Constants You Can Count On #3

I started this series in the early part of last year and never got around to fininshing the list. Its a new year, but our God remains faithful and unchanging, so these constants being grounded in the faith and in God remain unchanging as well.

3. The Holy Spirit will still move.

2 Peter 1:21New King James Version (NKJV)for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.2 Peter 1:20-21 (in Context) 2 Peter 1 (Whole Chapter)New Living Translation (NLT) or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.2 Peter 1:20-21 (in Context) 2 Peter 1 (Whole Chapter)

These verses talk about prophecy and it being spoken as the prophets are being moved by the Holy Spirit and in all cases this is very true. I think all prophecy should be given as directed by the Holy Spirit. But in I don’t believe the Holy Spirit is just going to move in the instances of prophecy. I think the Holy Spirit moves us and in us in various ways. Sometimes it is obvious as is the case of prophecy and wonders like healing, other times it is more subtle like a quiet tugging at the heart to give when we have the ability to, or to help out a friend who needs help, sometimes it is simply just stepping out in faith when we don’t feel like it. The Holy Spirit is constantly moving around us and He will move in us and through us if we will let Him. It is not always in a big and extraordinary way. Sometimes it is the still small whisper we hear compelling us to do something. But in either case big or small we can be assured that the Holy Spirit is still indeed moving.

Healing the Body and the Heart

So often throughout the scriptures we see that Jesus had compassion on people. He allowed them to follow Him, and He ministered to them. He allowed them to interrupt Him, and He heard their needs. He allowed them to touch Him and take what they needed. There were times when He just simply spoke the word and the need (whether it was deliverance, healing, or forgiveness) was met. It wasn't His touch that healed their body or met their physical need or quieted their emotional distress, it was His words. There is so much we can do with our words; we can encourage, we can support, we can correct, we can edify and we can heal with our words. Then again there is only so much that we can do with our words; we can only speak them, they might help someone understand the point we are trying to make but they can never demonstrate the point we are making. If I tell you that I support you or that I forgive you, I might quiet your emotions but there is still something instantaneous lacking in our exchange. But if I say those things to you and then I reach for you and hug you, then I have conveyed physically what I have said verbally. When we take the time to touch we put a physical punctuation mark on our verbal statements. For some that touch is what it takes for them to understand what you have been saying. If I told you I loved you but didn't touch you, would you believe me? If I told you were healed or that I had faith your were healed but wouldn't touch you because you were contagious or had sores, would you believe. Sometimes touch is required for people to finally hear what we have been saying. Touch the untouchable. When we do that we do what our words can't--we heal the heart. When Jesus touched people and took time for people He healed their hearts because oftentimes they were the outcasts of society--the untouchables. Who are the untouchables around you? Are you ready to be His hands, to heal hearts?

Matthew 8:1-3--The leper only wanted the words to heal his body, Jesus said the words, touched him (an untouchable) and He healed his heart too.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Walking Through Philippians

I am reading through the book of Philippians tonight. I have read through this book times before, but tonight there is just so much that is jumping out at. I love how faithful God is. It always seems that I am in a spot in my life where I am crying out for a good word of comfort or direction and He always takes me to His word and gives it to me. I mean I can have read the passage over and over and over again a hundred times before and then read it when He leads me and it is like I am reading it for the first time thinking "I didn't know this is what it said!" He really is faithful to meet me right where I am at.

One of my favorite verses is in the first chapter of Philippians. 1:6 (NLT) "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." I like it in The Message version as well: "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. "

I like the verse in the NLT because it uses the word "finally." The word finally, to me, represents the fact there was a process involved in the undertaking of some task that had to be completed. To me it gives justice to the fact that most processes involve work that sometimes includes struggle. I know that the work that Jesus has begun in me has been a struggle at times, especially when it involved me changing. Change is not an easy thing for me, especially when I had to learn to redo things in my life after I had been decades doing them the wrong way. I had to learn to trust my destiny and life to someone else that I couldn't see. If that doesn't involve struggle then I am not sure what would.

