Who is Jesus to you?

There are many people who acknowledge that Jesus did come to earth. Some consider him a false prophet, while others think that he was one of the great prophets filled with age old wisdom. Here’s what Paul had to say about that:


“For although there may be so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many of them, both of gods and of lords and masters. Yet for us there is only one God, the Father who is the Source of all things and for Whom we have life and one Lord, Jesus Christ by Whom are all things and through and by Whom we ourselves exist.” 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 (amp)

Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. There are many Christians who readily accept Jesus as Savior. They acknowledge that through the Cross, He has paid the penalty for sin allowing us to be reconciled to the Father. However, in addition to being our Savior, Jesus is also Lord. As our Lord, we belong to Him and He has the power to decide our lives. Unfortunately, when many people hear the term Lord, it paints negative image in their minds. They believe that the lordship of Jesus is like the lordship of man, but nothing could be further from the truth!

When you and I allow Jesus to decide the course of our lives, the outcome will always be good. Before the foundation of the earth, God charted our course. He wrote the end of our story from the beginning and according to Jeremiah 29:11, it’s a good plan filled with peace and not evil! If you stop and think about it, God could make you serve him. After all He is God Almighty so who would have the power to stop Him? But that’s not the relationship He desires with humanity. He wants us to come to Him in love because we have realized the great love He has shown to us through Christ Jesus.

When Adam and Eve sinned, we lost the ability to enter into the presence of God. We couldn’t have face to face communication with him. Without His presence we lost our power and provision. Many people spend most of their lives working for provision and power without realizing that every need is met when we pursue a relationship with God through Christ.

Let me ask you a few questions, “Do you require the presence of God daily?” Are you okay as long as your needs are met? When you do spend time with God, do you listen to what He has to say or are you just telling him about what you need?

Right now, God is calling you into a love relationship with Him; a place where you seek his face, not just his hand. You may be thinking, “What about all the things I need?” Romans 8:32 tells us that He that did not spare his only Son has freely given us all things. God isn’t calling you and I to spend time with him so that we can go without, but because He knows that it’s only through Him that every need can be met in abundance.

I challenge you to examine your relationship with Christ. Look at the time you spend or don’t spend with Him and make the adjustment necessary. If you do, you will come to appreciate His Lordship in ways you never imagined and discover that Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to you…and me too!


http://www.box.net/index.php?rm=box_v2_mp3_player_shared&shared_name=5dj7ccpseq&node=f_350770712&single_file=1

Spread the Love

Watch this segment of Steve Harvey's interview on TBN with Donnie McClurkin. It serves as a powerful reminder that as Christians God has called us to show his love to others. The foundation of Christianity is God's love displayed through grace. God sent his Son, Jesus to pay a price that mankind could not pay so that each of us might have the opportunity to be reconciled to God through Christ.

There are so many people that we can reach or help grow when we don't sit in judgement. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't tell people the truth, but the bible says to speak the truth in love. What does it mean to speak the truth in love? It means that I tell you what the Word says because I love you and I truly want to see you be all the you were created to be. It's not my time to make myself feel better because I don't do what you do...It's not a license to attack and judge in the name of truth.

Here's the reality...prayerfully we are better than we use to be, but none of us have arrived. We are all a work in progress continually being transformed into the image of Christ. There are things that I have overcome that you still struggle with, but there are things you have overcome that are a struggle for me. So instead of us criticizing each other, we should help each other to grow in Christ.

Standing out in front of an abortion clinic with signs condemning the mother and physcians to hell, will never touch their hearts and allow them to see that God has another way. In fact, it just causes them to dig their heels in and hold on to their position. Telling people who are homosexual that God hates them will certainly never draw them to God or even allow them to hear our position on God's will for men and women. Spewing hatred in the name of God is just not God. God is LOVE! He hates sin, but not sinners. In fact, Psalm 103 tells us that He has not dealt with after our sins or rewarded us according to inquities. That is the message of grace...we don't get what we deserve. Hallelujah!

