Only one day to live-part one

Ok, here is something that has passed by my mind recently. If tomorrow, 9 AM, you were told that you have only 24 hours to live...what would you do with that day? Respond in the comment section and tell me.

Fear

Fear is not my friend. Generally I am a fearless, running straight ahead, charge the hill kind of guy. But on occasion fear sneaks into my life and tries to lay claim to my heart and emotions. I had one of those moments today. Some news was told to me that got my heart battling with fear. It can really cripple you if you let it. Christ tells us that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but sometimes it feels that I have season tickets.

I am amazed at what Satan will do to get us distracted. He studies my life and knows the exact situations when I am most vulnerable. At that moment he attacks with news that drags me into the pit of fear.

But I will not let fear win. I work, in those moments, to choose to believe that which my emotions seem to forget. My Father, my God, my forever Dad is also the author of everything. The cross reminds me that he is totally committed to me, and the His empty grave reminds me of what he is capable of doing. Then why fear? Why let myself get distracted by buying into all that which I feel. No, I choose to believe that I can do anything...ANYTHING with my God.

My challenge to you is to relentlessly battle to put fear in its place. When it comes focus on what God has done for you, look to the scripture to see what he has promised and is capable of doing. Never give up to fear...never...never give up.

I am sitting in Panera Bread. I am a people watcher and this is an interesting place to do it. It is times like this that I am reminded of the creative capacity of God. All you have to do is to look at the people around us and see that God creatively put us uniquely together. You are unique!!!

If that is true, than why do we spend our days trying to be like everyone else. We want what everyone else has, wears, drives, etc. It is time to acknowledge and celebrate that God has made us and a life the is unique to each of us...accept it, live it, and enjoy it.

Why

I ran into a Minister of Music the other day that was challenging me in why we are doing church the way we do. He is at an established denominational church that has not changed anything in decades (not that that is wrong but it gives you idea of his perspective). Our talk was good and in the end he was very supportive. Later, however, I was sitting in my office at the house and I thought about his question of why we are doing church in a way that presents Christ in such a creative and compelling way. Something begin to stir in me, the more I thought about the more fired up I became.

My answer to this question is really simple...We do it because hopelessness is a reality, loneliness is a reality, and most of all Hell is a reality. People are really going to hell and existing forever without any hope of relief and we can't stand by and do little or nothing. We only have our one lifetime to help reverse that in people's live and the rest of eternity to focus on ourselves. So like Christ, we are more focused on going after the one that is lost than just hanging out with the ninety nine that are found. We have this passion because hell is a reality.

Sabotage

There is no doubt that scripture teaches that we all have incredible potential. God tells us that he has plans to prosper us, to give a great hope and a future. It is in the heart of God to bless us, to give us purpose, and to light a flame of hope in us that even our darkest day can not extinguish.

The reason that most us never reach it is because we sabotage our potential. We do and think things that hold us back from living what God has for us. We are our greatest threat to living the life that God has for us.

Let me give you some of the most common ways we sabotage our potential:

1. We believe God is out to get us than out to bless us. We tend to think that God is watching us in order to "get us" for any little bad thing we do. However, God in scripture presents himself as a one who is passionate about helping us reach our potential. When we view that God is focused on "getting us" we are less likely to trust him, follow if the risks are high, and seek him passionately. So we sabotage our future.

2. We leave him out. I believe that God desires to speak but most of the time we are not interested in listening. We don't have time. It is hard to be blessed by God if we do not hear him. When we make our life without him, we will never discover the awesome life that he has written just for us.

3. We are too concern how others perceive us. This is huge. You will not look vertical in your life if your focus on the horizontal. Too many of us rarely hear God, rarely give to God, rarely experience God because we are consumed with what others think about us. This is a tramp that will consume you and leave you empty. Oddly, the more money you spend on your self, the less satisfied you become with the things that money provides. You sabotage your potential.

Today choose to believe that God wants to bless you and live looking for it. It doesn't mean that bad things won't come for sometime the greatest blessings are born in heartache. It just means looking in every situation for God's hand, and looking with an expectation that he is going to do something good.

Live Blessed.

The Best Christmas Present Ever - You will not believe this!

This morning after the kids opened their presents, the phone rang. It was a call from two detectives with the Wichita Falls Texas Police Department. That is where we lived before we moved to Georgia. While living there, I became the Wichita Falls Police Chaplain Commander. On many occasions, Jana would cook dinner and some of the guys on the 2nd Shift (3 pm - 12 am) would come to eat on their dinner break. I would often ride "shotgun" with several of the 2nd shift guys. The call was from two guys who use to be on second shift but now are detectives.

I enjoyed talking with them and catching up with what was happening in their lives. One of the guys is named Steve. He was one of the funniest people I have ever known. We have spent hours in a patrol car talking, laughing, and even fighting a few guys. Steve had a Catholic background, had given up on that, and didn't have a personal relationship with Christ. Steve was living with his then girlfriend, had a mouth like a sailor, and thought that God was out to get him on most days. Needless to say, he was not the kind of guy who normally would be friends with a pastor...I guess you could say that we were an odd couple.

Despite all that, we were friends. I often thought, however, that my friendship was not having any spiritual impact on him. I would pray for him a lot, and invested myself in him the best I knew how. He was always good to me, treated Jana with great respect, and I really enjoyed being with him more than many "Christians" I knew at the time.

That all ended when we moved away from Wichita Falls four years ago. We moved on in our lives, and I assumed that Steve did as well. I thought of him often but just lost touch. This morning's call from him and another guy named Brian (another great guy) was a great treat.

THE BEST PART was that Steve told us that a few weeks ago that he had accepted Christ and last Sunday he had been baptized. He said that his journey to the cross was influenced by the relationship that we had, that God used all those hours together to help get him to where he now is with Christ. AWESOME!

I know that I say all the time that you have to invest in people and invite them to come with you to Piedmont Church, and never give up on investing in them. It may take years, but I hope you will get a great call one day like the one I got today. It was the best Christmas present that I could have opened.

Thanks Steve for making my Christmas a very merry one.

Blessed

Isn't it amazing how we seem, with laser focus, to have clarity on seeing what we do not have. It matters not how much we have, accomplish, obtain, consume, amass, collect, experience, we are still experts at seeing what we do not have. I was talking with a guy who hates going home because he feels like he has to monitor what he wears, drives, buys, and the way he looks because everyone is trying to keep up or outdo each other...this should not be. Yet, to be honest I feel the pressure to play the same game.

So, in effort to swim against the tide. I am going to spend a moment celebrating what I have.

I have...
A great wife that truly is my best friend. Through the years we have fought hard, but have loved even harder, and thus our marriage has done more than survived, it has thrived.

I am blessed with a group of people who believe in me. I hope that I inspire people to believe in Christ, but it is so good to know that people believe in me as well. I am fortunate to have around me people who actively communicate to me that they believe in me. That is very sweet!

I love my kids. It is hard to add to that. I really love laughing, playing, teaching, and leading them. They are my greatest love and my greatest fear. I love them for who they are and occasionally fear all that is thrown at them everyday that is not Godly. God, I need your wisdom to father them well.

I am thankful for our new home. It is nice to settle in.

I am thankful for grace and the opportunity to give it away.

Though tomorrow I will have to fight not to get caught up in the game of "a little more," but for tonight...I just am thankful.