I like the verse in The Message because it has a more celebratory feel to it. It tells of a "flourishing finish" to the work that Jesus has begun in us. When we have accomplished all that we have been called to accomplish, or we have been found faithfully working to accomplish what we have been called to accomplish when Jesus returns we will be greeted with a "flourishing finish" to our work--a celebration for a life time of work that has been successfully completed. I also like this version because it is more definitive in the words it uses to describe the author's certainty of the fact of Jesus' faithfulness to watch over His work in us. "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind..." sounds more secure in the knowledge of a fact than simply "I am certain..." To me the first method of explaining certainty is more emphatic than the second.

Beyond the wording of the verse in the two different versions, it is one of my favorite verses simply for what it says. It says that Jesus has made an investment in our lives, and just like any good investor, He is going to diligently watch the investment to make sure it accomplishes what it is supposed to. His investment is going to achieve the purpose He had planned for it. It is exciting to me to think that Jesus believes in me that much and that He cares about my success in His kingdom enough to personally watch over what I have been called to do. When I stumble He doesn't sell all the shares He has invested in me, but rather He redirects them to get me back on track to make me profitable again.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Steve Harvey In A New Light...

I used to listen to Steve Harvey when he had his morning show on the Beat in LA on the way to work. I was always impressed when he started his show with praise to God for the day and an encouraging word to those who were locked up. I found this video of him and it just brought back those memories. How amazing would it be if Jesus got this kind of ovation everywhere He was talked about?




Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Attitude Adjustment

1 Peter 4:1 "1So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you are willing to suffer for Christ, you have decided to stop sinning. "

I have thought about sacrifice and discipleship together ever since I was touched with the desire to take a discipleship walk with Christ and become a student of His teachings. It only seems logical that sacrifice would become a big part of the discipleship walk because you are undertaking someone else's plans for your life as opposed to your own. Naturally in this situation there are going to be things that you would want to be or do that do not fit in with the lifestyle you have decided to undertake and you will need to sacrifice these things for the sake of remaining true to your decision to become a disciple. When I read this verse this morning something else came alive in me.

I have always known in the back of my mind that discipleship would also entail some sort of suffering. My idea of discipleship has always been of the idea that the decision to become a disciple is self imposed; therefore all the parts of my life that I would need to lay to the side or sacrifice for the sake of remaining faithful to my decision would be my choice as well. I saw that line of thought this morning in a new not so positive light. When I make it my decision to sacrifice something in my life I am in essence still retaining control of my life and not completely resigning that control and decision making ability to the One that I am following. It was almost as if I decided how I was going to suffer on this walk. Christ did not have that attitude when He came to earth to walk among men. He came and did what He was called to do.

We need to have the same attitude that Christ had when He came to suffer for us. His suffering was selfless and love oriented. Peter says that when we take on this attitude we are in essence making two decisions--we are deciding to follow Christ and be led to accomplish what He has called us to do, and secondly we are deciding to stop sinning. Discipleship to Christ is the complete resignation of control of your will for your life so that you can become as Christ-like as possible and move in the direction He has called you to move in to accomplish what He has called you to accomplish. Being willing to suffer along this walk with Christ is adjusting our attitude from being selfish (no longer chasing after the desires of the flesh) to being selfless (being anxious to fulfill the will of God, and not your own, for your life).

Idle Hands...

We have all heard it before..."idle hands are the devil's playground!" When we have nothing to do, or rather when we are doing nothing, then we are more susceptible to doing just anything. What I am trying to say is that we need to be focused on something. If we are not focused then we run the risk of doing anything to keep ourselves busy. When we are not grounded in the word of God or in finding His purpose for our lives then we are in danger in doing something that is not in His will for our lives. We need to strive to do the work that He has called us to and to live the lives that we are ordained by Him to live; otherwise we are just keeping busy and not accomplishing what we we are purposed for. The other way I read that old saying is this: "The devil loves idle hands." he loves them because if they are idle then they are not working against him. They are not furthering God's kingdom and therefore are not working against the kingdom of darkness.

2 Thessalonians 3:6
6And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from any Christian who lives in idleness and does not follow the tradition of hard work we gave you. 7For you know that you ought to follow our example. We were never lazy when we were with you.

