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Good stuff

Man, I am having a blast in my quiet times right now! Yesterday we talked a little about the power problem facing the American church, today I was reading in John 4 and found a scripture that kind of addresses the problem.

"Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe." John 4:48

Jesus is addressing a guy who has come to ask if He would heal his son. What is interesting to me though is this statement that Jesus makes. Jesus isn't rebuking the man for his request, he is acknowledging the reality that people need to experience the power of God. They need more than the philosophy about God, or the knowledge, the need a first hand experience with the power of God!

Jesus tells the guy that his son is going to live! But this next verse is what got me:

    Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at his word and departed. John 4:50

The man took Jesus for His word! There is a novel thought! What would happen if today in your life if you tooK Jesus at His Word? Would your day look a little difference? Would you have a little more confidence in your step? The guy spent time with Jesus and walked away trusting Him!

What do you need to trust God for today? Are you willing to take Him at His word? That's good stuff!

   

Power Problem

Yesterday I shared some of what God is doing in my heart concerning His ability and power. If you look at the American church today one of the greatest challenges we have is a power problem. Where is the power of God in the American church? Is it just me, or are we a little challenged in this area? Now, I know some churches are seeing great things happen right now, but for the most part the American church really is in a state of crisis, it's missing the power that God intended for it.

What happened to the power? Two thoughts... By they way, both thoughts will probably offend some people. Both thoughts are equal.

NEUTERED- The fundamentalist's have neutered the power of God from the American church! They have cut it off! How? At some point fundamentalist's (including me) became more concerned about being "morally right" than reaching lost people, which by the way would lead to a righteous nation.

For most of my life I have been about as far "right" as you can get! I would have picketed, yelled, screamed, or whatever else it took to stay "right." But about 10 years ago things started changing for me. I was going to take our key leaders from our youth ministry to Disney World and got shot down! Big time! The elders did not feel it was appropriate to support such an organization or to endorse them by taking students there!

What the crap? (That might offend some to) When did it become sinful to attend an amusement park? Are the owners of Frontier City believers? What about Dolly World? We became more focused on battles over Disney that we did on reaching the lost! I wonder where our nation would be today if we spent as much time praying for the lost as we did fighting funky battles? By the way, what about reaching the people at Disney? Are they condemned to hell simply because we don't agree with their lifestlye?

Just a few weeks a go a key Christian leader, who I respect a ton, questioned Fred Thompson's being a believer. What in the world are we doing? If you don't like the guy don't vote for him, but don't question his faith! So the fundamentalist's have become  more focused on their battles, than the power of God.

PERVERTED - My fundamentalist's friends might have cut it off, but we (I'm including myself) charasmatics have perverted the power of God. When I started Journey 6 years ago one of the things I wanted was a church that believed God could do anything, but wasn't weird about it! I had seen enough manipulation and selfishness that I didn't want any part of it!

What happened? We turned the power of God into a formula to provide us with whatever we wanted in life. It became a secret weapon for selfishness to pamper our own desires. We focused "power" on what God could do for us, instead of others. God doesn't mind if you drive a cool car, or have a great house, but the moment those things become the focus of His power we have perverted it!

I want a cool car, I want a great house, but if those things become the focus of my prayer life something is wrong. I'm not saying that you shouldn't pray about those things, but if you pray more for things than you do people, there is a problem!

Bottomeline - God gave us His power for one reason, to carry forward the ministry of Christ to a lost and dying world! He gives His power to bring health to the sick, hope to the hurting, salvation to the lost! I want to spend the rest of my life carrying the power of God's love to others! Will you joing me?

Weekend Recap

Wow! First let me bgin with this past weekend - we wrapped up Tons of Practical Stuff Sunday and once again God did some incredible things! 43 people gave their lives to Christ!!! I love it!

I had a blast Sunday talking about the power of God! There is so much going on in my heart that I don't know how to adequately get out. I am so pumped about what God is speaking about our future and where He is leading us. If you weren't there Sunday you can catch up here. There is a must see testimony about the power of God!

Over the past several days I have been thinking alot about the power of God. I was at a Covenant Retreat last week and Dave Olson said some things that rocked my world!Summed up in Clark's Cliffnotes Version he said, "For the American Church to thrive people have to experience a first hand Jesus, we the church have offered them a second hand Jesus." In other words we talk about Christ, we discuss the philosophy of Christ, we learn more about Christ, but many people never experience the power of Christ.

