Are you one night’s sleep away?

My eyes were opened to a new possibility today while reading the book of Matthew.  Three different times, the Lord appeared to Joseph, Jesus’ step-father, in dreams (Mathew 2:13, 2:19, 2:22). And in each dream, God communicated His plan for sustaining and protecting the life of His Son, Jesus.

Three night’s sleep. Three life-saving strategies given to a young man for the protection of the King of Kings. And my question to you is this: What God-given dream, vision, idea, possibility might you be only one night’s sleep away from?

Or maybe your question is…what God-given dream, vision, idea, possibility has God already given you that you’ve chosen to ignore? Isn’t it about time you stepped forward as God’s man or woman and embraced His call for you? You may only be one quiet time, one prayer moment, one conversation away from a completely different life. In Jesus name!

What is God ready to unleash in your life?

10 Guaranteed Ways to Win Against Temptation!

It seems I’ve felt the strong breeze of temptation more in recent days than usual. Though temptation always exists, there are seasons when it feels stronger than others. And I would say that is probably true for all of us.

With temptation, there are a number of things that deserve mentioning before we can deal with a battle plan for winning against it.

• We are all in this together and no one is exempt. No one.
• A strong temptation for me may not be a temptation at all for you.
• Temptation in and of itself is not a sin.
• Some temptation for you may be the natural battles carried over from your past way of living. This can’t be used as an excuse, but still may be a reality.
• God’s grace can outdo any temptation you face, and His plan makes it possible for you to win!

Winning the battle in your mind before it gets to your heart…

God has a game plan in place to help you win against the constant attacks of the enemy.  I have no formulas, but here are 10 steps toward victory for the Christ-follower taken from His Word, and though I’m just as succeptable to temptation as anyone else, I’m experiencing these truths for myself! If you really care about this stuff, I’m trusting that you will take the time to look up the Scripture references for each step. God’s word has the power to heal. Not my points of interest. Get your Bible ready and let’s go!

1. Clean out the closet of your mind by confessing and forsaking the tripper-upper sins in your life that you’ve committed as a result of giving in to temptations (Proverbs 28:13).
2. Renew your mind regularly in the Word of God (Romans 12:1-2). Just reading this passage in Romans is a great starting point.
3. Realize no temptation exists that is stronger than the grace of God available to you to resist it. (1 Corinthians 10:13).
4. How you see yourself determines your destiny. Realize that you are not your sin. (Romans 7:20).
5. Believe that your true heart, which has been redeemed by Jesus, is a good heart and is the part of you that God sees. (Luke 6:45).
6. Don’t be in error by only accepting the first half of what the Gospel says about your heart (Found in Jeremiah 17:9). You must embrace and find healing in the rest of the Gospel (Found in Ezekiel 36:26).
7. Identify the temptations tripping you up and cut off their life-support. By Starving the temptation long enough, its power loosens and eventually is broken from your life (Romans 8:6).
8. Declare a NO SECRECY POLICY on your life. Temptation has power over you as long as it remains a secret. If you are married, your spouse should know what is tempting you right now in as much detail as is necessary for you to be free and live with a clear conscience. If you are single, a godly friend of the same gender should be your first choice of confidence with this (James 5:16).
9. Realize the enemy plays dirty and no one and nothing is exempt from the deck of cards he will try to play against you.  “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
10. Get back in the fight. No matter how far you’ve gone in the wrong direction, today is the day to turn back around. Never, ever throw in the towel in your battle against temptation! “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Is this a frustration for you?

“My walk with God doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.  I thought I was doing all of the right things, but still don’t seem to be growing spiritually. What am I doing wrong? What should I do next?” There are a lot of possible misconceptions when it comes to spiritual growth. I want to address this very practically in this blog.

Chances are, you’re not blowing it in your walk with God and God is not angry with you just because you don’t seem to see anything changing or happening in your faith. But the enemy would like you to believe you are to blame.