Paul tells this church to stay away from the Christians who have become idle and don't follow the tradition of work that they were taught. Being a christian should not be easy--in fact it should be the hardest thing that we have ever done in our lives. It requires us to make the hugest sacrifice we could ever make in our lives; we have been called to lay down our very lives in the advancement of the kingdom of God. Being a disciple of Christ is not something that can be done part time. It is not something that can be done passively or in a group. Being a disciple of Christ is not something that you are sucked into or a title that is automatically given. It is a very personal decision that we have to make on our own. Each of our discipleship walks with Christ is different as we are all called to accomplish different things for the kingdom of God.

The people who sit idle in the pews of the church today are a problem. The lack of activity they demonstrate is a hindrance to what the church has been called to do. Their lack of participation in the kingdom calling is more that the brothers and sisters on the front lines doing the work of God have to pick up. It only makes me wonder if they cannot hear Jesus calling "follow me!" or if they are simply ignoring it. Idleness is contagious. We can catch it by surrounding ourselves by infected people until we simply just become one of them. We can also catch it by working ourselves into weariness and burnout if we focus on those around us who are inflicted with idleness. Paul has it right when he instructs the church, those who are actively pursuing the calling that God has placed on their lives, to just steer clear of the idle.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

The Purpose

I am reading through 1 Timothy today. I have a lot of questions that have been going through my mind lately and it seems that God is answering them one by one. This morning these words popped of the page at me: "The purpose of my instruction is that all the Christians there would be filled with a love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith." (1Timothy 1:5 NLT) This spoke volumes to my spirit. It confirmed in me a need to preach and teach discipleship. My heart hurts for the people that are saved and then allowed to fall by the wayside and fend for themselves in terms of spiritual development. I know that each person that comes to meet my savior is called to a specific purpose in His kingdom and they need some guidance and help find out exactly what that is. Sometimes people get so concerned with increasing the number on the souls-saved-board, that they allow these new converts to get lost in the new life they have just taken on. Our goal should be to help these new brothers and sisters in Christ "be filled with a love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith."

Father let me help advance Your kingdom with a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith in you.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

The 100th Post...MOVE!

It has been kind of rough for me lately emotionally and physically both. If I let it, I think depression could have gotten the best of me these past few days. It is hard sometimes to know you are following God's will for your life and sometimes not see the rewards for the work you are doing. It is hard sometimes to not be as active as you want to be and to feel like you are always in the holding pattern waiting to take off. As I was venting this morning to God, He reminded me of the first sermon that I ever preached.

Gen 13:14-18
"14After Lot was gone, the LORD said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction. 15I am going to give all this land to you and your offspring as a permanent possession. 16And I am going to give you so many descendants that, like dust, they cannot be counted! 17Take a walk in every direction and explore the new possessions I am giving you.” 18Then Abram moved..."

God has given me promises for my life. He has told me specifically what I will be doing. And turn by turn I have followed His directions. Sometimes though when things don't quite seem to be happening fast enough for me, I start to get stagnate and the waiting gets the best of me. I imagine the promises that He gave to Abraham were a little hard to believe at first as well. But God told Abraham to look as far as he could see in every direction and what he saw would be His. In one version Abraham is told to walk the length and breadth of his land. He is basically told to inspect it, to get to know it, to claim it. Abraham could have just waited till all of this was accomplished before he did anything about it. He could have waited to see if would come to pass before he put any effort into it. But he didn't do any of these things. the first part of verse 18 says that "Abram Moved..." He received his direction from God and he took action to receive the gift God had laid in front of him.

I think so many of us sit and hold on to promises God has given us when we should be out there moving. We should be inspecting, claiming and owning the gifts that He has placed in us. We need to walk the length and width of the promise God has given to us and claim ownership of the talents that He desires to use for His kingdom. When it is so easy to sit and wait, wondering where God is and when He is going to use us or move through us, I think we should consider the possibility that He is waiting for us to move. He is waiting for us to take ownership of what He has given to us.

There is a lot of opportunity in the kingdom of God to move. If you don't know your gift or calling or purpose in the Kingdom of God, still move. Move in prayer. Move in encouragement. Move in helps. Move in sharing the word of God. Move. Move. Move!

My Boy Habakkuk

I opened the book of Habakkuk last night because I had been feeling the urge to read it. I mean a name like Habakkuk as the title of the book it must be God right? It most absolutely was God! It ministered to me in what I am going through this season in my life. I will write more later but what has touched me the most is this:

2:14 For the time will come when all the earth will be filled, as the waters fill the sea, with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.

