of that bay in Barcelona, Spain.

When a massive wave came rolling in through the Pillars of Hercules the poor, afflicted, suffering man couldn't resist the awful temptation to throw himself into that incoming tide. He sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this life again.

The Surprising Discovery
But something happened after Al Hafed died... It happened to Al Hafed's successor, the man who bought his land from him.

One day he led his camel out into the garden to drink, and as that camel put its nose down into the clear water of the garden brook something surprising happened.

Al Hafed's successor noticed a curious flash of light from the sands of the shallow stream.

He reached down into the stream and pulled out a black stone having an eye of light that reflected all the colors of the rainbow. He took that curious pebble into the house and left it on the mantel, then went on his way and forgot all about it.

A few days after that, this same old priest who told Al Hafed how diamonds were made, came in to visit his successor.

When he saw that flash of light from the mantel he rushed up and said, "Here is a diamond -- here is a diamond!”

Then asked, “Has Al Hafed returned?"

"No, no. Al Hafed has not returned and that is not a diamond; that is nothing but a stone; we found it right out here in our garden."

But the old priest disagreed. He said, "I know a diamond when I see it. That is a diamond!"

Then together they rushed to the garden and stirred up the white sands with their fingers and found even more diamonds.

They found ones that were more beautiful, more valuable diamonds than the first.

And, according to Conwell, what they discovered was the diamond mines of Golconda - one the most magnificent diamond mines in all the history of mankind.

What Do You Have?
God is too creative and cool to box him in and say he has to always start with what you have. He doesn't. But there seems to be a pattern that goes against our natural first inclination to look and wait for something from the outside.

Maybe the first thing we need to do, and the first place we need to start, is with what we have.

What do you have? Really?

What talents do you have

What knowledge do you have?

What experience do you have?

What relationships do you have?

What possessions do you have?

What else do you have?

In your search for the answer you've been looking for, why don't you ask God where and what he wants you to start with?

Start here first and see what God reveals and does.
If he wants to be creative and do something by using something "out there" he'll reveal it to you.

But if he wants to use his familiar pattern, then you will see him use your talent, or knowledge, or experience in ways beyond your expectation to provide for your needs!

This will save you from waiting and looking for the answer "out there" when God is asking you, "What do you have?"

Will The World End On May 21st At 6pm?

2011-05-21T10:57:00.001-07:00

If you haven't heard a man named Harold Camping has said that based on his biblical calculations the world is going to end on May 21st at 6pm.

He has purchased billboards around the country and has gotten a lot of media attention.

Because of this fact, I thought I should write a note to share with our church (http://www.ExperiencePathway.com/) and my Facebook friends about this prediction, so here we go:

1. Do I believe the world is going to end at 6pm?

No. I won't go into details, but I've read his reasoning and I think he is misinterpreting and misapplying scripture. But...

2. Do I believe that ONE DAY the world will end?

Yes. If kingdoms can end (think Rome), then a whole world can come to an end. It’s only logical. This planet once didn’t exist. It had a beginning and that means that one day it will have an ending. That’s not a crazy idea.

In fact, I don’t think there are even any scientists who would argue that this world will one day end. Did you know?...

Scientists Created A "Doomsday Clock"

In 2007, scientists were worried about the threat of Global Warming and Nuclear War in what they called “second nuclear age." Because of this, in 2007, they moved the "Doomsday clock" forward two minutes, so it was set to 5 minutes to midnight.

(This clock was introduced in 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to determine the threat of a nuclear holocaust during the Cold War.)

One quote from Stephen Hawking hit me...“As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change.”

(What you also might not know is that the hands of the "Doomsday Clock" was moved again in 2010. Why? Factors influencing the last Doomsday Clock change include international negotiations on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, expansion of civilian nuclear power, the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, and climate change.)

Think about this… Scientists, are wise enough to pay attention to the signs and we need to be wise too.

But does that mean it will happen on May 21st? No. It doesn't. I'll explain why with this story...

What Jesus Told The Disciples About Knowing When The End Would Come

It's an incident in Matthew 24:1-42 that happened towards the end of Jesus’ life and ministry. It’s an event that began with a simple walk, that Jesus and his disciples took, and it ended with them sitting on the mountainside riveted to Jesus’ every word, as he revealed to them about the end of Jerusalem.

It would be a day they would never forget.

They left the temple and were walking away from it when his disciples came up to Jesus to call his attention to its buildings. (They were caught up and impressed by it all.) They kept walking with Jesus, bragging about the temple, and Jesus shocked them with this statement in verse 2...

"Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." This had to be totally unimaginable to them.

The temple was the center of their society. But he not only told them that, he went on to tell them that Jerusalem would be destroyed and that the world would one day end.

(NOTE: Their temple and Jerusalem were both later destroyed, just as he said.)

They couldn't believe what they were hearing, so they asked him, "When will the temple be destroyed? What will the signs of the end of this world be?"

He told them about some of the signs and many other things, but the one main thing that applies to knowing whether the world will end on May 21st is found in verse 36.

Jesus told them, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. "

Did you catch that?

Who did Jesus say knows when the end would be?

Did he say the Mayans would? No.
Did he say Nostradamus would know? No!
Did he say Harold Camping would know?

Nope. What did he say? NO ONE will know the exact day or the hour, except God!

There WILL be signs for us to notice and pick up, so we can know that the end is near, but we’ll NEVER know an exact date/time.

We need to stop listening to the people who say they know when the world will end. As soon as they've say it, they prove they're wrong because NO ONE will know! (I think Harold Camping is sincere, but wrong.)

BUT we need to realize this… Jesus said the end will come subtly.

If people aren't looking or don’t know some of the signs, then Jesus says they will miss out on the signs and they’ll still be doing their thing: feasting, partying, and marrying. And once it’s finally time for the end, then it will come suddenly. It will come quickly.

So what can we do?

Jesus gives us the key piece of advice in verse 42 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. The only thing we can do is keep watch, so we won’t be caught totally off guard and surprise when the end comes.

The Bible does NOT say the world is going to end on May 21st at 6pm! That’s not true. But don’t get me wrong. It could end this year, or this month, or even today.

We don’t know EXACTLY when the end will come. We just know that it will come. Our job is just to pay attention and keep watch, so we can be ready.

We Could See Our OWN End Before THE End

If you don't believe the world is going to end for biblical reason (or even scientific reasons), then that's fine. But we all need to admit the one fact that we all try and pretend is not true: one day our lives will end.

And for most of us the end of our lives will come suddenly and not when we expect it. It will not be something we have time to do something about just before it happens.

We need to live our lives always remembering that they will one day end. It's one of the few guarantees in life.

I don't tell you this to be morbid. Knowing that the world will end, or that our lives will one day end, is a good thing for us – even if we don’t know the exact times. Why?

It can help us to be patient and it helps us to prioritize.

Not only that it helps us to appreciate what we have, appreciate the here and now, and helps us to plan ahead for when this is all over.

Lessons From Those Near The End

When you speak to someone who has lived a long life what do they tell you? They tell you how fast life goes. They tell you that good times and bad BOTH will come. They tell you to appreciate what you have because it will all be gone before you know it.

They don't tell you this to scare you. Right? It’s to help you! That’s what this knowledge is supposed to do for us. Knowing there will be an end and that we don’t know when exactly its coming should affect how we live for today and for the rest of 2011.

We need to watch and be alert.

We need to remember that all that seems so important and consuming in this life will one day be gone. As we set your goals for 2011, dream big dreams, accomplish big things, because one day this will be over.

Let’s love our family and friends more. Let’s stop worrying and stressing out over things that don’t really matter, because one day we won’t have this life or this world anymore.

Let’s invest in the things that last and will matter when this is all over: God’s kingdom and our relationship with God. These things will help us to do well in 2011 and helps us to be prepared for the end – whenever it comes!

One last idea...

Live Like The World Is Going To End At 6pm

Maybe being prepared for the world to end today at 6pm might not be such a bad idea. It might cause us to live today better, live it more fully, and live it focused on things that last and mean something in the end.

And when we're given another day to live on May 22nd, we can wake up thankful and ready to live another day like it was our last. And so on. And so on. Until the one day it really is our last.

My Experiment: A Virtual Online-Only "Good Friday" Event

2011-04-22T17:27:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about doing an online, interactive event for awhile, using a webinar-type website, but have never gotten used to it.

Well, I decided "Good Friday" would be a good time to try it, since we don't own a building and can't do a Friday day or night service.

I used a website called WizIQ.com. It's pretty cool.

It allows me to:

have up to 500 people in one virtual classroom.
record the teaching.
allow people to interact by text, audio, and/or video.
Use power point, PDF, Word, etc. files to show while I speak, so people have visuals.
Show websites online if I need/want to.

The Results Of My Experiment
I did it today from 12pm-12:30pm and it went really well. I got a lot of positive feedback from the people that were on the live event.

