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Genesis 24

What a wedding!

I was reading today in Genesis 24 which covers the account of Isaac's and Rebekah’s wedding. The more I read, the more I was blown away by the goodness of God and the truth that is poured out of this passage. Let’s walk through a little bit of it.

Genesis 24:1 – Abraham was blessed in every way! What a goal to live a life that the Lord feels comfortable blessing in every way!

Genesis 24:2-9 – Abraham established very specific expectations and boundaries. He did not pick the girl, but he laid out a pretty clear picture of what he felt like would be good for his son. A lesson we all need to learn as parents.

He also trusted the Lord to go before and prepare the situation. He was putting his trust in God to work out the details, not a human. The servant’s responsibility was to walk in that trust and carry out what God was doing.

Genesis 24:12 – The servant prays for success so it will be a blessing to his authority. He didn’t pray that he would be successful for his sake, but Abraham’s sake. That’s stout!

Genesis 24:26 – The servant gave God the glory for what He had done.

Genesis 24:28-49 – The servant shares with the family about the diligence of God and what He has done.

Genesis 24:50 – The family submits to what God is doing! They can clearly see that it is a God thing.

Genesis 24:52 – The servant bows and worships God again for what He is doing!

Genesis 24:57 – Rebekah goes with the servant immediately!

Genesis 24:66 – Isaac and Rebekah got married!

Take some time today a read through the story. It will really challenge you in your trusting God for your children’s lives. 

Connect Conference

Yesterday I was in Dallas all day at Gateway for their winter conference. I don't think I can even begin to take in all the spiritual truth that was shared in one day. In one session I took 6 pages of notes! That's alot for me. Before I throw some thoughts at you I did have 2 things happen that kind of "challenged" my day.

First, my son stole (that's right, stole) my shampoo out of my shower leaving me to use Robin's "Frizzilogy" shampoo. I worried all day if I was sporting a perm look.

Second, I came to a dead stop on I-35 because of a grass fire in the median. I sat there for at least 30 minutes as they put out a fire from somebody's cigarette butt. Can I just say I have alot of grace for people, but to you smokers please don't throw your butts around so much! Your butt cost me 30 minutes of time with my family! Okay, I got that out. (If you do smoke I still love you, just be careful with your butt.) By the way - your butt can get alot bigger on a windy day!

Here are a few thoughts I wrote down:

• Salt and light - Salt is an internal thing - it keeps things from corrupting.
• Our call is to be salt and to keep the world from corrupting.
• We live in a world that looks at morals as shackles.
• Our job as salt is to preserve the moral standard of God.
• Let your light shine - the most effective way of being light is excellence.
• Excellence is a key to God's blessing a community, church, or person.
• Excellence comes from honoring God.
• Excellence is a standard - Perfectionism is a sickness. (Wow! That hurt.)
• Anything other than excellence reflects badly on God.
• Excellence should be present in all five senses.
• Excellence is not materialism - money doesn't buy excellence - excellence is a spirit.

Those are just a few of the thoughts swirling around in my head. I'll have more tomorrow.

Sunday night thoughts

So it's Sunday night and it has been a really long, but good day. For some reason today wore me out more than usual and I am ready to hit the bed, but before I do I'll share a few random thoughts to end the weekend.

• Today was incredible! God is doing so much in everyone's life right now! I love watching baptism! I love the fact that people are growing in their relationship with Christ!
• The East Campus progress is coming along great! I was over there tonight to hang out with the folks and they are pumped about what God is going to do. I love their passion to see people come to Jesus!
• I love my wife's Chicken Fried Steak! We broke out of health mode last night and went for it, and it was good! We had enough left for CFS sandwiches today! That is good stuff.
• Jay went to LifeChurch.tv Stillwater campus this morning to see a video campus live in action. God has taught us so much through Craig and the gang, we are fortunate to have such great mentors!
• My friend Bevan came to OKC this weekend and came to church today. Bevan is one of the great thinkers that the Lord has blessed my life with. He took his family to the Monster Truck Show at the Ford Center. (Don't stereotype him.) Here is my point: the Ford Center was packed out for a Monster Truck Show! I think we are going to host a monster truck show. (JK)
• I'm so tired I don't know why I just wrote about the MTS.
• Caleb's soccer schedule is cranking up which means really busy, but fun, weekends.
• I'm heading out early in the morning to go back to Dallas to spend the day with the gang at Gateway. I know I'll learn a ton!
• I'm going to bed!