That is so amazing to me. That verse just echoed in my spirit all night last night. So prophetic.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Powerful Video Post

I saw this video last night and it was awesome. It is amazing how the arts can be used to minister to people on a completely different level. This is amazing! I hope it ministers to you as much as it did me!

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!

Mike

New Car Smell of Faith

I have always believed that there was more to being a follower of Christ than just saying a cute little prayer. It has been an annoying presence in my life to think that the church has failed new Christians in huge ways by not telling them of sacrifice and service. We promise them that their lives will be changed, but often times it is not the immediate change that they were expecting. They get through the honeymoon period of salvation where they tell all their friends and family that they are saved and how their lives are changed and then that feeling ends. The salvation buzz wears off and they realize that the changes they were expecting to see haven't happened yet and the miracles they were waiting on haven't manifested themselves yet. Brian Jones in his book Second Guessing God says that for him when he started having doubts it was like the new car smell wore off on his faith.

By the third page of his book I knew I had found a new favorite author. The first of the best passages in the book (and there are many) comes from a conversation between him and one of his mentors.

Brian: "My faith in God right now is like a walk on the beach. Ive taken off my shoes, and as i stand at the water's edge, the tide has started to roll across my feet. It feels wonderful. Up to this point my spiritual journey had been incredible, but in the last six months doubt has begun to paralyze me. It's like when the water goes back out to the ocean. It is washing away the sand underneath me, and my feet keep sinking lower and lower and lower. If this keeps up, there wont be anything left to stand on."

Mentor: "Brian, I have stood where you're standing. Ive felt the water cascade across my feet. I know how wonderful it feels. But Ive also had the water go back out to sea. I've felt the sand get washed out from underneath my feet...When the last grain of sand is finally gone, you're going to discover that you're standing on a rock."

That is awesome. First to know that we don't go through things that others around us haven't been through. Second to know that as deep as the sand around us might seem, we have a foundation that we have built our house and our faith on. When it seems like we are sinking and have no hope left we will hit our rock and that will keep us from sinking any further. Sometimes I think those rough times hit our lives because we need to get back to the basics of our faith and our walk with Christ. those times usually help us get closer to Him and reinforce the faith that helped us start our walk with Him to begin with.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing

Books, Their Covers, Photoshop and a Spiritual Application

I don’t use Photoshop or any of the other big photo editors. I have always thought that a photo should look exactly the way the original subject looked when you shot it. I saw something on YouTube yesterday that kind of freaked me out. It showed a photo from the beginning of the shoot to the end where the model ended up on the billboard. They changed her facial structure, eye color and all sorts of things about her. It was truly interesting to see that a person can make somebody look pretty much any way they want to. I have always heard that you should not judge a book by its cover—but I still do. I mean if the publisher can’t get you interested in the cover how can they intrigue you enough to picking up the book to read it? People are another story. There are some people who attract you because of the way that they look and when you start to talk to them you realize that is the extent of the attraction. Others don’t attract you at all through the eyes yet they captivate you with what is pouring out of them in terms of words and personality. I think the second group of people has been the ones that have drawn me in the most. They have been the ones that have the most into my life. As I took some more time and thought about the whole Photoshop video I saw, I began to think about how we all do this to a certain extent with ourselves in our daily lives. We try and change the way that we look or the way that we seem to those who are around us. We try to fix ourselves to be more appealing or we alter ourselves in ways in hopes of hiding our flaws. We try to represent ourselves in ways that are not true to who we really are. If we are not happy with who we really then I think we need to look inside of ourselves to see how we can reconcile who we are and how we feel about ourselves. If we are looking to change ourselves to be more appealing to others around us then I think we need to ask ourselves why these other people are so important to us that we would want to be something we are not for them. This has been something that I have struggled with my entire life. Never feeling good enough. Never feeling cool enough. Always looking for the next trend I could adopt as my own. I am working on this and have been for quite some time. I am thankful and remind myself that no matter how much I try to Photoshop my image, God isn’t fooled. He looks on the inside. He sees my heart. There is no using Photoshop there, that is constant and is only changed by filling with the Love of Christ or the lack of doing so.