During The Event I Shared These Things:

The person who I think had the greatest faith in the whole Bible
The often overlooked words that this man said and why they prove to me his incredible faith
What Jesus said to this man
Why this person's story is good news to us today

The recording is now available.
After you click the link below, then click the organish-yellow "view recording" button to watch the recording.

You can watch/listen or share with friends...

Click here to watch the recording of my "Good Friday" event!

NOTE: On the recording, I talk for a few minutes and stall while people were joining in, so if you want, you can fast forward to about 6-7 min. mark to where I actually begin.

Did You Know That King David Was Once Almost KILLED By Another "Giant"?

2011-04-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

I don't remember ever reading this story in the Bible, but I know I must have.

Did you know that King David was actually almost killed by a different "Giant" later in his life? Don't believe me? :) It's in 2 Samuel 21:15-22.

The Philistines were at war with the Israelites again.

David and his "mighty men" went out to fight them. When they were in the thick of battle David became weak and exhausted.

The giant man's name was Ishbi-benob and he was a descendant of the giants. His bronze spearhead weighted more than 7 lbs and he was armed with a new sword.

He had cornered David and was about to kill him when suddenly Abishai, son of Zeruiah, came to David's rescue and killed the giant.

(After that incident, David's men decided David wasn't going into battle anymore. They didn't want to risk him being killed and snuffing out "the light of Israel.")

The part that was REALLY interesting to me was in verses 18-22...

David's men were able to kill other descendants of the giants. One killed Goliath's brother (or another guy named Goliath). They even killed a giant man with 6 fingers and 6 toes!

What this story shows me is this:

It was OBVIOUSLY God that helped David kill Goliath the first time and not David's skill.
It shows me that an area that we succeed in at one point in our lives can later on become an area that defeats us.
It shows me that we need others to protect and save us when we're weak and tired.
It shows that once one person steps out in faith to do something big for God it opens the door for others to believe and be used in the same way (like the guy who first ran the four minute mile and now a lot of people have accomplished it).
Killing a giant, when David had first done it, was unheard of. After he did it, it was accomplished 4 more times (at least that we know of from this passage).
You and I have a choice: we can be the first to step out in faith and accomplish something big for God OR we can get encouragement from what others have done to do the same!
Either of these choices is ok or good. Doing neither of these is not so good. :)

What have you stopped noticing?

2011-03-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

In a book I recently read called, “Unthinking: The surprising forces behind what we buy” the internationally acclaimed marketer Harry Beckwith shares a story about what I'd call "negative familiarity" that we as pastors need to take to heart.

He says...

“One evening on Friday, January 26, 1968, Jeff Greendorfer and his college roommate arrived at his roommate’s home on a cliff on the northern Oregon coast. It was Jeff’s first visit to Oregon’s coast, but he knew the Pacific Ocean well, having grown up minutes from it in San Francisco. To give Jeff the full benefit of his visit, the hosts assigned him the green room, from which he was able to look out its floor-to-ceiling window and see thirty miles out to sea.

"That night was Jeff’s last in the room.

"The next morning at breakfast, Jeff apologized to the three hosts. He felt grateful for being given the room with the best view in the house but couldn’t sleep there again. “The waves sound so loud, they kind of scare me.

“Jeff’s announcement startled his hosts. They’d lived alongside the ocean for decades, so the ocean sounded different to them: it did not sound at all.

“Jeff’s hosts had experience what psychologists call “perceptual adaptation”: they’d adapted to what they heard to the point they no longer heard it….

“Jeff’s hosts no longer noticed the crash of the waves on the rocks below."

Then Beckwith gets to the part that applies to what we’re talking about today…

“Familiarity breeds numbness. This is why we often struggle in marriage. Each partner becomes habituated; we notice less, which causes us to appreciate less. This also explains why receiving a gift at an unexpected time makes us smile for several days, but a birthday gift – being expected – usually touches us less.

“We love what is familiar, and then we don’t. Familiarity eventually breeds fatigue, but until that occurs, we crave what is familiar and recoil at what is not…”

What does this have to do with us as pastors? How can we apply this with our churches?

Here's how...

Negative familiarity doesn't just apply to marriages. It applies in all areas of life. We become blind and numb to the things that are always around us. This has negative and positive applications for our churches:

What problems have you gone blind to in your church?
What weaknesses have you gone blind to?
What people have you stopped appreciating?
What voices have you stopped hearing?
What gifts have you stopped recognizing that your church has?
What opportunities are you blind to that God has put before you and your church?
What ministry needs/opportunities are in your community that you can't see?
What have you stopped being thankful for?

We should pray and ask God to help us see and feel anew all of the good, the bad, the opportunities, and needs that are in front of us so we can do something about them!

There's More Than Meets The Eye...

2010-09-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

I spoke this talk first to our church and then shared it the following week at another church. I got a lot of really positive response both times I shared it.

The talk is called, "There's More Than Meets The Eye". Here are some of the things I shared:

How our eyes actually LIMIT us in life.
How living by faith is the only way for us to see God to amazing things in our lives.
How successful people throughout history have lived their lives beyond what they could see and that enabled them to succeed.
How if we really look at things the way they are, then living by faith is the only way we can really live for God.

You can watch the talk below...

What's God's Will For Your Life? Are You Looking For A Map Or A Guide?

2010-08-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

I read that Elizabeth Elliot (wikipedia link about her if you don't know who she is) told a story in one of her books about two adventurers who stopped by to see her, all loaded with equipment for the rain forest east of the Andes.

They didn't ask her for any advice, just a few phrases to converse with the Indians.

She writes: "Sometimes we come to God as the two adventurers came to me -- confident and, we think, well-informed and well equipped. But has it occurred to us that with all our accumulation of stuff, something is missing?

She says that we often ask God for too little.
We think we know what we need--a yes or no answer, please, to a simple question.

Or maybe a road sign. We just want something quick and easy to point the way.

"What we really ought to have is the Guide himself. Maps, road signs, a few useful phrases are things, but infinitely better is someone who has been there before and knows the way."

There are specific things in life that God wants us to do.
He has a specific direction he wants us to take.

The question is: How do we seek God to find out what he wants?

Sometimes the way doesn't seem clear. Sometimes we can't seem to figure out which way is the right way to go, because all the ways seem good or they all seem bad.

This Sunday, I'm going to share "10 Steps To Help U Discover God's Will".

These aren't "10 road signs" that give you what you need to know - without the need to seek God. These are 10 things I've done personally in my life to help me seek God and figure out from him what my "next step" should be.

If we have time at the end, I'll give people who are there, and who want to, a chance to share any things you've learned personally about discovering God's will.

If you'd like to come be with us, our church gathering is 4:30pm-6pm this Sunday, August 8, 2010.

Check out our website for more info!

*If you know of anyone you think would be interested, then please share the link to this post. (You can use the share buttons below, if you'd like.)

The Secret To Becoming A Person Of Impact And Influence

2010-07-26T00:37:00.000-07:00

Things haven't gone quite the way I planned in the last few days.
One of the unexpected things happened on Friday.

I was heading out with a group of guys to go a local "Nickel Arcade" (where the have a whole bunch of old school arcade games mixed with newer ones all for extremely low cost), when my car suddenly overheated and stalled out.

It was gushing white smoke out from under the hood as my two friends pushed it through the intersection into the parking lot of our destination.

It took most of Saturday for me to round up and wait for two of my friends who are great mechanics (unlike me) to drive the 30 minute drive to where my car was and help me get the car fixed and back to my house! :)

But today I thought I'd share with you a story that reveals an important lesson on becoming a person of impact & influence.

It's a story I read about British statesman and financier Cecil Rhodes.

He is the one whose fortune was used to endow the world-famous Rhodes Scholarships.

People said that he was a real stickler for correct dress--but not at the expense of someone else's feelings.

A young man was invited to dine with Rhodes and he arrived late by train, so he had to go directly to Rhodes's home in his travel-stained clothes.

Once he got there was appalled to find the other guests were already there and they were wearing their full evening dress.

After what seemed a long time, Rhodes finally appeared.

But what was shocking to this young man and to the other guests is that Rhodes was dressed in a shabby old blue suit.

Later on, the young man found out that Rhodes had been dressed in his formal evening clothes, but he changed out of them and put on the old suit when he heard of his young guest's awkward dilemma.

How much influence and impact do you think that had on that young man?

I'd bet the young man never forgot what happened that night!
I bet he told everyone he knew about it. (In fact, I wonder if that's how we know the story today.)
I bet he would do anything he could to help Rhodes from that day forward.
I bet he would take any advice Rhodes ever gave him and bend over backwards to return the favor!

Do you want to know the "secret" to impact and influence?

It's empathy! Putting yourself in the other person's shoes and letting them see you know what it's like to be in their position. It's then interacting with them and treating them based on that understanding.

But it HAS to be real. It can't be fake. If it is, you'll lose any chance of impact and influence with that person and others.

When it's real. You'll have become a person of influence and impact, because you'll be a person that people can genuinely trust.