There is a parable in the bible where a man (let's call him John) owes a great debt to the king and he has no ability to pay. John throws himself on the mercy of the court and the king has compassion and forgives his debt. The man is free! He leaves the king's presence and runs into a man (we'll call him Dave) who owed him a much smaller about. John badgers Dave about paying. The Message translation says that, John grabs him by the collar. Daves begs for mercy, but John turns a deaf ear and has him thrown in jail. When the king finds out, he is enraged and throws John in jail until he can pay every dime. (See Matthew 18)

I know that most of the time, this scripture is used to talk about the importance of forgiving and having this compassion towards those who have injured us, but if we are required to show mercy towards people who have hurt us, shouldn't we also show mercey toward the person who is struggling with sin? How can we not remember the great mercy God shows towards us even when we aren't getting everything right? I believe that it grieves the heart of God to see us be critical and hateful towards other believers. It seems to be so easy to judge whether someone "really" loves God, when we should remember that this is spiritual warfare and even when people want to change, the enemies fights them hard to stop them. Maybe they haven't been taught; maybe they don't know how to change; maybe they don't want to change. The reality is....we don't know why people struggle with certain sins.

We do know that prayer changes things! We do know that in the times when we have struggled with sin, we didn't need to be kicked and torn down about it, we needed someone who was willing to help us walk through the process until we were free. We also know that Jesus has never torn us down because we didn't change fast enough...He keeps on loving, instructing and leading us into a life of total freedom.

Challenge: If there is anyone in your life that you are judging....put them first on your prayer list. Pray for them before you pray for anyone, including yourself. Ask God to help you see them the way He does. Ask for wisdom to minister to them. It's hard to judge someone when you're seeing them from the eyes of love....

Don't forget to watch the link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkybh5XwUQk

Think Like God Thinks!

One of my favorite scriptures is "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is the good, perfect and acceptable will of God." (Romans 12:2) I believe that the true reality of how God created mankind to live can only be revealed in our lives when we think like God thinks. Part of thinking like God does involves what not to do, for example, no lying, stealing, cheating, fornication, jealousy, etc. However our lives as Christians never reach the fullness of abundant life when our only focus is what we can't do. Remember we were called out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Therefore a crucial piece to our new life is how to live in the kingdom.


The kingdom contains many components, but if we had to sum the kingdom up in one word, that word is LOVE. How can I be sure? Because God is love (1 John 4:6). God doesn't have love...He is love. This means that every Word that God has every spoken to you or about you is rooted in his great love for you. Unfortunately most of us have heard far too much about the wrath of God. I'm not saying that God doesn't have wrath, I'm saying that his wrath is against sin....not sinners. I'm saying that His wrath was satisfied through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross for the sins of the world. In other words...God Ain't Mad No More!


I've spent the majority of the year reading the gospels and I've noticed that Jesus never tells anyone to come to God or risk hell. He always responds in compassion even to people who the religious elite (Pharisees and Sadduccees) consider undeserving of compassion. Why? Because Jesus was the expression of God in the earth. He was and continues to be LOVE! Jesus showed so much love by healing, restoring and feeding people that they were drawn into a love relationship with God. The crowds didn't follow Jesus because he threatened punishment, judgment or damnation. They followed because He expressed so much care and concern for each of them that they couldn't stay away! They became curious about a God that didn't respond with wrath, pain and affliction.


When Jesus told the disciples to preach the kingdom...He wasn't telling them to preach hell. He was telling to tell everyone that the breach sin had created had been restored through the Cross. He was saying that every man, woman, boy and girl had a right to have a relationship with God the Creator without fear. After all, how else can you come boldly to the throne to obtain grace unless you know you will encounter God's love and mercy?


