Innovation not Limitation

April 28, 2010- Last night I was roused from my recreational TV watching by my wife in the other room. She has been reading the book IT by Craig Groeschel. The reason she yelled for me was there is a section in the book that she knew I would find very relevant for my life(what a great wife I have). Anyway, the passage in the book was talking about the old adage, "What God guides, He provides". Now many of us in ministry hold fast to that saying, if for no other reason, it increases faith. But what was so interesting was that Craig said that he and his staff had come up with another angle of approach to that saying. Here it is. "Sometimes God guides by what He doesn't provide". WHAT? Yep. Look at Acts 3:1-6 1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
What if Peter would have had money to give the man? We don't know the outcome, but what if? However, when Peter wasn't able to give the man what he wanted, he was able to give him what he needed. What are you facing? Lack of finance? Closed doors? What wall are you facing that seems is too tough to get around? Maybe God is trying to show you something. Maybe He has not a natural solution, but a SUPERNATURAL one. Here's the quote that rocked my world. "Your greatest innovation might come through your greatest limitation". Wow! Just a thought.

Wheat

April 15, 2010- One of the biggest struggles I've had in Christianity has been the fact that everything isn't cut and dry. What I mean is when we do good, we don't always get good in return. Many times we are taught that(be a good person, and everything will be alright). The problem with that frame of mind is... the Bible!!!! You see we can be having our absolute best day ever, and our worst day ever, all in the same day. In Matthew 13 there is a parable about the wheat and the tares. Matthew 13:24-30
24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'

28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'

29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "

Check this out; the man sowed GOOD SEED! Then while his men were sleeping the enemy came in and imitated the harvest by planting weeds among the crop. There is nothing wrong with rest. We all need rest. But the when the bad comes up in the good, it's not because we were resting, it's because the enemy has come to imitate God's plan and to destroy His plans for your life. Second, know that there is going to be bad days in the midst of our good days. Our problem is...we always feel the need to fix it. "What can I do, how can I fix it, Who, what, when, where can I go?" But that's not the answer. God shows us specifically what we need to do in this situation. NOTHING! What? Yes. Nothing. God says let the weeds grow up with the wheat. Then when the harvesters come, they will separate the wheat from the weeds and they will handle disposing of the bad. My prayer is that we all learn to wait on God in the midst of the bad as well as the good.

Easter

April 2, 2010- It's Good Friday! Only 2 days til Easter and it's the greatest opportunity for us to be the church. Invite someone to church this weekend. Most people who attend church now, do it because they were invited by a friend or family. They came to church, found a relationship with Christ, and now they attend regularly. So please don't miss the opportunity. And if you are in the Auburn, Al. area this weekend, come check us out here @ The City Church. We would love to share in this special time with you as we present Christ's life, death, and resurrection. You ought to come check it out. Happy Easter!!!

Inspection of the Lamb

March 29, 2010- This morning, a tremendous revelation was illuminated for me and I have to share it here...
God instructed the children of Israel concerning the purity of the lamb which would be sacrificed at Passover: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats” (Exodus 12:5).

There could be no spot or blemish. Nothing!

The inspection process, from the very first Passover, was extremely thorough to guarantee a lamb that met the strictest of standards set by God.

The Lamb of God, without question, fulfilled every criteria. The Lamb of God is perfect. He is without blemish. He is holy, righteous, and just: “For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

In fact, if you look closely through the Scriptures, you will see that before He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), Christ Jesus actually went through seven distinct inspections:

Pilate inspected Jesus, and in John 19:4 we read, “Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.” No fault!

King Herod inspected the Savior. Jesus, by King Herod’s own admission of Christ’s blamelessness, did nothing worth of death (Luke 23:13-15).

Annas, father-in-law of the high priest, inspected Jesus. Annas obviously found no fault, for he passed Him along to his son-in-law (John 18:12-14, 24).