Isn't empathy the underlying principle of "the golden rule"?
Isn't a lack of empathy one of the biggest reasons for strife and trouble between people?

We all want to have an impact and influence in this world.

And the "secret" to actually experiencing this starts with thinking of others first and responding to them out of that understanding.

If you liked this post, please share it with others you think would like it!

Click one of the buttons below - next to "posted by Scott Aughtmon" - to easily share it right now.

You Are God's PRIMARY Means & Method For Accomplishing His Work On This Planet

2010-07-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

I share a talk recently with our church about a new/different way of thinking of the "body of Christ".

I called my talk, "You Are God's PRIMARY Means & Method For Accomplishing His Work On This Planet".

I started the talk out by saying...

I have a story I want to tell you today. And if you listen carefully you might catch some similarities to something you’ve seen, heard or even experienced before…

"On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude, little life-saving station.

"The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat. But the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea.

"And with no thought for themselves, they went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.

Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted

to become associated with the station and give their time, money and effort for the

support of its work.

"New boats were bought and new crews were trained. The little life-saving station grew.

"Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place
should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.

"They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building.

"Now, the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as a
sort of club.

"Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life saving missions, so they hired a life-boat crew to do this work.

"The life-saving motif still prevailed in this
club’s decoration, and there was a symbolic life-boat in the room where the club
initiations were held.

"About this time a large ship wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some
of them looked different than the club members. The beautiful new club was in chaos.

"The property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where the victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership.

"Most of the members
wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities because they were unpleasant and a
hindrance to the normal social life of the club.

"Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station.

But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their
own life-saving station down the coast. They did.

"As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old one. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded.

"History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit the seacoast today, you will find a whole bunch of exclusive clubs along that shore.

"Shipwrecks happen all the time in those waters, but most of the people drown."

Think about how sad this story is!

A life-saving station becomes a club. And the saddest thing about this story is that it describes what happens to some churches!

They lose their purpose and go from being a life-saving group to a social club.

That has to be one of the greatest sins we can make as Christ-followers. I don’t want
that to ever happen to our church. But if we’re not careful it can happen to us!

For the next 2 Sundays, we’ll be doing a new series called, “Your Great Purpose On This Planet And How To Fulfill It”.

In this series, I want us to take a new look at what the Bible means when it calls the church “The body of Christ”.

As we go through this series, we’ll discover what our great purpose on this planet is – both individually and as a church – and you’ll discover how to fulfill your purpose!

Today, in this first talk, we’re going to begin by looking at God’s Primary Means And Method For Accomplishing His Work.

Click below to read the whole talk...

"You Are God's PRIMARY Means & Method For Accomplishing His Work On This Planet"

Too Many For God To Get Credit

2010-03-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Many times pastors and churches think it's their great numbers or ingenious methods that help them succeed.

So many of us believe this that we buy the books and go to the conferences to learn how to grow and implement these same ingenious methods.

Don't get me wrong. I love reading and going to conferences, but maybe the success that other pastors/churches have experienced ISN'T from the numbers or their amazing methods.

I read Judges 7 recently and it seemed to reveal the same thing.

It's the story of Gideon defeating the Midianites. I love this story because Gideon has 32,000 men he convinced to come and fight with him. That must've taken a lot of work.

And what does God do?

God tell him in verse 2 that he has "too many men for me to deliver Midian into your hands." God tells him that if he uses all 32,000, then Israel will think they did it in their own strength.

He tells Gideon to let anyone who's scared go home, so Gideon does. And 22,000 leave. Gideon is left with 10,000.

But God tells Gideon he STILL has too many men!

God tells Gideon to take them down to the water and he will tell Gideon which ones he can use.

300 of the men lapped the water with their hands to their mouths and all the rest got down on their knees to drink.

God tells Gideon to only use the 300 to fight.

The funny thing is that some people try and figure out, based on the drinking styles, what made the 300 better to choose over the other ones. But isn't that exactly NOT the point?

I don't think the 300 really had a better drinking style that made them superior fighters.

In fact, maybe they were the worst fighters to choose. That way God would get ALL of the credit!

The 300 take all of the gear from the others and make camp with Gideon.

God wakes up Gideon in the middle of the night and tells him to go take the Midianites. But he tells Gideon that if he's scared, that he can go sneak down near the camp with his servant - because what he hears there will encourage him.

What I love here is that God knows Gideon's character.
He's naturally afraid/fearful. Remember God found him hiding in a wine press! Because God knows all of this, he helps give him courage!

They go to the camp and hear a dream that one of the Midianites had and they hear the interpretation - that it means God had given the the Midianites to Gideon to defeat.

This gives Gideon courage.

He goes back to camp and breaks his men into 3 groups of 100. He gives them pots and trumpets. He tells them to blow their trumpets and break their pots (that had torches inside) all at the same time - at his command.

When they did this THE LORD caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords and flee!

Now can you imagine Gideon writing a book or teaching at a conference "The Best Technique And Amount Of Warriors To Defeat Your Enemy" and giving them the advice to have only 300 men with trumpets and pots (with torches in them)?

It wasn't the number of people that defeated the Midianites.
It wasn't the technique that they used.

In fact, the amount of people Gideon had and his technique - without God in it and with him - were the dumbest things to do!

It wouldn't work again for him or for anyone else!

It only worked because God was in the plan and God set up the circumstances for success.

If we want to have success as pastors/churches we need to learn from other's but we need to seek God for the strategy and plans that he wants us to implement.

The strategies and plans that are from God uniquely for us. The ones that he wants to use to maximize the circumstances he's set up.

That way God gets the credit. Not the numbers. Not the techniques... God.

He is the "x factor" to all pastors/churches who see success.

A book I'm interested in reading that talks about the "under the surface" reasons why churches succeed is called "Church In The Making". It's by Ben Arment.

In the book he looks at the unique situations and "behind the scenes" reasons why some church plants have succeeded or failed.

You can check out a whole series of blog posts he's done on some of these churches over on his blog. Go here.

"The Real Secret To Great Success" OR "The Only Way The Weakest Person From The Weakest Tribe Becomes A Hero..."

2010-03-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

I'm reading through the book of Judges and came across the story of Gideon.

In Judges 6, I love that God picks this guy who's a chicken hiding in a winepress and threshing wheat because he's scared.

I love that the angel addresses him not by who he is, but who he can be. (v. 12 "Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!")

In verse 15, after the angel tells him God wants to use him to save the Israelites, Gideon says, "How can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!"

The Lord's answer? v.16 "I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting one man." And that's exactly what happened!

When God is with us, then all of my abilities don't matter - only his do! It changes the whole formula.

Us alone = We can only do what we are able to do and achieve what our abilities can achieve.
Us with God = We can do what God wants us to do, all he enables us to. We can be used beyond our abilities and greatest goals/dreams.

If God is with us, then the weakest of us, from the weakest clan, can be used to do things we could never imagine!

That's the real secret to great success.

Life Management: 5th Gift Pt. 2 - Final of this blog series...

2010-03-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been posting this “Life Management” series here on this blog. It's some ideas I've taught on in the past, but I'm posting them here as a way to remind myself of these important truths.

This is the basic theme of this blog series...

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given.

Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For this blog series, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with.

I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

So far (see posts below), I've talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at how this amazing gift is the building block of all we do in life.

I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only have 1440 minutes given to everyday.
If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes.
You can never get more.

The only way to make more time is by managing it better.

How we manage our time becomes our worship to God. It makes Time Management a holy thing! :)

We saw that the second gift God has given us to manage is Health! (See Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, and Pt. 4)

We looked at the third gift that God has given us to manage which is Wealth! (See Pt. 1, Pt. 2. Pt. 3)

We then looked at the 4th gift: Relationships. (See below)

Yesterday, we began looking at the fifth and final gift. Today we will take one last look at this gift and finish out this blog series.

TODAY

Growth Comes Action

Growth can only happen from use! Muscle, skill, etc… Playing it safe doesn’t help in the end, because you don’t end up with your talent or spiritual gift – you end up with nothing! Your talents and gifts were given to be USED for this life, not to be held onto until the next life!

I want to take a minute and talk to people here who already know you have spiritual gifts and talents. I want to talk to people that are already using their spiritual gifts and talents. I want to encourage you to do something: Go Bigger!

Why should it only be people in business or in science or other fields - that aim high? Donald Trump doesn’t go for just the million dollar deals – he aims for the multi-million dollar ones! Scientists aren’t just trying to help people get better – they’re looking for the cure for cancer or the cure for AIDS!

If you’ve been using your spiritual gifts and talents already, then good! That’s better than some people. But don’t settle for that! Go bigger! Set BIGGER goals for what you can do and be for God! Ask God for a bigger vision!

Here’s what I also want to challenge you to do this…

Use your passions to change the world! That’s what Jesus did with a small group of fishermen! Remember?