Love is the most powerful force ever. It raised Jesus from the dead. The revelation of God's great love for you in spite of your mistakes/sins/transgressions has the power to set you free from every mistake/sin/transgression. You can't live right because you are afraid God will get you. You can't get others to live right because they are afraid of hell. Right living comes from right thinking. Right thinking is knowing that God loves you unconditionally. The more you realize his love, the less desire you have to do anything that's not pleasing to him. Not because you fear hell, but because you never want to be separated from Him.


How do I know this is true? Look at any natural relationship and if there is fear, there will never be transparency. If you were afraid of your parents, you didn't run to them when you were in trouble, you hid it! You tried to find your own way out (which usually didn't work). On the other hand if your parents had created an atmopshere free from fear, you told them every thing and probably avoided a lot of additional trouble.


A religion based on fear forces people to hid their issues and pretend to be something they aren't because they are afraid of God's rejection or punishment. A relationship based on unconditional love allows people to run to God with their issues because they know they will never be rejected and that it's his love that can set them free.


Psalm 103 tells us that God has not dealt with us according to our sin or rewarding us according our inquity. In other words, He's not holding sin against you. He wants you to know his love because it's his love that sets you free from the bondage of sin and allows you to live abundantly.


I encourage you to leave behind the fear of God's rejection and wrath and embark on the freeing journey of knowing His love for you. It will affect every area of your life. It will change how you view Him, yourself and others! As it changes you...it will change the world. Aren't you called to be a world changer? Spread the Love!

Do you have your BHAGS?

Good Morning!

I promised you strategy today so let’s get after it!

What is strategy? Strategy is a plan, method or series of maneuvers for obtaining a specific goal.

I found several definitions, but here’s the one I like best:

“A specific way of organizing your resources in order to consistently get a desired result.”

Do you notice that every time we hear about success, victory or change, we also hear about consistency? It’s impossible to get the results we want in any area of life without it. The bible calls it patience. Often people think patience is sitting backing waiting on God, but if you study it out, you will discover patience is a powerful force. It paints the picture of being consistently the same, moving in a certain direction even in the face of great opposition and opportunities to quit. That is not a passive position! It’s a position of power! Consistently enables us to stay the course to get to the end result and then continue to do what’s necessary to stay there once we’ve arrived.

In order for our strategies to work, they have to be something we can implement consistently. For example you can develop a strategy for weight loss that involves working out 90 minutes a day because it will help you accomplish your goal faster. However, if you only have 30 minutes a day to commit to exercise, you can’t consistently work the plan/strategy you’ve established so MAKE SURE YOUR STRATEGY WORKS FOR YOU!

Road Map

A successful strategy should serve as a roadmap or GPS. If I follow the directions, I’ll end up at the location. Have you ever entered an address in the GPS, followed it but ended up at the wrong place? I have and it can be frustrating. Once when we were in Oklahoma City looking for a gym and the GPS mapped it out, but it didn’t know about the construction that was taking place. No matter how many times we followed those instructions, we were never going to get to gym. That’s what it’s like to have a wrong strategy.

We each have strategies for our lives even if they are there by default…meaning it’s a routine we fell into because we failed to develop a strategy. Unfortunately, those strategies get us results, but not the ones we want. If I come home every day, eat dinner and sit in front of the television until bed time, snacking, then my strategy guarantees weight gain even though that’s not what I want. So I have to be mindful of the strategy I’m establishing with my actions.

Ok now that we’ve covered that, let’s look at the Seven Components of an Effective Strategy. As always there could be more and if you think of more add them to the comments so everyone can take advantage of them.

1. Don’t just think it – INK IT! Put it in writing! In the Old Testament, God told one his prophets (Habakkuk) to “write the vision and make it plain so when those who read it could run with it.” Think of it this way…it must be important for you to write your strategy in a manner that’s easy to follow because God said do it! Is it possible that God knows something we don’t? Absolutely! One thing He knows is that writing a vision helps you stay committed and remember why you need to make certain choices.