Caiaphas, the high priest, inspected Jesus, as reflected in John 18. Again, no blame could be placed on the spotless Lamb of God.

The centurion inspected the Master. The commander of the Roman soldiers, when it was finished, gave the awe-filled result of his crucifixion scrutiny: “Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).

The thief hanging beside Jesus inspected the Lamb of God closely during Christ’s final hours on the cross, and this common criminal made a powerful confession that propelled him into an eternity with the Savior: “But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward for our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” (Luke 23:40-42).

Seven inspections came and went. Seven confessions pointed to the irrefutable fact that no one could find fault in Him. As proclaimed truthfully by the thief, the fault is in each of us. We are to blame.
But check this out. When a person would bring the lamb in to the priest, the priest would inspect the lamb for flaws, not the person. Now that my friend, will preach.

The Snares of...

March 26, 1010- You would think everyone would want to take a walk with God. Many are already walking with Him and are enjoying the journey.If you are one of these people I have a word for you today. In our walk with the Lord we experience His bountiful peace, grace, and serenity. That's a beautiful thing. The problem is, on this journey there is an enemy that wants to knock you off course, break your legs, or even take us out. Here are a couple of things I see that can cause us to get out of step with God and if we don't get them under control, it could end bad. The worst thing about it is that religion can become a snare as quick as anything else. Here's an example...
1) Religious Activities- We can become so engulfed with our everyday activities that we miss the reason we do them. Our ministry becomes our focus, when it is people for whom the ministry was created, that get neglected. We can never be so busy with the work of God, that we miss the God of the work.
2) Religious perspective- Christians are known more for what they are against, than what they are for. That in itself is a huge problem. When God is taking us to new, higher levels, we tend to look down on others and tell them the way to go up is don't do's. You can't do this, you can't do that. People can get so over whelmed by the don't do's that they freeze up and no forward motion happens. So please remember the best way to stay in step with God is to avoid the snares of religion.

The Promised Land

MArch 22, 2010- The past few weeks have been pretty crazy. We are moving on 4 church plants over the next few months and a few of the staff members are on the trek of reading the bible in 90 days, so I haven't taken the time to post any blogs. However, the Lord really has rocked my world with a passage of scripture that I can't get away from no matter what I do. So I thought I'd post some thoughts on it before I preach it this weekend. We are all at a crossroads. And at that point, we have to make a decision. Will I stay where I am, or will I take the next step. The problem is this. We all need to take the next step, but if we are not careful, we will be paralyzed by the church. Here's the problem. The church has become so concerned with what not to do, that we forget that the focus should not be on that but on what we should be doing. When our concern is on what not to do, we become afraid to move therefore we just stand still. That is not where God called us to be. He called us to be mobile. Not necessarily geographically but internally. In Genesis 12 God called Abram to leave his people and his land and go to a place God had prepared for him. The problem is this. God didn't tell him where the place was. He didn't give a detailed spread sheet of what it would look like. He just said GO. Many of us are in the same boat. We get frustrated without all the details and just give up. But check this out. Later in scripture God comes through with the promise of a son in Abraham's old age(yeah He changed his name) He provided a ram in the bush for Abraham on the mountain. God was with Abraham in all his steps. But after the miracle on the mountain, Sarah(Abraham's wife dies). When Abraham goes and buys a tomb to bury his wife, he buries her in Canaan. In the steps to bury what is priceless to Abraham, he doesn't even realize he has already entered the Promised Land. The question is this... Where are you today?

B90X cont.

MArch 8, 2010- Sorry about last week. It has really been hectic trying to do my job and keep up with this B90X reading plan(blogging has fallen back). I really think anyone in ministry should try this plan. It really helps to put things in perspective! Anyway, I know I'm yet to even explain what this plan is. Here's the deal. The way I found it is through lifechurch.tv and youversion(the online bible they made available). So for more info, just click the hyper-links above and you can join the movement. It's totally worth the journey.