Lots of Thoughts

I just rolled back in from Dallas and spending a day at C3. I went down for the day just to take it all in and to see what I could learn. As usual I learned a ton!! What God has done through Ed Young, Jr. and Fellowship Church is simply amazing!

One of the things I love about C3 is getting to see quite a few of my ministry friends. I am so humbled by some of the people God has brought into my life. They are some of the greatest, wisest leaders around! You can click on their names and check out what God is doing in their lives. Bil - Perry - Mac - Steven

I had the opportunity to hear Ed, Mac, Perry, and Brian Houston speak. I could not write fast enough! God really spoke through them and challenged me in a huge way! I'll share some thoughts tomorrow, I want to spend time with my family tonight.

On the way home we made a short stop at La Hacienda Ranch for a quick steak. It was unbelievable! If you are ever in Dallas you'll have to try it.

The Work Begins

This week has been a week of firsts for the new Journey East Campus. Sunday night I had the opportunity to share with the Core Group the vision of Journey and the vision for us going multi-site. I absolutely loved being there! There is such a huge passion within this Core to reach people with the love of Christ! They are confident in what God is doing and they are ready to see it all happen.

Tonight marks the first work night in getting the campus ready for opening in the next 6 weeks! We get to take out pews, paint walls, tear up carpet, and just clean it up a little. If you are interested in helping call Jay @217-8700 or email him at Jay.Stokes@JourneyChurch.tv. It doesn't matter what campus you are planning on attending, everyone can help!

Let's continue to pray for the people in that area of the city. Pray that God will begin to move in their hearts and that His grace, love, and power will become the hope of their lives!

Have a great day!

Thinking of fun

All my life I have had the tendency to take life a little too seriously. For many years I have had trouble relaxing and just having fun. Over the past couple of years I have learned to surround myself with people who think "fun". They accomplish great things in their life, but they also know how to simply have a blast.

The reason I love my small group is they don't take me too seriously. They purposely create an environment where Robin and I can just hang out and let loose. They do not judge me if I say something wrong or politically incorrect, they have just created a place for me to grow spiritually and have fun while I am doing it. The hold me accountable in enjoying life and having a blast!

I also have people in my life that will challenge me to do things I have never done before, just for the fun of it. I'm a routine guy and I don't like anyone to mess with my routine. These are the friends who will help me try new and different things to break out of rut.

You need to surround yourself with fun people. God wants you to enjoy life! Only you can make the choice to have fun! Go for it!It make life alot more enjoyable!

Great Thinkers

Yesterday I started a new series on personal vision that has made me hit the pause button in my life and evaluate every aspect. One of the questions I am answering is, who are the best thinkers I can learn from?

So much of life comes down to how we think. Everything we do in life is a direct result of how we approach the matter in our mind. It effects how we relate with God, how we relate with others, what we do with our day, how we respond to challenges, how we handle success - and the list goes on and on.

Surrounding yourself with exceptional thinkers will challenge you in a way that will bring tremendous life change. It will encourage you, it will frustrate you, it will make you laugh, it will make you cry. The key is to evaluate every area of your life to obtain balance and not just become a great thinker in one area.

For example - I have people I learn from in ministry. They are people who challenge my thought process and make me continually evaluate my methods in pursuing our vision. Some of those folks I know and others I watch from afar, but they all challenge me.

I have other people in my life who make me think about having fun! They are just people I love to hang out with and relax. They will challenge me in not being serious all the time and letting loose a little bit. I need to learn from those people.