Matt 4:18-22

Jesus is walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee and he sees these two guys he’s met before. (He met them when John the Baptist pointed out Jesus and said, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”)

He sees Andrew and Peter fishing, which is what they did for a living. He called out to them and says, “Come be my disciples and I will show you how to fish for people.”

I won’t you to notice some things. Jesus is picking two guys who have common interests:

They’re fisherman! It’s their passion!
Not only that, they’re brothers.

They have a huge amount of things in common just because of these two facts!

And when he calls them out he use the language of their common interest. He says, “Come be my disciples and I will show you how to fish for people.” Or some translations translate it, “I will make you fishers of men.”

In a way, he’s saying I will teach how to use your interest, what you’re passionate about (fishing), and then use it gather up people.

Back to the story…v. 21-22…

Right away, Simon and Andrew leave their nets and follow Jesus. As they go a little further up the shore with Jesus they see two more brothers: James and John. They’re also fisherman and they’re sitting in a boat mending their nets with their father Zebedee. Jesus calls out to them and tell them to follow him too. And they do! They leave their father with the hired help.

James and John know Simon and Andrew. In Luke 5, we find out that they fished together as partners in the fishing business. That means that these guys (James & John) had the common interest of being fisherman and they also knew Simon and Andrew well. Plus, they were also brothers!

Do you see how Jesus is strategically choosing people that already have connections?

Jesus knew that people with the same interests and passions already have a natural connection and even use the same language. He knew that if they were connected around a Common interest(s) that they could them use those interests to change themselves and the world!

Use Your Passions To Do These 4 Things:

Connect: Get to know other people who have the same passions, grow in friendship and trust. We all need these types of friends!

Grow: Grow together with these people in your knowledge of God, his word and in your relationship with him

Reach out: Reach out to other people who have the same common interests, but who just might not know Jesus and invite them to hang out with your group.

Minister: Use your common interests to directly or indirectly minister to others. (People that are a part of our church or the community) Builders can use their passion to help a needy person.

Close/Close series:

God has given you (you already have) spiritual gifts and talents! They’re the material and tools God given you to make something out of in your life! Without them you can’t be or do what we were created for! But we have to use them! We have to manage them and use them to help others, build God’s kingdom, and reach our destiny! Go big with your gifts and talents – aim high!

Those are the 5 gifts I wanted to look at. I hope I’ve inspired you to be a better manager! How you manage these 5 gifts (these 5 raw materials of life) from God: Time, Health, Money, Relationships and Talents/Gifts will have a HUGE effect on what you accomplish in life and what you become.

There are other gifts that God’s given us, but these are the major ones! To succeed in life we have to be successful managers and take care of what God’s given us. Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your these gifts or cherish them?

We need to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help us. We need to regularly focus on each of these different areas and do a check up to see how we’re doing. We need friends to keep us accountable in these area.

Life Management: 4 Gift Pt. 2

2010-03-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

I've been posting this “Life Management” series here on this blog. It's some ideas I've taught on in the past, but I'm posting them here as a way to remind myself of these important truths.

This is the basic theme of this blog series...

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given.

Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For this blog series, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with.

I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

So far (see posts below), I've talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at how this amazing gift is the building block of all we do in life.

I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only have 1440 minutes given to everyday.
If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes.
You can never get more.

The only way to make more time is by managing it better.

How we manage our time becomes our worship to God. It makes Time Management a holy thing! :)

We saw that the second gift God has given us to manage is Health! (See Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, and Pt. 4)

We looked at the third gift that God has given us to manage which is Wealth! (See Pt. 1, Pt. 2. Pt. 3)

Yesterday, we began taking a look at the 4th gift: Relationships. (See below)

TODAY

I want to remind us today about some of the benefits God's given us in the gift of relationships and try to inspire us all to cherish and manage this gift more!

1. God gave us relationships for influence.

We’re like chameleons. We become like the people we hang around. God created us in a way that we influence others and they influence us. The people we hang out with the most have the most influence on us!

Proverbs 22:24 gives us an example of this. Listen to what it says, “24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, 25 or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”

If you hang around someone who gets angry easily you will too!

In the book “The Power Of Focus” one of the co-author’s, Jack Canfield, tells what his mentor taught him about this idea…

“One of the first things my mentor, W. Clement Stone, suggested I do was to make a list of my friends. Then he directed me to put the letter “N” next to each person who nourished me and encouraged me to be great – people who were positive, optimistic, solution-oriented and had a can-do attitude. Next, he asked me to pit the letter “T” beside every person who was toxic – people who were negative, whined, complained, put down other people and their dreams, and who were generally pessimistic in their outlook. Then he asked me to stop spending time with the people who had a “T” next to their names. This is one lesson you must learn – surround yourself with positive people. Mr. Stone taught me that you become like the people you hang out with. If you want to be successful, you must hang out with successful people.”

You want to do well in school? You want to be more productive at work? You want to be a better Christ-follower?

Find a friend like this!!

Think about this...

Each relationship you have has a give and receive factor. Some relationships are more one way or the other. You need both types of relationships!

If you only have relationships that you give to, you'll feel drained.
If you only have relationships that you receive from, but none that you can give to, you won't grow.

Why?

Because we grow when we give/teach someone else! If you don’t have any relationships where you can give/help/teach the other peoples, you won't feel fulfilled!

We need both of these types of friendships!

I want to encourage everybody here to: find a mentor and be a mentor.

It can be an official mentorship where you ask someone to be your mentor or you look for someone to mentor OR it could be an informal thing where you've prayed and asked God to help you pick friends that can help you grow and to show you friends who you can help grow!

This is really important spiritually, but it's also important to have people like this in any and every area of life you can!

Watch how you grow when you find someone to mentor you. Watch how you grow even more when you start mentoring someone else!

One of the commandments Jesus gave in Matthew 28 is “go into all the world and make disciples...”

Start to pray that God would give you someone to disciple and that he'd give you someone to disciple you! This is a prayer God WANTS to answer in your life!

2. God's given us relationships to protect us.

I've told you this before we ALL need someone to speak the truth to us (encouragement and warnings) and someone we can speak truth to (confess).

Here are two verses in Proverbs that show us the friend speaking truth to us part that we need...

Prov. 27:6
“Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.”

Prov. 27:9
“The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. 10Never abandon a friend—either yours or your father's. Then in your time of need, you won't have to ask your relatives for assistance. It is better to go to a neighbor than to a relative who lives far away.”

See, the speaking truth to us part, can and should be encouragement sometimes and warnings at other times!

We need friends to speak the truth in both these ways! Encouragement keeps us going and warnings protect us!

Who’s your friend who does this for you? If you don’t have one, then pray and ask God to give you someone like this!

In the book of James, Jesus’ brother tells us about the part about needing someone to speak the truth to us. He says this in James 5:16… “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

We NEED people we can confess to so that we can heal and move on in life!

Daniel Goleman in his book “Social Intelligence” says it like this…

“Simply reviewing something painful from the past with someone who helps us see a different perspective… can gradually loosen some of the distress by recoding disturbing memories. This may be one reason for the relief that can come when client and therapist rehash troubles: the talk itself may alter the way the brain registers what’s wrong!”

These are all things I've talked to you about before, but it's good for you and me to be reminded about these things!

I want to take the rest of the time today and talk about the most important and influential relationships God has given us...

Our relationships with our families! These relationships can be some of the best and/or the worst relationships we have!

3. Our families (Parents, Sibling, Spouse, Kids) are the foundation God’s given us in life.

God gave us families for love, support, strength, encouragement, help, etc.

He cares how we treat them!

The Bible is filled with advice to obey your parents, love and respect your spouse, love your children, how to raise your kids,..

Have you ever thought of the POWER there is in a family?

· There’s no other group that knows you as intimately – the real you.

· There’s no one you can call “yours” like you can your family.

· There’s no one else you can love like your own father, mother, brother, sister or your own child.

· There’s no other person who can teach you like a parent can.

· There’s no one else you’ll probably influence as much (for bad or good) than your own kid.

· There’s no other person who can love you/hurt you like a family member can.

If you had a bad family, here’s the good news: God gives you 2 ways to make your own family!

1. God gives us the ability with a spouse you create a new family unit.
You are your family's chance to change the direction for your descendants – to redeem them!

If you had a bad family, upbringing, think about this...

What if you were given to your family as a GIFT to change the future of your family line? What if you were given to given your family line another chance at following God?

2. The other way to make a family of your own is through your friendships. Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Either way you look at, your our family (your birth family, new created family, or "family" friends) is your foundation. They’re your cheering section.

They are your future - literally. Jack, Will and Addison will be alive way after I’m gone! They are who/what I leave behind to influence this world.

We need to invest time in these relationships! We need to reinforce our foundations!

Zig Ziglar said this about relationships with our families…

"The evidence is convincing that the better our relationships are at home, the more effective we are in our careers. If we're having difficulty with a loved one, that difficulty will be translated into reduced performance on the job. In studying the millionaires in America (U.S. News and World Report), a picture of the "typical" millionaire is an individual who has worked eight to ten hours a day for thirty years and is still married to his or her high school or college sweetheart. A New York executive search firm, in a study of 1365 corporate vice presidents, discovered that 87% were still married to their one and only spouse and that 92% were raised in two-parent families. The evidence is overwhelming that the family is the strength and foundation of society. Strengthen your family ties and you'll enhance your opportunity to succeed."