Love and Hate

I have heard over and over again the phrase of "Love the sinner and hate the sin." Most of the time it is used in the context of a group that the church has done its best to keep at its periphery for years and is now realizing that that mode of action has been wrong and now want to incorporate that group. Again most of the time I have seen it used specifically when a writer has been talking about the gay sector of society. For so long this group has been the outcasts of the church and not made to feel very welcome in the sanctuaries of God's House. Now many churches are "turning a blind eye" to the very the things that kept these people segregated from the fellowship of the house of God with the covering of saying that we need to love the sinner and hate the sin. I have looked and looked but I cannot find that approach or method of evangelizing in the Bible anywhere. Maybe I am not seeing it or am reading something out of context, but I cannot find that anywhere in the Bible. I do see the first part of that though. Love. Love was at the very foundation of what Jesus spent His time in ministry teaching. He actively loved the people in society that society itself had deemed unworthy of love. In fact the fact that Jesus was even here on earth walking with men is a sign of just how much He loved us. Nowhere can I find where He told someone I love you but hate what you do or hate the sin that has you tripped up. He went from town to town teaching and being moved by the love He felt for people and the compassion that He had on their condition of life (spiritual ans physical). Love. Its that simple. Its what He taught and its how He lived. Love the sinner, they don't have to know that you hate their actions. What they do is a part of them. You can't tell someone you love them, pass judgement on their actions and then expect them to believe you love them. Love, the real kind of love that we are shown in Jesus' teachings and actions will speak louder than any word we can ever speak and will show the ones we are loving the truth faster than any sermon we could ever preach.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

The Answer...

I can't remember where I found this but I came across it in my favorites folder...Something to think about




Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!
Mike

Be Still

One of the hardest things for me to do at any time is to be be still. Well let me re-say that--I can be still, I just can't be still and be awake. If I manage to be still, it is nearly impossible for me to be still ane be silent. Yet this is one of the diswciplines that we need to be successful at in the process of becoming a better disciple. We need to emulate Jesus's actions when he went off into retreat by Himself to be alone with God. I have found that these periods of stillness for me have been awesome in their abilities to recharge me and to refocus my walk with Christ. I use it as a time not to pray or send my supplication to heaven, but rather as a time to listen to what Heaven is trying to say to me. I use it as a time to be alone with God and to help me center in on His presence around me and in my life. I dont allow myself to think of things I need to do or to use the time as a strategy or planning session. I do my best to be still and to know that He is God. I resign all I am again to Him and to His will for my life. I find that is truly best done in stillness. Especially forced stillness. It makes you have faith in what you are doing and reminds you that there is always a greater One that can do everything better than you. This time of stillness allows me to truly be an empty vessel and allows Him to fill me with all that He has for me at that time. We become closer to Christ as disciples in this time of quietness because we are practicing His presence, offering oursleves as students to learn from what He has to say to us. Practicing the presence of God is what discipleship is all about. Yeah that's it...practicing the presence of God--What a revelation.



Be Blessed, Be a Blessing, And Be Still.

Mike

Discipleship Rant

I am learning more and more that discipleship is far deeper than I could ever have imagined. Upon the discovery of that I have decided that I feel robbed of all the good that the search for true discipleship has provided me. Robbed not in the sense that it is unattainable, but in the sense that it was never shown to me or taught to me earlier in life. We were always taught that the basis of a significant discipleship relationship with God was based in scripture reading and prayer. If that was all that it took for a person to be a disciple of Christ then there are more disciples of Christ than we know. But that is not it. Simply reading scripture cant get me any closer to being a disciple of Christ than reading a history text book. We have all these daily reading plans that help us read the bible through completely in a given amount of time, and they do really nothing for us spiritually. We may earn a gold star from ourselves and be able to say in conversation that we have read the entire Bible x amount of times, but how much closer to Christ and the way of life He taught His original disciples did we become in the process. I think a person would be better off spending time reading a verse of scripture and meditating on it for a long period time, committing it to memory and then finding ways to apply it to their life and actually becoming the living version of that scripture. Could you imagine what our homes, churches, and world would look like if we had people that truly embodied passages of scripture like the Beatitudes? How amazing would that be? I am not saying the scripture reading is pointless, because we need to be filled with the Word all time; I just believe that we should be looking for quality and not quantity. We should be looking to have a means of calling scripture to our minds at any given instant so we can keep the word of God constantly at the forefront of our minds. If I read the bible through in an entire year what have I retained as compared to me picking a passage of scripture to memorize and meditate on for a week or a month? How likely am I to be able to apply a scripture to my life and become a living embodiment of it if I read it once in a period of a year. I would definitely argue that the discipleship process is a process that requires discipline, but I would also argue that those disciplines that we have been taught in terms of discipleship need to be reevaluated in terms of the benefit they are providing to the disciple and the actual success they have had in terms of helping a person reach a closer relationship with Christ.