The list can go on, but the point is that you have to surround yourself with great thinkers! Surrounding yourself with people who are pursuing great things will have an incredible impact on your life.

Who are some of the great thinkers in which you have surrounded yourself? I'll share some of my list in the coming days.

Random thoughts

It's been a while since I have just let loose and gone off on some subjects, so today is the day - here we go:

First, I think it is absolutely crazy that we are spending tax dollars trying to determine if a baseball player used steroids or not. Okay, let me modify - I think it is crazy that we are using congress's time to determine if a baseball player used steroids or not. Isn't congress supposed to be setting the course for our nation? Aren't they supposed to be figuring out how to keep America the greatest nation on the planet Earth? Aren't they supposed to be looking over our massive budget and figuring out how they can do more for less? Aren't they supposed to be figuring out systems that help people prosper, so that there is more money to give to the poor and those in need?

Maybe I'm off on this one, maybe congress really is supposed to be involved with pro sports.

Second, what in the world ever happened to showing respect to others? I wanted to puke as I watched some of the State of the Union. It makes me furious to watch Congressmen, (and women) show such disregard to the office of the President. I don't care what our President has done right or wrong, when the people working with him show such poor character in showing their respect it makes our nation a joke across our world. You can get behind close doors and fight all you want, but when you are at the State of the Union it would be helpful if we all appeared to be on the same team.

While I don't pretend to understand all that President Bush has done right or wrong I will give him my respect. One reason is he deserves it as president, the second reason is that he has not allowed all of his critics to change his convictions - right or wrong. I would love to sit down with him after he leaves office and pick his brain. I might not agree with him on everything, but I bet I could learn a few things from him.

So there are a few things on my mind today. Have a great day! I'm going to Taco Mayo for lunch now.

Looking around

Before I share some thoughts for the day, let me first say how continually blown away I am by the Lord's leadership in this season of our church. Every day God gives more clarity, and favor, in the things He is calling us to do. In the coming days I'll be sharing more details about what the next 60 days looks like for Journey Church. I will tell you this today - it's going to be good!

As I continue to take my time getting through Genesis I read the portion today that includes the conversation between Abraham and the Lord about the condition of Sodom. Throughout the conversation Abraham challenges the Lord about His destroying of Sodom, and His willingness to possibly destroy righteous people also. Through the conversation Abraham negotiates with the Lord about having grace if he can find at least 10 righteous people.

That conversation made me think about today's world and made me wondered if God might not still be looking around for righteous people today. If you think about it, it  is really powerful to think that if God could find just 10 people that walked with Him, He would have had faith that they could of made a difference within their city.

Many times people get discouraged by some of the happenings in our cities and nations today. Instead of being discouraged we need to be encouraged that God is still looking for people who are willing to to make a difference. I will have to admit that being discouraged doesn't take as much effort as making a difference, but it is a wimps way out.

God is looking - are you making yourself available?

Laugh a little?

I was recently reading through Genesis 18 when a thought really caught my attention. Abraham is having an encounter with the Lord and conversing about the future birth of Isaac. One of the statements the Lord makes is that He will visit again in a year and the promise of a son will be a reality that is being lived out.

Here is what I found kind of humorous:
    Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. [12] So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?" Genesis 18:11-12

Sarah laughed at what God was wanting to do in her life! She wondered, "Is this really possible?"

So here is my thought - how many times do we discount what God is wanting to do in us and through us with a little giggle or laugh? We might have an idea or a vision pop into our  minds that God wants us to accomplish, but we laugh it off and go on with life.

This weekend I start a new series called MAPQUEST: Giving Direction to Your Life. I believe through the series, as you learn to write a personal life mission statement and allow God to give you vision for your life, that you will be tempted to laugh. When that temptation occurs remember God's response to Abraham:
   Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." Genesis 18:14

God is going to do some amazing things in your life this year? Are you laughing or trusting?