Friendships and families really are God’s gifts to us!

We need to invest more time with them. We need to invest more time in talking with them, listening to them, laughing with them, encouraging them, forgiving them and praying for them.

“Success guru” Brian Tracy says this in his book “Focal Point” says it like this “Happiness in life, in large measure, comes from good relationships with other people – in your family and your personal life as well as at your work.”

Later he says… “You owe it to yourself to become a relationship expert.”

We need to invest time in our relationships.

We need to give and serve our friends and family. They’re our greatest assets. They gift us emotional strength and encouragement.

You don’t want to run the race of life and win and realize you have no one to celebrate with!

Next, we’ll look at the last gift that God has given us to manage as we finish this series.

Life Management: 4th Gift Pt. 1

2010-03-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

TODAY

I want to start with a story today that Max Lucado tells in his book, In the Eye of the Storm …

Clovis Chappell, a minister from a century back, used to tell the story of two paddleboats. They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail's pace of the other. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made. And the race began. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South.

One boat began falling behind. Not enough fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship's cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. They ended up winning the race, but burned their cargo.

God has entrusted cargo to us, too: children, spouses, friends. Our job is to do our part in seeing that this cargo reaches its destination. Yet when the program takes priority over people, people often suffer. How much cargo do we sacrifice in order to achieve the number one slot? How many people never reach the destination because of the aggressiveness of a competitive captain?

It's so easy in the race of life to focus so much on trying to achieve and win that we forget what's really important in our lives!

Many of us don't realize the gifts that God's given us in the people he's put in our lives.

When we get to the end of our lives we're not going to wish we owned more things or had more power or fame or got more degrees!

On your deathbed, none of these things are going matter anymore!

What will matter? You're going to wish you had more relationships and that you would've treasured and invested more in the ones you had!

The fourth gift that God has given us to manage in life is relationships.

God’s given us relationships to help us. If you think about it, relationships are the real currency of life! Relationships matter to God! Think about how much of the Bible is about why/how to interact with people!

Here's just some of what God's word tells us...

"Do for others what you would like them to do for you."
Matthew 7:12

"Stop judging others, and you will not be judged."
Matthew 7:1 (Jesus of Nazareth)

"And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?"
Matthew 7:3 (Jesus of Nazareth)

"Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don't be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate."
Luke 6:25-26 (Jesus of Nazareth)

This book teaches us to treasure people – to treasure our relationships!

It's a manual on successful human relationships!

I want you to realize something...

We were created for relationships! Daniel Goleman the author of the books “Emotional Intelligence” and “Primal Leadership” came out with a book called “Social Intelligence”. I've been reading it and it reveals some pretty amazing things about the science of relationships!

One thing he says is that our minds are wired to connect! They are designed to connect with others! Listen to what he says...

“…our nervous systems are ‘constructed to be captured by the nervous systems of others, so that we can experience others as if from within their skin. At such moments we resonate with their experience, and they with ours. We can no longer… see our minds as so independent, separate and isolated, but instead we must view them as “permeable,” continually interacting as though joined by an invisible link.”

One of our core beliefs as a church is that you need two connections to succeed and reach your full potential: a connection (relationship) with God and a connection with others.

If you don't have BOTH of these connections, then you won't be able to reach your full potential!

It's obvious that without a connection to God you can't reach your full potential, but even with a connection to God, but not a connection to others you still can't become all that God created you to be!

When it was just God and Adam in the Garden of Eden, God said, “It's not good for man to be alone.” People were created for us to have relationship with, as a gift because relationships are a good thing. They’re what we need!!

Learning how to manage and grow in our relationships is one of the most important things we can do.

Dale Carnegie in his classic book “How To Win Friends And Influence People” said…

“Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are a business man. Yes, and that is also true if you are a housewife, architect, or engineer.”

A little later he gives the results from a Carnegie Institute Of Technology study that revealed..

“…even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one’s financial success is due to one’s technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering – to personality and the ability to lead people.”

Learning how to handle relationships with others in one of the most important skills we can have!

I want to remind us today about some of the benefits God's given us in the gift of relationships and try to inspire us all to cherish and manage this gift more!

I'll show you the first thing I want you to see about relationships when I continue tomorrow...

P.S. I've been really bad a staying up with posting on this series. My other blogs, tweets, sermons, etc. have taken too much of my time. I will post the 3 posts of the series over the next 3 days and they'll I'll be back to posting about things God is teaching me from church planting, life, etc.

Life Management: 3rd Gift Pt. 3

2010-01-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

I've been posting this “Life Management” series here on this blog. It's some ideas I've taught on in the past, but I'm posting them here as a way to remind myself of these important truths.

This is the basic theme of this blog series...

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given.

Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For this blog series, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with.

I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

So far (see posts below), I've talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at how this amazing gift is the building block of all we do in life.

I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only have 1440 minutes given to everyday.
If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes.
You can never get more.

The only way to make more time is by managing it better.

How we manage our time becomes our worship to God. It makes Time Management a holy thing! :)

We saw that the second gift God has given us to manage is Health! (See Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, and Pt. 4)

And in my last two posts we looked at the third gift that God has given us to manage which is Wealth! (See Pt. 1 and Pt. 2)

TODAY

This is the third and last way I'm going to show us how to manage our money the right way today. And this last way is the THE major way to PROTECT and INSULATE yourself from the danger of wealth/money...

The third way to manage your money is to Give It Away/Share it!

Giving money keeps God “god” and keeps money from becoming your “god”!

John Piper in his book “What Jesus Demands From The World” says it like this…

“So the reason money is so crucial for Jesus is that across all cultures and all ages it represents the alternative to God as the treasure of our hearts, and therefore the object of our worship. It becomes the great threat to our obedience to the first and last of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3), and “You shall not covet” (Exod. 20:17). Money represents all the other material things and securities and pleasures that it can buy. Therefore, it represents the great alternative to God in our hearts. This is why what we do with our money is so crucial to Jesus.”

I want to give you some tips about giving today from what the Apostle Paul gives us in 2 Corinthians 9:6-14…

6Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully. 8And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9As the Scriptures say, "Godly people give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will never be forgotten." F29

10For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

11Yes, you will be enriched so that you can give even more generously. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will break out in thanksgiving to God. 12So two good things will happen—the needs of the Christians in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanksgiving to God. 13You will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. For your generosity to them will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. 14And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the wonderful grace of God shown through you.

Let's look at some of these tips:

Giving is always to God, not a church or pastor.
V.13-14 13 says You will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. For your generosity to them will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. "

Giving is a form of worship. It’s form of thanksgiving, a form of obedience.

You’re giving it to GOD to be used by a church or ministry. You’re NOT just giving to them.

There are two main areas the God says we should focus our giving on: poor/needy and ministry.

Give to as many ministries as you can, but you should first make sure give to God by giving to the local body of believers you are a part of!

Why?

That’s where God has planted you. It’s where you’re being fed spiritually. It will bless the church you are a part of, so it blesses the people you know. It helps your church to be able minister more effectively to the area where God’s put you!

The next giving tip is...

Giving should be planned.
V. 7 says, "You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give…”

Gene Getz said…

"When money is available because we've planned our giving, it becomes a joyful experience to share it with others. We've not only prepared our hearts for that moment, but we've prepared our hearts in a broader way ahead of time, because we've arranged our giving together with our overall financial plans. In other words, we've prepared a budget.

"Conversely, when we don't plan our giving, we usually don't have money to give. Many of us tend to allow our standard of living to rise to our present level of income. Then, when we're asked to give (either regularly to meet the ongoing needs of the ministry or through special gifts for special needs), we respond reluctantly. This is understandable, since we've already spent our excess funds on our own needs and desires or laid aside that excess for our future benefit.

"Under such circumstances, negative emotions are predictable. Often we not only have no excess to give to God's work, but we're worried that we won't even have enough money to meet what we believe are our own needs. Yet, as with the Corinthians, this problem often is not God's but ours – the result of not becoming systematic planners and givers."

That's why w should plan our giving ahead of time!

How much will you give to God to be used for your church this month? How much will you give to Missions (reaching people here and in other countries)?

Most of us don’t carry cash, so we won’t have anything to give if we don’t plan it out!

The next tip is...

Give with happiness.
Paul says in V. 7 “Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully."

Don’t give cause you have to. Give because you want to! God doesn’t want your offering if you don’t want to give it!

The next tip...

Give a Tithe.
“Tithe” means 10%. In the Old Testament under the old covenant it was required. But the New Testament doesn’t mention it, so some people think it doesn’t apply anymore. (The funny thing is that the N.T. shows examples of some who gave way more than 10%, but that’s another story!)