 Sometimes just having a basic understanding of how spiritual growth “works” might keep us from believing his lies or becoming disollusioned, and can help us appreciate the process God is taking us through.

THE GOOD…some things you can bank on!

1. God wants you to grow spiritually. You don’t have to ask if it’s His will. It is! ”being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
2. God is in the business of carrying out a very personalized gameplan, making it possible for you to grow. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” Philippians 2:13
3. God doesn’t compare your spiritual growth to anyone else’s. “So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.” Romans 14:12
4. The possibilities are limitless! “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13

THE BAD…

1.  Spiritual growth will never happen as fast as you want it to.
2. You can’t always predict or choose the tools God uses to grow and shape you.
3. While your feelings and emotions are important, they are not trustable gages to determine whether you are growing spiritually.
4. Every time you compare your spiritual growth to someone else’s, you open yourself up to pride (“at least I’m not like them ), or self pity (Why can’t I be like them). both of which God frowns upon.
5. Spiritual growth will be stunted by your ongoing disobedience and neglect of basic spiritual disciplines.

THE PROCESS…

1. Just like you can’t stand in front of a mirror and watch yourself grow physically, it’s also very likely that you can’t see that God is using all of your life experiences, including the pain, to grow you into His likeness, which is His ultimate goal for you.”And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
2. It will help if you adjust your expectations to match the consistency of your daily disciplines and habits. Desire without discipline always leads to discouragement and never results in change!
3. You’re going to have to do the things you don’t want to do in order to achieve the results you desire. This is true in every area of life, including your own spiritual growth.
4. Put yourself in the place of opposition. Not picking fights with people, but putting feet to the faith you claim to have. Like a weightlifter, you will never grow to become the person God intends you to be if you live a life of little resistance in your faith. What are you doing that’s stretching you out of your comfort zone?

What part of this blog connected with you today? Would love to hear from you.

6 Ways to Break the Mold

Thanks to today’s technology, we get to experience the luxury of things like memory foam pillows and bed mattresses. The idea is simple but brilliant. A bed that shapes to your liking, to your body and your ideal comfort.

Unfortunately as we plug our way through life as participants and leaders in God’s church, we tend to “settle” into molds (i.e.,  serving with no passion, being satisfied hiding behind titles) and the result is higher levels of maintained comfort with average influence and productivity.

If you are like me and are dissatisfied with the output coming from your life, these six things may help shake things up a bit in a good way.

1. Identify areas where you’ve shaped an unproductive mold. Be honest! For me, I quit reading good books about two years ago. That’s changing this week! (Stop self feeding and you stop leading!)
2. Have a focused goal to point your energies and resources to. (How will you measure change six months from now in the area you wrote down from #1?)
3. Rest and relax more. It’s not unspiritual or selfish to schedule this. 24 hours a week of doing nothing job or ministry related goes a long way, not to mention it is biblical (Exodus 20:8, Matthew 11:28)!
4. Find someone who can do what you do and let them do it. (As a leader, this may include up to 90% of what you currently do. What could you do if you had 90% of your time back and were allowed to focus on only what you can do?)
5. Eat more and listen more. Not physical food, but spiritual. It’s time to go deep in God’s word and stay a lot longer! (I recommend youversion.com as a great resource.)
6. Give more of yourself to fewer things (back to that 90% thing again…).

Which of these six things do you find yourself needing to apply right now and why?

Five Thoughts on Marriage

My wife, Shannon and I are currently involved in mentoring a young couple engaged to be married in a few months. It has been a great journey for them, but probably even more so for us.
Each time we meet with them, we are reminded of valuable knowledge we have forgotten over time.

In our recent conversations, we decided to blog and share five things we are in the process of “re-learning” as a couple:

1. The friendship in our marriage is worth fighting for at all costs. It is also the easiest part to push aside in the face of daily responsibilities.
2. The more we prioritize Jesus in our individual lives, the closer we become as a couple…as one.
3. We don’t have to have all the answers.
4. One of the greatest gifts we can give each other is space to be wrong.
5. This experience has helped solidify our calling as a couple. God wants us investing in people’s lives together.

