Love God with your intelligence...

People don't get stupid when they get saved, but too many choose to turn off their common sense when it comes to spiritual things.

We all need to use your brain when developing a relationship with God! After all, God is the one that gave you that brain to begin with! If you’re not a morning person…don’t try to spend time with God in the morning, cause you're just going to fall asleep. If you fall asleep easily at night, don't get in bed and then try to spend time with God, cause you know what is going to happen!

Be smart about developing the most important relationship there is...

Love God with your prayer...

Do you know what prayer is? Have you every wondered if you even understand it? I think in America, we have really mangled what prayer is supposed to be by making it about what we want it to be. Here's a quick question:

If you throw out a boat hook from a boat and catch hold of the shore, then start pulling; are you pulling the shore toward you, or are you pulling yourself to the shore?

The answer is simple, but when it comes to prayer, a lot of people think they are pulling the shore to them. They believe prayer is a way to get God involved in their life. More to the point, they think prayer is the way to get what they want from God. It's a means to convince God of what he should do on your behalf. Help me on this test (even though I didn't study)...hook me up with this girl (even though she's hot, but doesn't love God)...help me not to get audited (even though I didn't fill out my tax forms honestly).

Prayer is surrender...surrender to the will of God and cooperation with it. Prayer is not pulling God into my will, but rather aligning of my will to the will of God. When you look at loving God with that kind of prayer, you can see how beneficial and effective it would be.

Love God with your passion...

What is passion? What does that mean? There's an old idiom my pastor uses that says:

The proof of your passion is in your pursuit

Being truly passionate about something means you will pursue it. It takes a place of importance. It gets elevated as a priority above other things. People are passionate about a lot of things. Some are passionate about sports, some about family and some about their job. Some are passionate about a hobby, some about working out and others about reading. Not one of those things is wrong, in and of itself. The things we must be willing to do is compare the level of passion for any of those things to our passion for God.

Be willing to check passion level of your heart about relationship with God. Make sure you work at keeping the most important thing, the most important thing.

It all starts here...

There has to be a single verse of scripture that servers as a foundation for a relationship with God. I think I found it...

Mark 12:29-30 – “Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.'” (the message)

Jesus was making it clear that this was the most important thing you could do. These 4 things are paramount to helping us understand how to love God. This translation seems to brings the ancient text to life. The KJV tells us we should love God with all our "heart, soul, mind and strength", but what does that really mean?

For the next few days, I want to explore what these 4 ways of loving God really mean...

Some more answers

I was chewing on what I wrote yesterday myself, when I thought I should write some more. I believe God still speaks to us today. I believe that there are many ways we can receive instruction and direction from God. Having said that...combined with what I wrote yesterday...I don't want to be accused of using my "not hearing" to be an excuse for being lazy.

Paul experienced God's silence...related to his "thorn in the flesh". He did not answer him during 3 separate "seasons" of his life when Paul really put his attention toward getting God's attention. The answer was finally "no". Of course, that's never the answer we want! God didn't stop there, he did promise to give Paul the grace to accept his situation. This is where we live. We all have something, someone or some aspect of life that we want God to change!

Just the other day someone prophetically spoke into my life. Here is what they said:

God is pleased with you. He has heard your prayer and is going to answer you, but you must remain humble.

That's much like what God's response to Paul was. God wanted him to maintain his humility so that God could receive the glory. Remember to always keep God in proper perspective...but more importantly, keep yourself in proper perspective as well.

Answers

I need some answers. You ever been there? I have been praying and pursuing God about some very specific stuff for over 5 years now...and I've gotten nothing. I've blamed myself, I've questioned my salvation, I've done it all. I know better than to blame God, so it seems there is only one other option. In these times of frustration I recently discussed it with a very wise person that I have the utmost respect for. It was during that conversation that they gave me a simple sentence that I wanted to share with you. If you find yourself struggling to make a decision or you are weighing several things and there appears to be no specific inkling or direction from God...remember this simple phrase:

When God is silent, it may be because he trusts you to make the right decision

Chew on that for a while...

I'm back

Wow...vacation was great. Kind of just what the doctor ordered. Relax, skim board, do some fishing and spend time with family - especially my wife! I love the beach. I took books to read, but got no where!