I give my tithe NOT because I have to but because I want to! I give my tithe out of FAITH because I believe God’s given me all I have! I give it out of WORSHIP and THANKSGIVING for what he’s given me!

I do it to remind myself and show God I believe he’s going to KEEP providing for me!

This is one of the few areas where God tells us to test him!

Malachi 3:10-12 says "10Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD Almighty, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! 11Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. F6 Your grapes will not shrivel before they are ripe," says the LORD Almighty. 12"Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight," says the LORD Almighty.

If you think about it the tithing is an amazing offer.

God’s saying, "I’ll give you everything, just give me back 10%." If you do, I’ll bless you even MORE!!!

It’s a SMART plan for God to create. It keeps us remembering that He’s our source. It keeps you relying on Him while at the same time it provides for the needs of the local church you’re a part of (v.10 "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple.)

Paula Davis told her story about her business making baby carriers that she started just awhile ago. She said that her sales started to dry up and she couldn't figure out why.

She realized she hadn't been tithing what she was making, so she tithed that Sunday.

That day she got 3 orders!

The sales stopped again and she tithed again and got a sale that day!

Tithing doesn't always work that fast or isn't always connected to seeing a direct blessing of money back.

Don't do it to get something back. Do it, because it's your worship, thanksgiving and faith in God for ALL he's done for you.

I have always tithed since I was a teenager. I don’t even think about it anymore. It's something on auto-pilot. I usually pay it first. It’s a habit.

If you haven’t been doing this, you might not even have the full 10% to give to God – even IF you wanted to!

If you don’t have it, but want to, then here’s my advice…

Start with what you can - maybe 5% or whatever - and make it your goal to work up to 10%.

REMEMBER:
Don’t do it to just to get back, but watch how God keeps his promise and blesses you!

You want to know something else?

This idea of tithing is talked about in a lot of secular success books as the KEY to gaining wealth! (I showed a stack of 4 books I brought.) They call it something like "a universal law of nature" or something like that!

That proves to me it’s a principle that works! Try it and see!

Here's the last tip on giving...

God will bless you when you give!
You’ll be rewarded now and in the next life. This is the way to store up treasures in heaven! Think of it as building up your Spiritual Assets column!

Jesus said it like this in Luke 6:37-38...
“Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down and overflowing… With the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

This is another thing I say a lot because I want it to lock in your and my minds…

God is looking for givers to give to! He’s looking for people to bless who will share the blessing with others and give it to be used to see God’s work that needs to be done here and around the world.

W. Graham Scroggie says something that I think we really need to think about…

“There are two ways in which a Christian may view his money--'How much of my money shall I use for God?' or 'How much of God's money shall I use for myself?'"

Money/wealth is a powerful gift.

You can use this power (money) for good or evil. You can use it to hurt or heal. You can use it to help yourself or others.

If you have enough of it you can do amazing things that can have eternal results!

Managing your money in ways to please God is done by managing our money in the rights ways we looked at today: not wasting it, growing it and giving it!

How can you keep from loving money is by holding it loosely. Be generous to God and others. Don’t look to it for security, but only to God the provider!

When you do you’re money will grow and bless you and others in ways you wouldn’t believe!

Life Management: 3rd Gift Pt. 2

2010-01-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

I've been posting this “Life Management” series here on this blog. It's some ideas I've taught on in the past, but I'm posting them here as a way to remind myself of these important truths.

This is the basic theme of this blog series...

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given.

Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For this blog series, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with.

I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

So far (see posts below), I've talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at how this amazing gift is the building block of all we do in life.

I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only have 1440 minutes given to everyday.
If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes.
You can never get more.

The only way to make more time is by managing it better.

How we manage our time becomes our worship to God. It makes Time Management a holy thing! :)

We saw that the second gift God has given us to manage is Health! (See Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, and Pt. 4)

And in my last post we started to look at the third gift that God has given us to manage which is Wealth! (See Pt. 1)

TODAY:
In the last post, I ended by telling you that God cares about how we handle our money. I told you ... How we handle worldly wealth, is in some ways, practice for the “true riches” that come from God!

I told you that today I'd show 3 ways that can help us manage our money in the right way. Here we go...

The first way to manage our money the right is...

1. Don’t waste it!

How can we do that?

Make and Keep Budget – This helps you know how much you have and where it's going. It’s obvious, but I bet you most wealthy people do this and most poor people don’t! In order to not waste our money we have to control it and track it!

Save Some Of What You Make – In Genesis 41, Joseph is released from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. Joseph tells Pharaoh that the dreams mean that there will be 7 years of great prosperity and then 7 years of famine – a famine so bad that the prosperity will be gone and people will forget about those 7 good years!

The Pharaoh asked Joseph what to do. Listen to Joseph’s advice in verses 33-36…

33"My suggestion is that you find the wisest man in Egypt and put him in charge of a nationwide program. 34Let Pharaoh appoint officials over the land, and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. 35Have them gather all the food and grain of these good years into the royal storehouses, and store it away so there will be food in the cities. 36That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come. Otherwise disaster will surely strike the land, and all the people will die."

Joseph told them to save some of what they brought in!

He was telling them to live out the advice God’s word gives us in Proverbs 21:20,"The wise man saves for the future but the foolish man spends whatever he gets."

The Pharaoh not only took the advice, but put Joseph in charge! And look at what happened in Genesis 41:53-57…

53At last the seven years of plenty came to an end. 54Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There were crop failures in all the surrounding countries, too, but in Egypt there was plenty of grain in the storehouses. 55Throughout the land of Egypt the people began to starve. They pleaded with Pharaoh for food, and he told them, "Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you." 56So with severe famine everywhere in the land, Joseph opened up the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians. 57And people from surrounding lands also came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe throughout the world.

I’m not a prophet. I can’t interpret your dreams, but I can tell you this…

There are going to be times of prosperity in your life and times of famine! The one way to survive those times of famine is to do what Joseph told Pharaoh to do. Save some of everything thing you make!

Don’t Use Credit Cards If You Can - If you have to use them, pay them off at the end of each month. Prov. 22:7 says, "Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.”

When I was youth pastor in Burlingame I wasn’t getting paid enough to live in this area and we went into debt! That's one of the reasons we went back East, so we could live with my in-laws for free and recover financially. (*Living on the Peninsula, this is a hard one to resist! This is one of the areas I need to reign in so we don't ever get into a really bad place again.)

How To Get Out Of Debt. I heard this idea from a financial planner...

1. Find an extra $50 a month you currently are wasting somewhere. Cut out Starbucks twice a week and bring lunch to school/work and you'll easily find and extra $50!

2. Take that $50 and every month add it to the payment your making on your smallest credit card bill. Example: Let's say your smallest bill was $1200 and you were paying $50 a month on it. Take that extra $50 and now pay $100 towards that bill!

3. When you pay that bill off take that payment you were making and add it to your next smallest credit card bill. Example: Let's say your next smallest bill was $2400 and you have been paying $100 every month on it. Take the $100 you were paying to the $1200 bill you just paid off and add it to this payment! Now you're paying $200 a month on your $2400 bill.

4. Keep repeating the process and when you pay off that bill take that amount and add it your next smallest bill then do the same with the next until you're out of debt!!

The cool thing about this idea is that you only had to find that extra $50. After that you were only taking money you were already paying towards your debt.

Do whatever you can to get out of debt, so you don’t have to waste your money on all that interest you’re paying!

Those are some ways to help you stop wasting your money, but managing our wealth is more than just not wasting our money! I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it…

Most of us know how to subtract money, but hardly any of us know how to multiply it!

Most of us have spent money we don’t have but how many of us can MAKE money without using any money to do it? How many of us have the skills to take money you’re given and GROW it?

The next step to help us manage our money the right way is...

2. Grow it!
I want you to see some charts from the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki that I think will help us to know how to grow our money more…

His definition of an asset and a liability...

Assets = Puts money in your pocket
Liability = Takes money out of your pocket

Poor Cash Flow = Don’t own anything, so they have no liabilities. All money come in from job and out for expenses.

Middle Class Cash Flow = Money comes in from job and it goes to cover liabilities and expenses. He says that the Middle class has a problem: they spend money on liabilities they think are assets!

Rich Cash Flow = The rich focus on buying assets that keep putting more money in their pockets!

He shows...

Middle Class Person’s Income Statement =
Income and Expense are equal. Their liabilities are more than their assets. Whenever income goes up they spend more on expenses or liabilities. That leaves them with no money to buy any Assets!

Rich Person’s Income Statement =
Income is more than their expense. Their assets are more than their liabilities. They spend more money on Assets so their asset column is always growing!

If we’re going to be wise managers of what God’s given us, then we should invest more in assets! We should reproduce the money God’s given us and not just spend it!

We also need to see more of the opportunities that are all around us.

Have you ever noticed what a person who comes here from another country does? They seize the opportunities. Many of them do that by starting their own business.

We need to not only learn how to reproduce the money we have, but also how to make money from our hidden assets!