Do any of these resonate with you? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

What’s Your Church’s Secret?

If you asked 100 flourishing churches across the country to share what they believe is the secret to their thriving success, you would likely receive 100 different responses. Such responses would probably include having God-given vision, God’s anointing and power, changed lives, right structure, great location, excellent outreach, powerful prayer ministry, and the list goes on. All of which, in my opinion, are essential qualities for a great church, a biblical church.

And at Brand New Church, I would have to add one more “secret” to the list. Volunteers. At the end of the day, a church can have great prayer, anointed preaching and worship, location, and all the financial resources one could desire. But without people to make it all happen week in and week out, it’s like having a 200 ton cruise ship engine destined for the high seas that sadly never leaves the shipyard.

I think of Lance and Amy (pictured above). A beautiful young couple who faithfully serves almost every week as greeters at the front doors. When asked why they care so much about serving week after week, they replied, “To us, serving regularly helps keep us faithful in every aspect of our walk with God. It keeps us motivated to have consistent quiet times and pray together and have a RED HOT marriage. I also believe that those things also keep us faithful in serving regularly, so everything comes full circle!!”

Lance and Amy represent hundreds of faithful servants of God who are truly the difference makers in the life of our church. And it’s not just adults.

This incredible group of students recently invested hours of their afternoon making sure our facility was in tip top shape for another week of ministry. Why? Because they understand that washing windows is just as important for eternity as the worship that takes place on the stage.

For Brand New Church, our volunteers are our secret to the ever-growing vision and expanding of who God is calling us to be.

What would you say is your church’s secret?

This One Thing

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? [holds up one finger]

Curly: This.

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing.

Mitch: But, what is the “one thing?”

Curly: That’s what you have to find out.

Many of us remember this infamous conversation between actors Billy Crystal and Jack Palance in the movie “City Slickers.” And while I’m not trying to find the secret of life, I do want to put my own spin on this by saying I believe that the effectiveness of your ministry (and mine) can be determined by ONE THING.

There are so many things necessary to have an effective, far-reaching, and lasting ministry, especially in the local church. We know we have to have God-called leadership, right structure, vision…the list goes on. But without this one thing, these will only result in a well defined organization instead of a life-transforming organism.

This one thing separates ministry as a passion from ministry as a profession. This one thing supersedes how well we preach or sing or how much money is given in the weekly offering. Coincidentally, this one thing is typically one of the first things to go once we get moving in the hustle and bustle of day to day responsibilities of ministry.

And that one thing is a broken heart. You can lead a ministry without it, but you cannot lead with the heart of God without it. With it, you are a vessel of the life of God flowing through you. Without it, you are only going through the motions and doing a job.

I was recently reminded of this when I was confronted with choices that a family from a neighboring community was making that I knew could result in long-term negative consequences for their kids.  And I experienced something for them I haven’t felt in a long time – a broken heart.

This incident made me realize how far I’d come – in the wrong direction.  I started thinking back to the days when I couldn’t help but stay up late at night crying over and praying over people who were drifting away from the Lord or who had never met Him to begin with. The days when I was more concerned with understanding and knowing the heart of a person than I was with how successful they were making me look in my ministry by showing up at “my” events.

This is more than mere emotion or feeling sorry for others. A broken heart moves us to action on behalf of people. And in the case of the for-mentioned family, I believe God gave me the action steps necessary to help turn them in the right direction.

Let me close by asking you the same question I am faced with right now – are you leading out of a broken heart? Or have you (like me) gotten so lost in the shuffle of responsibilities that you’ve left your heart behind?

Regardless of your honest response, it’s never too late to ask God to rekindle in you a broken heart. In fact, would you dare to pray this with me right now?

“Jesus, I ask you to break my heart fresh and new today for the things that break your heart. Please give me your perspective on how you want me to see the people around me. Use me as your broken vessel. Pour your love into others through me like never before. Amen.”