Tag Archives: abundant life

The Amazing Life God Wants for You

March 22, 2013 • Categories: personal prayers • by

Long Travel

Life will never be the same for my family. We have taken the plunge and are now halfway around the world. We don’t know the language. We don’t know the city. Everything is new.

Sometimes God is not all we want until He is all we have.

Jesus has offered us an abundant life, but have you ever noticed that it comes on His terms. Billy Graham becomes the chaplain to presidents and Mother Teresa becomes an ambassador to the poor. Rick Warren leads a mega-church for many years, and Francis Chan leaves his mega-church to work in the poor of San Francisco. Does God have a better plan for some than others? Absolutely not. He is uniquely gifted each of us to live the life that brings us the greatest joy and Him the greatest glory.

It’s still too early (and probably will be for some time) to tell exactly what is going on in our hearts in this move. All we know is we have a vision that is moving us forward. We are like a fish out of water. Everyone stares at us. We can’t understand what they say to us. How can we effectively start a business here that will help anyone? Still, we know we are more alive following His plan than staying the same hoping to be blessed.

God desires you to live an amazing life.

God will not make everyone move, but God’s best for your life is not for you to settle. God desires you to live an amazing life. He wants to turn your life into a bestselling movie with all the drama and excitement that keeps you wanting to know what will happen next.

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Intimacy Creates New Life – How to Naturally Birth a Ministry

January 25, 2013 • Categories: feeling unwanted • by

Birth a Ministry image

Intimacy Creates New Life

One of the first commands God gave us is to procreate: “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), and multiplication is the natural overflow of intimacy. It is God’s math: the two shall become one and the new one shall become a multitude. “Out of your seed I will bless the nations” (Genesis 22:18).

When everything is as it was created, each couple will want to have offspring which will come through the intimate relations of the couple. As the love grows between the couple, they will naturally want to team up and pour out their love on something that has parts of both of them. Their desire is, “I want to become so ‘one’ with you that we will have a child that is the perfect union of the two of us.”

New Life Apart From Intimacy Creates Orphans

Unfortunately some people get together not for love but for what they can get out of the other person. Because the natural tendencies of coming together produces offspring, they have a child that they don’t want because that child is not a mixture of two people in love, but a result of selfish gratification. These children are the ones that often become orphans.

God Created Us as an Overflow of Intimacy in the Godhead

God was so in love with Himself (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), that He wanted an object of their joint love. “Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Mankind was created out of love within the Godhead. You were created because God wanted another person to join into the love relationship of the Godhead. You were made as a recipient of God’s love.

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God May Want Me – Does Anyone Else?

January 10, 2013 • Categories: feeling unwanted • by

I Hate Myself

In the last post I shared how I felt unwanted growing up. As I tried to state, the feeling may not have been true, but it felt true to me and became my reality. When I became a Christian, I embraced the idea that God wanted me. He wanted to be with me and spend time with me. My life took a drastic change.

I was good at playing their game.

I became good at being a Christian and I started to find more and more friends. Life was so much better. However, there were still nagging doubts that lingered around. After coming from a belief that nobody wanted me, the only explanation I had for these new friends was because I was good at playing their game. Since I could do Christianity well, that must be why they liked me.

I had to try harder and keep improving myself in order to maintain the level of friendships I was starting to accrue. As the pressure of become a better Christian got stronger, I also knew about the sins I was hiding from everyone. If they knew about those things, then all these new friends would leave.

If people knew the real me, they would reject me.

The old lies that nobody wanted me started to replay in my head. “Nobody wants you. They only like you because you fooled them. They don’t know the real you. If anyone one knew the real you, they would reject you.” I could not reveal my weaknesses to anyone because I felt they would certainly leave if only they knew.

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Jesus Entered This World To Give Light in Darkness

December 17, 2012 • Categories: prayer guides • by

Light Shining in Darness
image courtesy of NASA Hubble Telescope

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

Matthew 2:16-18

How can the entrance of hope bring such pain?

Christmas is a time of hope. Jesus came to bring light into the darkness, yet darkness still persists. After the wise men returned home without going back to Herod, he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem. Hundreds of families lost there loved ones, needlessly murdered by one evil man. How can the entrance of hope bring such pain?

This weekend America has been asking similar questions. This is the Christmas season. Presents have been bought; joy is in the air. Where was God in the midst of this tragedy? Where is He now?

My brother died unexpectedly

Last year my brother got sick with a fever and quickly died in the night. The day before he was hiking with his daughter; the next day he was dead. He had three young kids. Where’s the warning?

One thing my brother’s death solidified in me was that God is good all the time (see the eulogy I gave). We are not like those that grieve without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). You will never get me to believe that my brother or any of these kids died according to God’s design. Jesus came to give us life and that is what we carry. There is another who comes to bring death (John 10:10). However, God can redeem the evil.