Man, was I ever convicted! While creativity is great, a welcoming environment is a must, etc., nothing replaces the power of God moving in someone's life in a supernatural way! But the reality is you don't see a whole lot of that in the church of America today. God wants us to trust Him to do the things we can't, those things are called miracles. What miracle do you need God to do in your life today?

Tomorrow I'll share some thoughts on why we don't see the power of God in the American church.

Calculated

Before I share some thoughts from Joshua today, let me first tell you that you do not want to miss Sunday! I am jazzed about what God is going to do! We'll be concluding TOPS (Tons of Practial Stuff) with one of the most important talks ever. Bring a friend and come expecting God to do something great in your life. You'll hear a story that is truly miraculous!

Now to Joshua.
    Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Joshua 1:7

God cautions Joshua to play within the guidelines that He has laid out. He is saying there is a huge difference between being a maverick, someone who pushes ahead, and a rebel. J is about to do something that has been talked about and dreamed about for years, but never done. There is a lot of pressure, alot of anxiety throughout the people.

Joshua needs to be careful! That doesn't mean he need to be passive, complacent, or give into the polls - he simply needs to stay focused on what God is calling him to do. He needs to be cautious not to get caught up in the moment, not to be a leader lead by adrenline, but a leader lead by the power of God.

Today as you lead, as I lead, we need to be calculated. We need to really look at our values and vision that God has given us and lead by them. We need to remember that we wouldn't be leading if people were not following, so we better think a little about how our decisions effect others.  That doesn't mean we back off the decision, it means that we are calcuated about how to execute the decisions.

I have made a lot of the right decisions, but have allowed them to be executed poorly. I have watched other organizations make the same mistake, they make the right decision, but the excecution is weak. As we continue to lead and move forward we have to remember that were leading people! No matter what we do, God's desire for us is to be a blessing to others and to help them take the next step with him. It's hard to do that if were hurting them along the way.

Make the decision.Take a few days to create a strategy to implement it. And lead with courage!

Joshua - Part Two

I just rolled back into town from a whirl wind trip to a retreat in Texas. I had the opportunity to hang out with some people from the Covenant and catch up on what God is doing in their churches. It was a great time! I learned some things that I am still digesting that very well could have changed my life forever! Let me digest for a while and I'll share more later.

Continuing on with my thoughts from Joshua I want to take a look at a word that appears several times. One of the references you find in Joshua 1:6 - check it out:

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.Joshua 1:6 

What an overwhelmingly daunting task! To lead people into the land of promise! Sounds easy, but it's not! If it was,it would have already been done many years earlier. So the one of the keys to effective leadership is found in the word strong. "Be strong!" God says to Joshua.

In it's orginal text the word strong comes from the word "chazaq", which means to fasten upon. God is telling Joshua to be an effective leader he has to fasten upon the vision God has given him, the strength that comes from God. and the belief that anything is possible. The gracious father is encouraging his child that the only way he will accomplish this overwhelmingly, daunting task is to fasten upon what he has for the future.

What are you fasten to today? Are you fastened to the vision of leading people in taking their next step with their relationship with God? Are you fastened upon the strength that is made available to you, through our relationship with Christ? Are you fastened upon the belief that anything is possible with God?

It's time to fasten up and lead where God has put you! Be strong and courageous!

Confidence

Over the next several days I will share some thoughts from the book of Joshua. I did a series a few years ago called "Escalator: Taking your leadership to the next level," that I was glancing at recently, that trigger alot of thoughts.

Today I want to share a little bit about confidence. As a leader, confidence will effect your influence as much as any one factor. I firmly believe that people will not follow a fickle leader long. People are drawn to leaders that have clear direction, plan, and confidence that the plan will be accomplished. They won't follow a leader that is questioning his, or her, own ability in leadership. They want to follow a leader that is confident in their vision, confident in God's abilitity, confident in their gifting, and confident in the execution of the vision.

Joshua comes on the scene in a time of change. Moses has just died and now it is Joshua's responsibility to lead a group of people to a better place in life. Sound familar? One thing to catch here is that God's vision for the people had not changed, his love for the people had not changed, but the circumstances had changed. It was a new season and different circumstances than before.