“Reduce your plan to writing…The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.” Napoleon Hill

2. Dream again – What did you want to be a child? I’m sure you had many plans. You might want to be an artist on Monday, a surgeon on Tuesday and a teacher on Wednesday. Until some (not so helpful) adult told that you couldn’t be all of that. Here’s my question? Who says? Is there something in the Bible that says you have to do the same thing all of your life? Of course not. So it’s ok to have big dreams of doing lots of great things. If you don’t finish them all here, maybe you’ll pick it up in heaven! So dream Big…

3. What’s your BHAG – It stands for “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” Have you heard of it? It’s a term coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book, “Built to Last.” They found that the one factor that was common among successful efforts that was missing from unsuccessful efforts was “the use of ambitious, even outrageous goals to motivate people and focus them toward concrete accomplishments.” Bill Gates has been quoted as saying, “if an idea at his company isn’t laughed at least three times then it’s too small.” But I think the most important reason to think BIG is that if you can accomplish it in your strength, then it didn’t come from God. I believe God gives us big dreams so that we can accomplish them together. He gives us a dream and then helps us make it come to pass. We handle the natural (with His wisdom) and He handles the supernatural. It’s those big dreams that change the world or at least your world.

4. Expect to Succeed – Decide what you want to accomplish and focus on that. Don’t spend all of your time focusing on the problems you could encounter. A good strategy will help you navigate the setbacks, but don’t let the fear of failure or the unknown stop you from starting. Trust that God doesn’t give you desires to set you up to fail. He wants you to accomplish them, but you need to believe in what He has placed in you. You must have confidence in what you can accomplish even if no one else does.

5. Bring your dreams into the present – Often the reason our faith doesn’t work is because we keep it in the future. We don’t see it as a present reality. What separates people who finish college from those who don’t? It’s not intelligence…it’s how they see themselves. The moment I started college I saw that degree as mine! It’s how I keep going to school even when there many opportunities to stop. Begin to see yourself at your ideal weight or debt free or whatever you’re dreaming about and watch your life line up.

6. Be sure your goals are YOUR goals – As I’ve told you before a large number of people hate their jobs. Could it be that many of these people selected jobs based on what others (parents, teachers, spouses and friends) expected from them? Maybe they chose what they “should” do instead of what their heart desired. If your goals aren’t really your goals even if you manage to be successful, you will never be fulfilled.

7. Make sure your goals agree with your values – If you are a Christian, those values need to be in line with what God values. But even if you aren’t a Christian, you can’t be successful violating your core values. If you violate the basic values of integrity, treating others right and hard work, it will affect you mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Goals must fit your values, standards and desires. If they don’t I becomes very difficult to remain committed to see it to the end.

Take some time to look at these steps. Ask yourself the tough questions and answer honestly. Write your vision and strategy down, and then follow it. Lastly be committed to your goal, but flexible in your approach. You may have to make modifications along the way, but that’s ok, just keep moving forward asking God to lead you!

Let's get off to a good start!

Hey everybody!


I hope you had a fantastic weekend! I hope you took some time to relax and enjoy your loved ones, but I also hope you made an investment in yourself by spending time identifying the goals that you plan to accomplish in the next year. If you didn’t…it’s not too late! Maybe you could spend your lunch hour or do it before you go to bed tonight. In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m not going to stop talking to you about setting goals and planning because I believe that God has given you the potential to do amazing things and I want to see you do them! Often we can become so focused on what we have to do today that we forget the importance of planning for the future, but if we fail to plan and act we usually end up with a future that looks very different from what we dream about. So stick with the goal planning and make sure you’re taking action steps!

I know I usually only post twice a week, but I just couldn’t wait to blog again because I love hearing how these convesations are challenging you to be all God created you to be! Having dreams is important, but dreams don’t just become reality. Why? Because nothing just happens! We have to turn our dreams into visions. How do you know when a dream has become a vision? In order for dreams to become visions, it must be accompanied by a “strategy” and a “compelling why”.