Books, Their Covers, and Judging Them

Some of my friends and I were having a conversation about the way we wished we looked. The conversation turned to the impressions that we gave to people when we first met them. One of my friends said “you should never judge a book by its cover.” That is a very idealistic and true statement. We should never judge a person by just the way they look. But is that not what we have been taught to do? Doesn’t come in handy sometimes? I mean simply crossing the street because someone is from a different ethnic background as you, maybe isn’t the best or nicest thing to do. But let’s just say that the person you wanted to avoid by crossing the street was carrying a knife. Absolutely judge that book and cross the street. Not all of our life situations are that extreme. I know I have been judged to quickly and have been completely taken the wrong way. I used to be a manager for a very large company. Most of the time when I was at work, especially if was taking over a new facility, I was all business. I am a big guy, have a loud voice and I can be intimidating sometimes. On a first glance or during a first encounter depending on the situation I can be quickly taken as a complete jerk, a hard nosed, no fun guy. When it came down to business I was all about the business and accomplishing goals, that’s what made me good. What separated me from most of the other good leaders that I worked with is that I cared about my associates beyond their eight hours they worked for me. It was not uncommon for me to take someone into my office to just chat. I checked in with them and how their lives were going outside of the job. Not because I was nosy but I understood that their lives at work and outside of work affect each other. Someone has a bad day at home, they come in to work and take it out on our customers. Someone has a bad day at work they go home and kick the dog. It was important for me to teach my associates the balance that I had learned. Some of the associates couldn’t believe I was interested because no one had ever expressed an interest in their lives before. I wasn’t really a jerk as I was a good boss and leader. I guess I said all this to say that some books need to be judged, they need to get that quick once over and be categorized quickly. Once we have judged it by its cover we also need to commit to taking the time to give it an in depth look to see if it can add something to our lives.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing.
Mike

Hand or Heart

My frustration with Christians seem to rise again today. I feel like I just want to find the highest mountain and shout "What are you doing?!" I was listening to people talk yesterday and all it was is "God I need..., God is going to give me..., God needs to...," It almost made me nauseous. Is that all we know God for, the benefits? Is that all we have taught people He is? A get out of jail free card, a back up plan, an ATM? The best part of God we seem to be utilizing, the only part so many want to know is His hand--what He can get us, what He can do for us. We should be desiring to see Him face to face. We should be seeking to know what is on His heart. Our time alone with Him, should spent in praise and worship, or with a silent mouth and wide open heart. We should spend time with Him not just asking and listing our needs, but asking Him what is heavy on His heart and how we can be of service.

Lord I pray that I am able to see You face to face and that I will never be content until I do.

Bless You Lord for the Blessing that You are.
Mike

Consecrated to the Call

"When you consecrate yourself to fulfill the call of God, you will become the place where Heaven's blessing meets Earth's greatest need. You'll become a vessel of power, walking forth to do the will of God." Kenneth Hagin Jr.
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing.
Mike

Unconditional Love and the Lost

There was an awesome post on one the blogs I follow today that really touched my heart. Not so much in a good way, but in a way that was a confirmation of some of the things God has put on my heart. A lot of time we get so involved in programs, direction, and "being church" that we lose sight of what we are called to do in terms of reaching those that don't know Christ intimately like we do. The methods of reaching the goal become more elaborate and complicated than what we are trying to accomplish. Back to basics--LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY. You can find the post that I mentioned here. I hope it gets you to start thinking too.

Be Blessed and Be a Blessing.
Mike