What does that have to do with our confidence? Often times we are confident in one season in our life, we see success, we get comfortable, the cirmcumstances change, and we don't! We try to keep leading like we did before! All the sudden our confidence is rocked because what worked, let's say 6 years ago, doesn't work today. Everything is different because of the evolution of life.

To remain confident in our leadership we have to grow the circumstances, doesn't mean we have to go with them, but we do have to grow with them. We get ourselves into trouble when we put confidence in our circumstances instead of the vision and values God has given us. Circumstances always change, but vision and values don't!

To remain confidnent in the leadership that God desires for you growth is a key requirement. If you aren't reading, listening, watching, talking, observing, etc. what is going on in our culture you will get left behind! What was great 6 years ago might not be great today.

Caution: Don't let the world pass you by! Learn, grown, and lead the world around you. Joshua wasn't following the Israelites into the new land, he was leading them! And leading a group of people into a new way of life takes a tremendous amount of confidence!

On a scare of 1 -10 (1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest) where is you confidence in your leadership ability? What do you need to do to grow in who God is callng you to be?

Weekend Recap

What a weekend! Fall break rolled around this year loaded with tons of stuff. I was thrilled with how many people attended church on fall break and an away game for OU. God did some huge stuff! Here is the run down from the weekend.

• 22 people committed their lives to Christ!
• We had a blast talking about "Mouthing Off" from the book of James. Watch it here.
• The total count of shoes for Soles4Souls was over 2500 pairs!
• God did amazing things in our youth this weekend through their retreat!
• We are having people call all the time telling us that they are beginning to attend Journey because their youth are enjoying church! That's why we started Journey!
• 8 of the 10th grade guys stayed at our house this weekend! It was a fun to hang out with them and to see what a great group of students we have!
• Robin cooked a dinner for the boys that put all the other houses to shame! Okay, maybe that's a little harsh, but Ribs, brats, corn, baked pot., homemade rolls for a bunch of 10th grade punks is pretty good.
• Christopher played in a tennis tournament this weekend, in Ardmore, and played great!
• Caleb was tackling everybody in his football game and came up with a big time interception!He is sore today!
• Caitlyn's team placed first in their Pom Competition! They were the only team in that division, but who pays attention to details these days. She did great!
• Robin and I survived a crazy weekend! Between all the activities, the youth retreat, and a norman weekend at Journey, it was pretty crazy - but we couldn't be more blessed! We love of our life!

Pursuing something great

I recently read a quote that said, "If you are not a little nervous, a little scared, and a little anxious you're not pursuing anything worth calling great." So it's confession time - I'm a little nervous, a little scared, and a little anxious right now. What is so amazing though is that while those emotions are there, my heart and spirit are filled with excitement, peace, and joy as we pursue some of the things that God is speaking to us about our future.

The harsh reality is that the enemy wants you to feel comfortable! He wants you to spend all your time sustaining your comfort and current position so that you will miss out on the destiny that God has for you! The other harsh reality is that the longer you live in the comfort zone the more fear will direct your future. I don't know about you, but I don't want fear to direct my future. The moment I begin to make decisions based on fear is the moment I become ineffective as a leader!! (Read that again)

God is a big, big God with a huge vision for our future! We have to be willing to live a life that is based on faith and not fear. Take a step out of the comfort zone today and pursue something worth being called great!!! It's going to feel a little scary, but go for it anyway!

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Stories

Over my time in ministry I have become more and more convinced that real life stories of life change are the most effective way of sharing Christ with others. People don't need to be preached at, yelled at, or condemned; they need to be loved and helped to discover what God can do in their lives.

One of my mentors, Clark Whitten, shared his story last week at Gateway in Southlake, Texas. It's quiet a story and worth the watch.

I also encourage you to be ready to share your story. Many times people disqualify their stories. Don't allow the enemy to do that to you! Your story makes a difference in other people's lives!

Favorite Psalms

One of the things I do to stay fresh spiritually is to read through Psalms on a consistence basis. I love how David writes from real life experience and his dependence on God. Several years ago I was going through a really hard time and Psalm 25 became on of my favorites to find strength in.

Here are a few verses I love:

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; [2] in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. [3] No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.Psalm 25:1-3

   He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant. Psalm 25:9

My eyes are ever on the Lord,for only he will release my feet from the snare. Psalm 25:15

    Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness protect me,because my hope is in you.Psalm 25:20, 21

Those are some of the scriptures that help me. Let me hear from you about your favorite Psalms.