As promised, I'll post one picture. Not a great shot, but there weren't many to choose from. I've got to check with my sister-in-law to see if she got any video footage... I spent most of THU morning skim boarding since the wind wasn't that strong and the waves were lining up really nice. I quit early...not because I wanted to, but because I knew I would get hurt if I didn't. Last years hamstring popping experience was not only painful, but was debilitating! I couldn't walk right for nearly 2 weeks. So, I only put my body on the line for about 2 hours. I guess I'm getting wiser with age. I ran into 4-5 teenagers that all came down by the pier to skim...they were pretty good. They were amazed by my board (which was older than most of them...custom made in 1987), and my skills! Good times had by all...

new stuff

I'm working on my next book...and I wanted to give all of you a preview from the introduction...

God loves you. How many times have you heard that statement? Think about the magnitude of those three little words. Close your eyes and mediate on the concept of God loving you. Let them permeate your thoughts and transcend your limited understanding. Consider each of them individually for a minute. God; the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe. Loves; adores, feels affection for, finds irresistible. You; that combination of feelings, thoughts, attitudes and actions that make up a period of time. Put those together and you have an all-mighty creator of all things that finds everything about you irresistible.

the noise is back

Well...my "tomorrow" went a little longer than anticipated. It was nice having the peace and quiet of an empty house for a week. The kids are back and so, things are back to "normal" - whatever that is!

Sunday evening services continue to be a blast! Our pastor is really nailing it as he gets to the heart of apathy and mediocrity that defines the 21st century "christian". I again recommend you get the CD's, or the podcasts (if they are filming the evening services). They are a great resource to re-vitalize our zeal.

Things personally are pretty good. Work is crazy, but we have some vacation later this week to the beach - really looking forward to some skimboarding! Maybe I'll include some video clips and pics when we get back. Everyone I encounter along the beach is always impressed by the 40-something guy letting it rip out there.

The quiet has begun...

All four of our kids left for camp today. It's been about 18 hours of quiet...I can still hear the crickets - and I'm up way too late. The quiet will all come crashing down way before my kids get home on FRI. We have visitors on the way - will actually be here in about 20 hours or so. I'm enjoying the quiet while I can! Diane and I went out to dinner, ALONE! I almost didn't know how to act when the bill was less than $30! My clan usually runs me about $70 when we go out to eat...so we don't very often!

I'll have a more spiritual update tomorrow! I promise!

Getting behind...

I feel somewhat overwhelmed as of late...the summer has a way of doing that to you.

The kids (all 4) are headed off to camp next week, which means the house will be quiet...well kind of. My sister-in-law comes in next TUE with her husband and 3 kids. They will be staying with us until August 4th, when we leave for the National Fine Arts Festival. Yes, that really is 35 days! They live in Canada (Calgary), so they make it a long trip whenever they get to come! It's not so bad, though, since I'm her favorite and all...

The message on WED went great...response was good. I love preaching and teaching...

Part 2 is on for tomorrow...

I get to finish my message from last week, this week. I wasn't sure if I'd get the opportunity to finish right away or have to wait for awhile. Turns out, Pastor got back from vacation MON morning after driving through the night on SUN, then had presbyter meetings all day on TUE. I feel for the guy and am really excited about speaking again...

Sorry it's been a while...

I spoke on being an influence on WED. Here are some of the highlights:

All of you have a measure of influence, no matter where you work, where you live. You have influence on the lives of others. If you are married, you are an influence...If you have children, you are an influence...If you have a job, you are an influence...If you have a friend, you are an influence...You get the idea.

If you think about it…the entire New Testament models this concept. The process of relaying/advancing the gospel all lies in your ability to influences others.

Here's a diagram of what I call your “Sphere of influence”:

...more tomorrow...

Tonights service...

I get to preach tonight...YEAH! I've been working on my message and it's just pouring out of me. My message is titled - "Living a life of influence - allowing your life to make a difference". It's been amazing, with all the research and study, how God has just put it all together. I've already warned pastor that it's going to take at least 2 weeks to get through all the material. If you get to read this before 7:30pm or so this evening - remember to pray for me!

Where has it gone?