In Cracking The Millionaire Code by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen talk about how to uncover your hidden assets...

What do you know that people would pay you to teach them?
Your life experience is worth money to someone.
Your problems could be worth money.
Find a solution to your problems and teach others to do it and you can make money.

There are ton of other ways you can read and study about on your own on how to make money.

My story:
Talk about my Recession ebook. I got 38 top business and marketing experts to write two books for ME from an idea I read in an ebook.

When you grow you’re money you’re managing it in a way that is pleasing to God.
Let me explain why I believe this...

If I gave you $1,000 to help you out and you took $300 and paid off some debt, $200 and got some things you needed (but usually couldn’t afford), and then invested the last $500 in something that paid you $100 a month for the next 2 years I’d be really happy!

I’d be way happier than if you just spent it all and wasted it on a big screen TV, going to the movies, and dinners out!

God wants you to grow the wealth he gives you!

But, here’s the key…
He doesn’t want you to just have more money to keep it all to yourself!

Jesus tells a parable of a man that gained more wealth through a grain field he had and then built bigger storehouses to hold it all!

Jesus said he was foolish because he didn’t know he life was going to end that night!

The next step to help us manage our money the right way will actually help protect and insulate us from the dangers on money!

Continued in my next post coming next week...

All I Need Is Jesus And Good Pair Of Jeans" In 3rd Printing!

2010-01-13T12:21:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post this here because you or your wife, mother, sister, or female student friends might be interested in this...

My wife just celebrated the 1-year anniversary of the release of her first book, "All I Need Is Jesus And Good Pair Of Jeans".

We just found out today that it's now in it's 3rd printing, which is really good news!

The book has really seemed to hit a nerve with women of all ages. We've heard from college girls to young Moms - even women in later years of life - doing study groups using the book.

What I think is cool about the book (besides the fact my wife wrote it) is that she uses funny stories that get people to laugh and then uses those to point to the truth of God's word.

If you think your wife, Mom, sister would want it - or want to do a study with girls/ladies in your church, then you can see more about it on Amazon. You can see the reviews there and even read a sample chapter. You can see about it on Amazon here.

There is a free group study on my wife's site that can be used with her book to easily lead a study. You can get the group study on her site here.

P.S. She has a second book coming out in March called, "My Bangs Look Good And Other Lies I Tell Myself".
P.P.S. My wife has a pretty funny blog that you can pass on to any females you know too. It's here.

Life Management: 3rd Gift Pt. 1

2010-01-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

I've been posting this “Life Management” series here on this blog. It's some ideas I've taught on in the past, but I'm posting them here as a way to remind myself of these important truths.

This is the basic theme of this blog series...

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given.

Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For this blog series, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with.

I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

So far (see posts below), I've talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at how this amazing gift is the building block of all we do in life.

I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only have 1440 minutes given to everyday.
If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes.
You can never get more.

The only way to make more time is by managing it better.

How we manage our time becomes our worship to God. It makes Time Management a holy thing! :)

We saw that the second gift God has given us to manage is Health! (See Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, and Pt. 4)

TODAY:
I want to start today by talking about unseen dangers. These are the little-known dangers that are around us, all the time. You can look just where you live and find them!

Did you know…

Household dryers can be dangerous? Dryers cause more than 15,000 house fires every year.
Toothpaste is poisonous?
If you shallow too much of it can actually kill you!

There are dangers like this from everyday items that we use all the time. I saw something funny online when I typed in “warning labels” on Google…

These are labels from the Fourth Annual M-LAW Wacky Warning Label Contest…

On Shin pads
"Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover."

On a toilet
"Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking."

MY FAVORITE label On A Jet ski
"Warning: Riders of personal watercraft may suffer injury due to forceful injection of water into body cavities either by falling into the water or while mounting the craft."

WINNER -
HEAT GUN THAT WARNS: “DO NOT USE AS HAIRDRYER”!

The scary thing to me about these is that they had to put these warnings out because someone tried to DO there things!!

The gift we’re going to look at today is another amazing gift that can do a lot of good in our lives and others lives, but there also is a major danger comes with it.

It’s a danger that most of us don’t even think about, but it’s serious! It has the power to ultimately destroy our lives!

Today we’re going to look at the 3rd gift that God’s given us to manage and that gift is Wealth.

This gift has one major danger.

It’s the danger that we’ll begin to seek this gift MORE than the gift giver – that we’ll love and rely on it more than God! The danger is that we’ll look to it as the source of our provision, instead of God.

Jesus warns us in Luke 16:13 - "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

So, the question is…

How can we protect ourselves from the danger of this gift?

The first way is to remember that God is the ultimate source of whatever amount of wealth we have!

Some of you might think, “Wait a minute! God didn’t give me my wealth! I worked for it!” That might be partially true, but God gave you the ability to gain wealth.

In Deut. 8:18, Moses told the Israelites not to forget, after God brought them into the promised land and blessed them, that He was their ultimate source! He said in verse 18... "Always remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill the covenant he made with your ancestors…”

When we forget the REAL source of our wealth we forget who to thank and who we really owe!

I told you this story before, from Mark Batterson, about a conversation between a self-made millionaire and his pastor, but I want you to hear it again…

The self-made millionaire told his pastor, "I started out with nothing. My parents were broke and didn't give me a thing. I put myself through school. And from the time I was a kid till now, nobody's ever given me anything."

The pastor asked, "You did it all by yourself?" The man said, "That's right." The pastored asked, "And nobody's ever given you a thing?" The man replied, "Not a thing."

”Well, let me ask you this," said the pastor. "Who gave you life? Who gave you your marvelous brain, your talents, your natural abilities? Who changed your diapers and put food on your table as a child? Who taught you how to read and write? Who spent hours, weeks, and years educating you?"

The pastor continued, "Who gave you your first job? Who mentored you in business? Who lent you money to start your own business? Who raised a little girl and nutured her into a woman who could give you herself, her love, and your children?"

Still the pastor questioned him, "Who buys your products? Who takes care of your customers and manages your offices?" Who gave you your health? Who cleans your home, your office buildings, and the toilets?"

The pastor finished by saying, "If you can still look me in the eye and tell me you've done it all by yourself and that nobody has ever given you anything, then my last question is: Who has blinded your eyes and given you such a foolish, arrogant, and ungrateful heart?"

The self-made millionaire was silent for a few minutes. It was one of those eureka moments. Then he said, "What do I have that I haven't been given?"

This self-made millionaire started a letter writing campaign. He wrote to everyone who had influenced his life and said, "Thank you!"

This man's name is John Marks Templton and he said in his autobiography, "For more than 30 years my family sent Thanksgiving cards, rather than Christmas cards to our friends, desiring to spread our gratitude for the many gifts of life."

We need to always remember that we got where we are today because of other people’s help!

Ultimately, we owe all that we have and all that we are to God!

Remembering He’s our source and thanking him regularly is one way to protect and insulate ourselves against the dangers of wealth.

We’ll look at some more ways to protect ourselves later, but first I want you to understand that God has given you the wealth you have, and because of that, He wants you to manage it in the best way you can!

If we manage it the right way it can bless us, bless others and bring glory to God. If we don’t, it can be a curse to you and your offspring!

I want you to understand that God cares not just about you giving your money, but also about you growing your money and not wasting it!

If you come to be with a church you EXPECT me to warn you about the dangers of money. You expect me to talk about sharing/giving your money, which I will, but first I want to talk to you about how to grow it and not waste it!

If we’re going to use our money in ways that please God we have to know how to handle it better! Listen to how Jesus ends this parable in Luke 16:10-12…

10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

God cares about how we handle our money!

How we handle worldly wealth, is in some ways, practice for the “true riches” that come from God!

That’s why I want to show you 3 ways that can help us manage our money the right way.

Let’s look at the first way…

Continued in next upcoming post on Thursday, January 14th.

The Key To A NEW Year In 2010?

2010-01-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about this...

There is one key thing that will help us really experience a NEW year in 2010.

If we do this thing, then we'll experience new things – see new results. If we DON’T do this thing, then we''ll experience the same or less than you did last year.

Are you ready to hear what it is? The key to experiencing a new year is: repentance!

But I don’t want you to think of repentance ONLY in the usual way.

*Instead…Think of repentance as method – a technique – for releasing change in your life.

This one method can be used in any and every area of your life and it will have the same result: newness!

These are the choices we have in front of us as we begin 2010:

* You can choose to be greater than you are (>)
* You can to be less than you are (<)
* Or you can choose to be the same (=)

Only ONE of these choices is really a good one. The rest of them aren’t.

It’s obvious that choosing “less than” is bad, but choosing to be the same is you as you were last year isn’t much better than choosing to be less than.

Choosing to be the same is to choose stagnation. It’s the easy choice, but it’s a bad one. In fact, staying the same is usually is what happens by accident or default.

2010 will be one of these things for us: >, <, or =.
The question is… Which set of these choices will we choose?

Some of what you experience this year and some of the results you get this year will be out of your control.