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Lord, Renew a Steadfast Spirit Within Me

August 23, 2012 • Categories: prayer guides • by

Steadfast Dog Bible Quote

I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. – Jeremiah 32:39-40

I am currently reading through Jeremiah and it feels as if it is my first time. While there is plenty that stands out to me, what I want to share now is the verse above. God’s people had turned from Him to foreign gods, and Jeremiah was to prophesy pending judgment in hopes they would repent and turn from their ways. God’s people were fickle and reading through the Old Testament you see them vacillating on whether they were going to follow God.

In the midst of Jeremiah’s prophesies, he describes a day where God would give His people a singleness of heart and action to never turn away from Him. This is the day we are in.

However, as Christians we still seem fickle about our devotion to follow God. We may never turn to Asherah poles or bowing down to Baal, but we keep turning persistent sins and trusting in our own understanding.

How do we get this steadfastness of heart and mind that Jeremiah predicted?

We are to appropriate it. We need to ask God for what He wants to give and believe He has given it to us. We should declare it over over our lives each day until we never doubt that it is true.

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Update On My Stepping Out In Faith

August 1, 2012 • Categories: personal prayers • by

Leap of Faith FAIL
image source unknown

The beginning of this year I shared my current story of stepping out in faith. Today is time to share the rest of the story. Why today? Why is six months later time to share this update?

Today my wife and I went to court to finalize our bankruptcy.

I know what you are thinking. What the heck? If this is the result to trusting God, why would I take the risk?

“Christianity isn’t boring; Christians are boring. It’s like we’ve been invited to go cliff jumping. We go to the cliff. We look over the edge. But, we never jump. Christianity is only boring if you never jump.” – Banning Liebscher

At the beginning of the year, I felt God leading me to leave my job to trust Him with something new. I didn’t know what He was calling me into; I only knew that first step. Over the last six months I have started my own business helping companies find new customers and increase sales. This has mainly been in online marketing but has also included strategies for the brick and mortar.

Most of these stories of stepping out in faith you will hear, will tell of a rough start and then God coming through at the last minute. My families story got the first half right. I met with several companies and individuals and left encouraged each time of God’s calling for me. However, over the first six month’s I received one client and burned through savings.

The burn was aggravated because we still owned a home in another state that wouldn’t sell. That mortgage plus the rent for where we lived made up a large monthly expense. I asked God if I was to look for part-time work, and felt I was not to pursue those options. As May ended, the pressure of the dual payments created enough red flags to push even harder on the options of unloading the house.

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Embrace the Mistakes

June 14, 2012 • Categories: worldview • by

Stefon Harris jazz musician
original image courtesy of Wikipedia

A couple weeks ago I was reading in BusinessWeek about jazz musician, Stefon Harris. He shared about an incident that took place on tour with Wynton Marsalis.

“I can recall a specific moment. We were playing a blues in A-flat at Chicago Orchestra Hall. I was taking a solo, and I hit the most wrong note that you could possibly hit. And I hit it really hard. You could hear everybody in the room hold their breath. The other musicians started yelling, “Hit it again!” The audience was like, “What’s going to happen?” I hit the note again, and the band started to react to it. It was a “Eureka!” moment. It was the beginning of the realization for me that there are no mistakes in jazz. Now, sometimes, I get bored with the so-called right notes. I will consciously hit a random note just to see where it goes. When things go wrong, people come together. That’s when my band is most creative.” – Stefon Harris

I recently heard that it is common for Christians to get OCD, a behavior where they focus in on something and cannot move past it. Quite often Christians focus on mistakes or potential mistakes and cannot get past them. I love this quote from Harris because I like his view on mistakes. They lead to a coming together and greater creativity.

God has dealt with sin. He doesn’t want us to work to earn our forgiveness or work out of our guilt. He took on the penalty and shame of sin in order that we may be free. Free to move past our mistakes. Free to focus on what God wants us to focus on… our relationship with Him.

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Keep Believing God’s Promise to You

April 18, 2012 • Categories: worldview • by

Sundial to the Sky

God’s Promise is Only the Start

Joseph has a dream that he would have a position of authority. His dream is followed by 13 years of slavery and prison, in which he rises to the positions of authority. Each place has parts of his dream, but it never realizes until the day he is brought before Pharaoh.

David has an extraordinary experience of the chief religious leader of his time declaring him king of Israel after each of his brothers were overlooked for the position. He has some immediate successes with Goliath and advancement in Saul’s army, but it is 15 years before that word comes to pass.

Abraham gets a word from God, a promise that he would be made a great nation. He believes the word but has to wait 25 years before he even gets one son.

What Assurances Do You Need of the Promise?

The thing that stands out to me is not necessarily the wait but the acceptance that the promise would come to pass. What assurances did any of these men have that what they were told would happen? How many dreams have you had at night were from God? How do you know what someone says to you is from God?

Even the story of Abraham doesn’t explain how God spoke to him. Did he hear an audible voice, or was it just God’s voice spoken into his thoughts?

The Promise Gets Tested

I do not doubt any of these men’s experiences, but it makes me wonder how can I be so sure. Several months ago I started my newest walk of faith which I mentioned in my post, Does Your Life Make Zero Sense to UnBelievers. Now I face what Blackaby calls the crisis of belief.

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