Let’s look at the “compelling why” first. It's reason that means so much to you that it empowers you to make the right choices.Have you ever wanted to lose weight, needed to lose weight, but failed to take the necessary actions? The primary reason we fail to act when we know we should is that we don’t have a compelling why. Even if we have research and examples to tell us the danger of carry excess weight, until we develop a reason that is bigger than the food we have to give up, we continue down the same path. No one else can give us that, it must come from within, but once we have it, then the how becomes much easier.

Let me give you an example… Every since my last baby (Canaan) who is 3 now, I’ve said I needed to lose weight, but when it came time to make the choices that would cause me to lose weight, I failed to choose correctly. One day I realized that the choices I was making weren’t positioning me to be healthy and active for my grandchildren. That’s the day I got my compelling why. I don’t want to the grandmother who has to take my grandkids to Disney riding a motorized scooter! I want to be able to play and run with them. Once I got the why, the how because easy. Eat less and move more! That happened in April and since then I’ve lost 30lbs. I’ve still got a ways to go, but because I have a reason that is very important to me, eating right and exercising is not nearly as hard as in the past.

What about you?

Do you have a compelling reason for…

Growing spiritually?

Building healthy relationships?

Losing weight?

Getting in shape?

Becoming debt free?

Establishing a new career?

If not, spend some time thinking about the last question I asked in “What are you planning?” The question is “What do you lose if you don’t change?”

After a compelling why, you need a strategy. A strategy is simply, “specific ways of organizing your resources in order to consistently get a desired result.” Your resources include your time, your talent, God’s Word, your money, your relationship, etc. You strategy is your roadmap. It’s how you will get to your destination.

Strategy is what we will talk about on Wednesday. Until then invest in your future by doing the work to turn your dreams into visions. Some of you may just need to revisit your plans to remind yourself why you need to make certain choices. Others you actually need to get started but where ever you are today, you can move a little further with some action!

Finally, I love your comments, but PLEASE post them on the blog so others can learn from your wisdom and insight! We’re a community helping each other reach our goals and living our best life.

Until Wednesday, do something AMAZING!

What are you planning?

Hey guys,

I hope you are enjoying the blog. I also hope you are using it as a resource to help you live an amazing life because that’s what you were created to do.

There’s an old saying, “If you plan to fail, you fail to plan.” I must admit it took me a little time to accept this as a truth for my life. By nature, I’m kind of a fly by the seat of my pants girl…if you know what I mean! So the thought of actually writing down a plan seemed a little restrictive to me. But after being self reflective, I noticed I wasn’t making any substantial progress in certain areas of my life. The more I read about planning and goal setting, the more clearly I could see that my failure to plan was the reason I was stagnant in those areas.

I decided to take about a month examining every area of my life, creating a vision and developing action steps. These are some of the questions I asked:

1. What do I want my life to look like in 1 year, including health, wealth, relationship and spiritual walk?

 

2. Where am I now in these areas?

3. What will it take for me to get from where I am currently to where I want to be?

 

4. What will I gain if I accomplish these goals?

 

5. What will I lose if I don’t accomplish these goals?

These questions helped me develop a vision and a strategic plan to accomplish my goals. I then condensed my goals down into something small enough I could revisit daily.

It’s not enough to want change; we need strategic steps to get there because nothing just happens! Change doesn’t have to take forever, but it must be purposeful. It must be a conscious decision to consistently make quality choices that agree with our goals. Developing a written plan that I revisit often helps me remember why I’m not eating chocolate cake or why I’m not going to the mall with my girlfriends because without a compelling why, we will never follow through on the best laid out plans.

If there are some areas in your life where you’re ready for change, I encourage you to spend some time developing a vision. Don’t just think about it…INK it! Put it in writing!

In my blog, I going to talk about the keys to developing winning strategies, but in the meantime…

Let’s do something amazing!

