Several weeks ago I attended a conference called Exponential.  One of the points that really stuck with me was the idea of Identifying abundant life.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10.10 NKJV)

3 Keys to Abundant Life

1. Joy – the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.

   Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:9-11 NIV)

   Are you filled with joy?

2. Peace – a state of tranquillity or quiet

   You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:7-8)

   Is there peace in you heart?

3. Righteousness – acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin

   He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:2-4)

   Are you walking in God’s righteousness?

Abundant life is not a gimmick. It is a gift from our creator. If you are not living this, then stop right now and examine your life.  What have you allowed to come in and steal your joy, your peace, your righteousness (or right relation with God)?

Make a fresh commitment, to both yourself and God, to living within His abundance!

TV is the sedative of the nation.

I have recently been evaluating the way I live my life day to day.  I broke my schedule down to evaluate how I typically spend each part of my day. The format goes like so…

Early Morning (5-8am) – Workout, Quiet Time, Go to work

Morning (8am-12pm) – Work

Afternoon (12-5pm) – Work

Evening (5-8pm) – Go Home, Finish leftover tasks, Watch TV

Night (8-11pm) – Watch TV, Sleep

This schedule over a weeks time ends up with at least three hours of television per day.  That comes out to 15 hours per week (not including weekends), which is more that a total work day. So that mean that out of a week, I have spent almost a total day worth of time staring at a box.

TV is the sedative of the nation.

- Sedative – Something that causes you to be unaware and unresponsive to your surroundings.

How much time is lost while staring the TV. How many opportunities to enjoy life are lost because we are to unaware of our surroundings. Is there anyone of us who can truly claim that our life quality has increased with the amount of television we watch.

One of the ways I personally show affection is quality time.  In the past, I believed that watching TV together is quality time, but this is not so.  I can watch television with a complete stranger.  Television allows us to “spend time” with people but truly not be there. How many families “spend time” together but are still falling apart because of no real connection.

We only get one shot at making our live matter. We only get one chance to impact the people around us.  At the end our our life, we will not evaluate ourselves on the quantity of TV time, but on the quality we passed on to those around us. I am making a commitment to watching much less TV and living a lot more life!

What Does God See You As?

So as I was driving home from Winthrop yesterday, I was flipping through the radio stations and ended up on 89.7 WMHK. Now for those of you who aren’t familiar with this station, this is the Christian station based out of Columbia that generally plays worn out songs  from the 90’s with the occasional contemporary, not played out (YET) songs that I like to worship and jam to. After the string of songs ended that consisted of “By Your Side,” “Testify to Love”, and “I Can Only Imagine,” two of the WMHK hosts came on the radio with a “question of the day.” Here’s how these work… The station asks the question, and callers call in and give them an answer. Well today’s questions was “What do you think God sees you as?” My initial response was “A MESS!” However, before I could focus so much on that response, a caller called in with an answer to the question. This woman’s response to the question was “I believe that God sees me as the clay and He is the potter. He molds me and shapes me into who I should be.” Now obviously, this woman is correct. The bible states on many accounts that He (God) is the potter, and we are the clay. Take the following verse, for instance:

Isaiah 64:8

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

My initial reaction was “Well yeah, that’s true.” But then I started thinking about how cliché that response is. I mean, how many times do we hear messages or sings songs about Him being the potter and we being the clay? So then the wheels in my head REALLY began to turn… which seems to happen a lot on my trips to and from Winthrop. What DO I really think God sees me as? As I thought about this question a little longer, my brain started to drift to a final exam I had just had a few days before. Don’t ask how this happened, my brain just works like that. This final exam was for my Choreography class. (I’m a dance education major.) We had to choreograph a 2 minute dance for ourselves and two other people. I started thinking about how I would really like to revise my choreography. I mean, I loved what I had choreographed, but I would really like to take away a few parts and add new material. Then I started to think about what my purpose was, as the creator of the work, for the choreography. In this case, it was to relay a message to viewers (about technology, but that’s beside the point.)

And that’s when it hit me. God sees me as a work, a piece of choreography, that He is constantly revising. He adds to me and takes away, which is all in his process of making me who He intended for me to be. And like the work I had just created, He created me to have a purpose… a clear, specialized purpose that is revealed to me and others by the movements, steps, and directions that I take. However, also like a piece of choreography, as I am revised, my purpose may also change. Finally, like any experienced choreographer knows, a work is NEVER finished. A piece of choreography may change slightly over years of being performed. A choreographer NEVER looks at his work and says, “That’s it! It’s perfect! It’s done!” No, there is ALWAYS something that can be changed. And there is ALWAYS something that can be added or taken away to enhance the purpose and meaning behind a work. In the same fashion, as a work of Christ, I am never fully complete.