2008 is nearly half way over...where has it all gone? It seems like the year just started and already we've started summer (well, officially in a few days, but you know what I mean).

My oldest turns 17 this coming weekend...hard to believe! She's so grown up and that makes me feel pretty old. She'll be a senior this year and then we have to do the whole college thing. I thought Jesus and I had a deal ... he was supposed to come back before any of my kids got this old. It's kind of hard to deal with - but it is exciting to see them take some steps of independence. Letting go isn't really the hard part - it's the internal debating as to whether or not I did a good enough job raising her so that she can survive in this world - and thrive in her relationship with God. That's the weight I feel now...

It's way too early

Love will make you do crazy things. Yes, it is just after 4am...and my wife is headed out of town. Her nephew graduates from high school in Virginia this weekend and she's headed there to celebrate. Of course, she had a 6am flight, so that means leaving the house at 4 to get there. Now that she's gone, I can't sleep. I started doing some work, but of course no one else is up working and I can't get any work done either.

I get to preach next WED at church. So maybe I will work on my sermon. Keep me in prayer the rest of this week with my wife out of town...things could get interesting.

Father's Day

We’re doing a special Father’s day service this year titled "Who's your daddy?". We've combined forces with an energy drink manufacture to provide thousands of free energy drinks as a promotional blitz of the area. One of their products is actually called "Who's your daddy?". [http://www.empirebeverage.com/]

Their legal department has even worked with us to provide free marketing materials that merge their logo and ours, as well as provide us their products at cost! It should be an interesting service…the pineapple cranberry flavored drinks we are passing out are really good.

From bad to worse...

Here I go with another rant.

I’m so sick of people that blame God for the position we are in here in America. It’s as though they forget that we (yes, Christian’s too) have played a big part in where we find ourselves. Our pastor is doing a series on Sunday nights called “Awakening”. He has even suggested that people get a copy of my book – “Wake Up, America!”, [http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60247-809-1] because he and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to the state of the church in America.

The church is in worse condition than it was 100 years ago…that in spite of “revivals” that have been ongoing during that time. The point of this series is that it’s too late for revival in America…we need an awakening! We need the spirit of God to change our entire cities…not just recycle a few Christians.

You’d do yourself good to order these services on DVD or CD, they have been awesome. [http://www.victoriouslifechurch.com/]

Influence versus Dominance

I came across an interesting quote recently...

Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say. (Marketing Executive from Citrix Corporation)

There is real difference between influencing and dominating. As a leader, you need to be careful to influence, but never dominate. Dominance creates a huge lack of respect on both ends (the dominator and the dominatee). A relationship governed by influence creates a sense of shared control and at least some level of satisfaction. Dominance destroys all of that!

You have to be able to give and receive influence. Refusal to receive influence simply says you are stubborn, must have things your way and that you are better and smarter than anyone else.

The only good ideas a dominator recognizes are the ones they come up with. If anyone else has an idea or is going to receive credit...then you can forget it. Just this year at work I had an idea to fix a problem we discovered during the end of year processing. It was shot down by a very dominating person, only to resurface as a "miracle" solution (while I was out of the office) that was credited to the very person that originally shot it down.

It's a very frustrating type of relationship to be involved in, so examine your relationships (marriage, friends, business) and make sure you are not dominating others.

Relationships

I guess all of you think I watch too much animal planet by now...but actually, I learned most of what I know about animals from reading books and observation. I used to go on nature excursions with my grandmother in the woods, down the beach and many other places. They always had a bird feeder and I just enjoyed watching.

Speaking of grandmothers...I want to just post a word about how important relationships are. Both of my dad's parents have passed and neither of my mom's are doing well. I often feel guilty about not seeing my grandparents more before they passed. With the busy life I lead, I have all the excuses in the world not to see them or even be in touch with them often. After all, there are about 900 miles between us! But, if you have a relationship that just isn't quite right - make it a priority to do what you can to make it right!

Let me give you a few powerful scriptures to ponder...

• 1 Peter 3:7 - "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers"
• Matthew 5:23-24 - "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift"
• 1 Timothy 5:8 - "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever"

That's some "in your face" truth...you need to take care of your family and your relationships...make them a priority!