Oh yea, don’t forget to share this blog with your friends AND leave your comments…I love hearing from you.

Have a great day!

How to eradicate the "Hump" day blues

Today is Wednesday and many people call it “hump” day because it’s the middle of the work week. Typically it’s viewed as the day we must climb over before we can begin to anticipate the weekend. If you view your week from this perspective, I encourage you to consider changing your thinking. Since the weekend is only two days, it’s insane to live for the weekend! I believe the reason so many people can’t wait for the weekend is because they are in jobs that they don’t like. In fact, a recent study revealed that 80% of people hate their jobs! Think about how much time you spend working or preparing to work. If you hate that job, then that obviously has to affect your attitude about life itself because the job consumes so much of your life.


The reality is that most people work for money and that’s ok. But unless I’m mistaken, there’s not a rule book that says, “If you work for money, you must hate what you do.” So if you’re a part of the 80% that hate the work they do….it’s time for a change. Unfortunately change is hard and even when we know we need to change, we still fight it. I guess that’s just a part of human nature, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t change. We just need effective strategies to help us change.

Did you know that …

Most people don’t change until the pain we associate with staying the same becomes greater than the pain we associate with changing.

As a result there are many people who dislike their job, weight or financial situation, but because the situation is manageable, they never take the necessary steps to have what they really desire. Are you one of those people? You know you should get another job, but with the economy the way it is, you’ve decided to just stick it out. Or maybe you thought hating your job was normal because everyone you know feels the same way. Whatever the case, you can change and it starts with a choice.

Take a little time to be reflective about your job. Ask yourself the following questions…

Why don’t I like my job? Does the work leave me unfulfilled? Is it an issue with co-workers or my boss? Am I simply in the wrong line of work?

What would it take to make this job better for me? (If there is nothing that would make the job better, it’s time to move on)

Am I in a field I love, but I’ve allowed my passion to be diminished? For example, do you love teaching, but you’ve allowed all the problems of education to affect your passion for helping others learn?

If I could create my ideal job, what would it look like? What skills do I need to do my ideal job? Do I have them already? If not, how can I acquire them?

Do I love my job but hate my pay? What can I do about that? Does another company pay more?

Is my job affecting my health, my mental state or my relationships?

Am I living for the weekend?

What am I willing to do to change?

All of the questions, along with the others you will think of as you do this exercise, allow you to locate yourself. During this process, you can determine whether you really need a new job or you just need an attitude adjustment.

So how exactly do you adjust your attitude?

1. Recognize the need for an attitude adjustment


2. Make a quality decision to change


3. Develop an attitude of gratitude – Be thankful to have a job. List the things you love about your job and put the list on your work space.


4. Evaluate your relationships- Your environment is always working on you and is always stronger than you. So if you take breaks and lunch with people who hate their job, it will rub off on you.


5. Become accountable to someone – Give someone permission to tell you that you are complaining…again

What if you really do need a new job? Here are some steps for you…

1. Recognize the need for an attitude adjustment – if you have developed an attitude of complaining you will carry it into the perfect job so STOP COMPLAINING and DO SOMETHING!


2. Make a quality decision to do what it takes to find a job you enjoy… even if that means going back to school or applying 1,000 times


3. Develop an attitude of gratitude – Be thankful that you currently have a job even if not ideal at a time when so many are unemployed


4. Decide what you like – Make a list of the skills you have and enjoy using as well as the skills you are willing to develop. You may need to seek the aid of a career counselor to help you pair your skills with the right job.


5. Be consistent – Don’t give up if it doesn’t happen overnight. Commit to changing and stick with it.


6. Remember that even the perfect job will have challenges.


This Wednesday doesn’t have to be just another “Hump” day. It can be the day that you choose to make the necessary adjustments to enjoy your life…even at work. After all if you have to work, you might as well enjoy it, RIGHT!



Have a great Wednesday!