Philippians 1:6

He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

So my question is this…

What does God see you as? What is your purpose and your meaning here on earth? What is He is adding to you or taking away in the process of forming you into what He wants you to be?

Three Types of Leaders

1. Player
2. Coach
3. Scout

• Player – This type of leader loves playing the game. Whether it is in the business world or in church world, this leader loves getting their hands dirty and doing all the work.  The problem with this is that they leave nothing for everyone else.  The are not team leaders, but silos unto themselves.  Ultimately, the growth of the organization is severely limited with this type of leadership. Growth stops when the limits of the leader is reached.

• Coach – This type of leader helps those under his/her leadership learn to be their best. They are builders and realize that they cannot do it all by themselves. A coach can handle growth because they enable other to join in the cause.

• Scout – This leader is able to see the potential in others.  The are in their best element when finding where to place new recruits. This person is also an excellent networker. They understand that their success is based in finding the best person to fill a certain spot on the team and to do this well requires good connections.

As a leader, we will all, from time to time, play each of these roles in order to get the job accomplished, but the most effective leaders are those whose roles are typically the “Coach” or the “Scout,” or a combination of both.  I encourage you to examine how you are leading. Are you a silo or a team player. Do you find talent or make the talent even better.

Let’s hear your thoughts!

This is the second part in the series “Following God is hard to do…” To read part 1, click here.

Following God is hard to do because… He will call you to do strange things.

Ezekiel’s calling was by no mean ordinary.  His audience was the rebellious people of Israel, his message was not an easy one, and God was asking him to do things that were just plain weird.

¹¹ Also measure out a sixth of a hin of water and drink it at set times. ¹² Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” ¹³ The LORD said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”¹⁴ Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”¹⁵ “Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement.” (Ezekiel 4.11-15 NIV)

Do What!?

Did God really say that?

At this point, if I were Ezekiel, I would really begin to question if this was God telling me these things, or If was just going crazy.  God literally told him to bake his food over crap! No matter how spiritual you may think you are, if God asked you to do this today, there would be a problem.

Ezekiel, like us, had to learn that God does not just do things out of randomness, although it may seem like it. God had called Ezekiel not just to preach of the coming judgment of his people, but also to demonstrate it.  Ezekiel could have said “But God, the prophets in the past did not have to do these things, and they got their messages across!”  God had called him to a particular purpose and he lead him to do unique, and often very difficult, things to achieve that purpose.

When God has called you to do something, there are two things to remember:

1. It will not be easy.
   • God will call you to do things out of the ordinary. Ezekiel had to cook his food with crap. Enough said.
2. Do not judge your call by comparing it to others.
   • God call on each person is unique. You are not to look at how other churches are doing something. Instead, you must look to where God is leading you and your ministry.

Recently, I have been reading through the OT book of Ezekiel. I have learned many lessons and want to share some of them with you all. This is the first time I have post a series of blogs so stay tuned for the upcoming parts.

Following God is hard because… He will call you to do something that will stretch you faith.

Ezekial had it tough. Not only did God call him to warn his people about their impending judgment (never a fun topic), but God also told him that they are a rebellious and stubborn people. What a bummer.  Can you see him getting ready for this speech?  Talk about a hostile audience.

Here is what tells Ezekiel:

4 The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’ 5 And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. 7 You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. 8 But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” (Ez. 2:4-8 NIV)

What a poor pep talk. God doesn’t even try to sugar coat things for Ezekiel. He says, “Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions.” Briers, thorns, and scorpions – way to freak a guy out!

Whenever we decide to follow God, we must be prepared to have our faith stretched. God understood that this was not an easy challenge for Ezekiel. This was not going to be a popularity speech by any stretch.

God also knows that when He calls you and I to a task, it is going to stretch us as well. That’s the point.

What is God calling you to do? Take courage from Ezekiel’s story. Read verse seven and apply that to your situation. Yes, it is going to be tough. Yes, people may not what to hear what you have to say, but God is saying, “You must speak my words to them.” God has called you for a purpose. Now pursue it!

Following God is hard because He will call you to do something that will stretch you faith.