But a lot of what you experience and the results you get will be TIED into this choice you make: to repent or not to repent.

When Jesus started his ministry he began going around teaching this one thing. Look at what he says in Mark 1:15. This is how the NIV translation words it…

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

You have to stop doing something and start doing something else to really experience change.
You have to turn from something and turn to something for change to begin.

Plain and simple it means this…

Repentance = healing and growth = a new life
No repentance = more pain and lack of growth = same old same old

There's some background you need to know about this verse so you can get the most out of it…

Jesus began his ministry when John the Baptist ended his ministry. And that happened when John was put into prison.

When Jesus said, “The time has come.” He was talking about a new era that began as he started his ministry which would ultimately lead to the center point of all history: his death and resurrection.

The next thing that Jesus says is, “The kingdom of God is near.” The questions this gets people asking is… “Is he talking about a kingdom that’s NOW or a Kingdom later? What does the phrase mean?”

Bruce Metzger says…

"The kingdom of God in its essence is the reign of God, the personal relationship between the sovereign God and the individual. Thus there is no point in asking whether the kingdom is present or future, just as there is no point in asking whether the fatherhood of God is present or future. It is both"

So Jesus says “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near.”
And then he says, “Repent and believe the good news.”

Repentance is a U-Turn. It’s turning from the way you were headed to the opposite direction!

If I keep going one direction and don’t turn, which way will I be going tomorrow? If I still don’t turn which way will I be going next week, next month or next year?

What do I need to do to go this way? Turn around.
That’s what repentance is!

But it’s even more than that. Let’s go a little deeper into what repentance means by going to a different source…

Let’s see what John the Baptist had to say about it.

We don’t have a record of much of what John taught and said to the people, but in Luke 3:7-9 we have a glimpse of his words and his speaking style.

The NLT says it this way…

Here is a sample of John's preaching to the crowds that came for baptism..

"You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee God's coming judgment?" (He doesn’t exactly have an easy-going style, huh?)

Listen as he goes on…
“Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God. Don't just say, 'We're safe – we're the descendants of Abraham.' That proves nothing. God can change these stones here into children of Abraham. Even now the ax of God's judgment is poised, ready to sever your roots. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire."

We can learn from John that repentance is something that’s DONE, not just SAID! It’s something that produces results or “fruit” in our life!

Listen to what he says in verses 10-14…

The crowd asked, "What should we do?" John replied, "If you have two coats, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry." Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, "Teacher, what should we do?" "Show your honesty," he replied. "Make sure you collect no more taxes than the Roman government requires you to." "What should we do?" asked some soldiers. John replied, "Don't extort money, and don't accuse people of things you know they didn't do. And be content with your pay."

Repenting means to stop doing the things that are hurting you and others and start doing something else.

John tells each of the groups of people what to stop doing and what to start doing! He has an action for each of them to take.

John Welwood said “The most powerful agent of growth and transformation is something much more basic than any technique: a change of heart.”

There’s something else I want you to see about repentance back in Mark 1:15…

Jesus says, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near.” And then he says, “Repent and BELIEVE the good news.”

This isn’t giving us the order of how repentance happens.
Repentance doesn’t come first and then belief.
It’s impossible!

No person has ever repented before they believed!
It’s just showing that repentance is tied into faith.

If you really want to repent…

You have to believe something new to do something new.
Not only that, but you got to understand this…

Real repentance ISN’T just feeling bad and wanting not to be in trouble anymore. That repentance doesn’t lead to any lasting results!

Real repentance is believing that something is bad so you want to stop doing it, OR it’s believing something else is better, so you want to start doing it instead.

There are two things that can lead us to repent: sadness or gladness.

Saint Augustine said this…“If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.”

We need to stop settling for where we’re at.
We need to become more sad with the areas where we are less than we should be!

Paul said this about sadness that leads to repentance in 2 Cor. 7:10…

"For God can use sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation. We will never regret that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without repentance is the kind that results in death."

The only thing that is going to get some of us to turn from some of the things that are holding us back from all we could be in 2010 is when we face reality of the sadness of our choices!

But an even more powerful incentive to repent comes from gladness… Notice Jesus said, ““Repent and Believe the WHAT news?” The GOOD news!

Jesus is saying...
"The time is here! The kingdom of God is now near, so believe this incredibly good news and do a U-Turn!"

Repentance really is the key to experiencing a new year in 2010:

It can mean to turn away from anything towards something else.
It can mean to stop anything and start something else.
It can mean to let anything die so something else can live.

*Repentance is THE ONLY method – THE ONLY technique – that will release change in your life!

But the question is will we do it? Rubel Shelly tells this story…

When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of England with his well-armed legions, he simultaneously made a bold and decisive move to guarantee the success of his campaign. He marched his men to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover and ordered them to look down at the ships that had brought them across the channel. Every one of them was ablaze! General Caesar had cut off the possibility of a pullback. Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but advance and conquer. And that is precisely what they did.

That’s repentance! What they did showed there was NO turning back!
That’s what some of us need to do this year - “burn the boats”!

We can choose not to repent. We can choose to keep doing what we’ve been doing, heading the same direction we’ve been heading. But, when we choose that, then we choose “less than” or “more of the same” life and results. And why do that?

W. Edwards Deming said, “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

Every great person who ever lived understood this truth…
You’ll never get the DIFFERENT results from doing the SAME things! Repentance is the only way to see a NEW year in 2010!

I don't know about you, but...

I want to be so tired of where I'm at that I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! I want to CRAVE where I could be a year from now so much that you WON’T settle for less!

Review - "Primal: A quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity" by Mark Batterson

2009-12-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

Let me say this up front...

Mark Batterson is a friend of mine and I had the privilege of working on staff with him first as "E-pastor" and later as NCC's first "Church Planter In Residence".

Anyway, I want you to know that this review is not just because Mark is a friend. It's because this book is really good and I want to help spread the word so people can know about it.

If I didn't like that book, I would just not post a review! :)

Ok, now that that's out of the way...

Here's my review:

"Primal: A quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity"
The premise of this book is that we, as Christ-followers, need to get back to basics. When Jesus was asked, "What's the greatest commandment?" He answered, "Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength."

They asked Jesus, "What's the greatest thing we've ever been told we should do?" And he takes them back to square one... "Love God..."

Isn't that our biggest problem when it comes down to it?
A hint that this is a big problem is the fact that God even has to TELL us to love him! :)

Loving God should be a natural, obvious response to an amazing, holy and powerful being who created this world, gave us life, and paid the ultimate price on the cross.

But for many of us we find ourselves loving ourselves, others, and things above our creator!

That's why this book is needed.

"Primal" takes a look at this "Great Commandment" and explores what it means to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Mark breaks his book into four sections based on "The Heart Of Christianity", "The Soul Of Christianity", "The Mind Of Christianity", and "The Strength Of Christianity".

In this book Mark continues to show why I think he's the "king of one-liners." :)

He has a way of filling his books with really deep and important ideas and concepts that he distills into "one-liner" sentences. These are the kind of sentences you want to underline, write down, remember, and/or quote.

I'm about half-way through the book, but here are just a few of the "one-liners" I've underlined:

"I've discovered that when I've lost my way spiritually, the way forward is often backward."
"If you tune out His convicting voice, you won't hear His comforting voice or guiding voice either" (About the Holy Spirit)
"When you give your heart to Christ, Christ gives his heart to you."
"The problem is that we're not great at the Great Commandment."
"Sometimes loving God with all your heart simply means listening to your heart instead of your head."
"One of the turning points of my life came the day I stopped setting income goals and started setting giving goals."
"The most important decisions you make are pre-decisions."
"Is it possible we've studied the God of logic without truly worshiping the God of wonders?"
"...it's also a reminder that what we call natural phenomena are really spiritual phenomena."
Worship is transcendent wonder. Wonder for which there is no limit or measure; that is worship." Ok. I know that was more that ONE line, but he's good at "multiple-liners", too. :)

One thing I like about Mark's writing is that he pulls from a unique range of sources to get us to really see and understand a concept he is trying to explain.

I don't know of many other authors who, when explaining wonder/worship, go from referencing facts about our planet & galaxy (astronomy), Thomas Carlyle (a nineteenth-century Scottish essayist), and Nikola Tesla (one of history's most prodigious inventors) - all within two pages! :)

The book is really good and I've already used a quote from it in an e-class I taught recently. I will be using another quote from it in my sermon for this Sunday.

If you have liked Mark's other books, "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day" and "Wild Goose Chase", then you'll love this book too.

But even if you have never read a book by Mark Batterson...

you'll still want to get this book, because of the unique perspectives it will give you on this core, great commandment - this greatest thing God has told us to do.

I'll be finishing it up this book next week.

It's a good way to finish out 2009 and "reset" my heart, mind, soul, and strength onto THE main task in life.

If this topic sounds like something you need to focus on in your life, then reading this book could be a good way to start out 2010 with the right focus.