Category Archives: vision

Interested or Committed?

22 Wednesday Jul 2020

Posted by in comfort, grow, mission, Uncategorized, vision

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What are you expecting God to do in your life?

There’s a law that God has established … I call it “the law of expectation.” The fact is, we tend to get what we “expect” out of life. We often see what we expect to see, hear what we expect to hear, feel the way we expect to feel, and succeed at what we expect to succeed in. God says you get to choose! It’s actually “the law of faith,” because “according to your faith it will be done to you” (Matthew 9:29). 

In Luke 17:5, we see the apostles ask the Lord to increase their faith! They had no idea how difficult that would be for them. The problem with acquiring more faith is the process.  We all want more faith, but nobody likes what it takes to get there. 

“There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in something you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something you accept no excuses, only results.” 

–– Ken Blanchard

During this time of Covid craziness you might be wondering what God is up to in all of this. How is He going to use this for good, how in the world is my faith supposed to grow through this time? Well, that depends. Are you interested or committed to growing your faith? The next natural question is how does God increase our faith? … He tests it!

Everyday we have faith building opportunities. And, these times of quarantine, open, close, reopen, do this, don’t do that, can drive any person crazy. But, we have to be committed to seeing these problems as faith building opportunities.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t recognize conflicts or hardships as opportunities. Instead, we let our circumstances push us away from God. I believe this time of quarantine is more than a season of conflict, hardship, and restrictions. It’s actually a faith building opportunity!

You see, faith is like a muscle. It has to be worked out, stretched, and pulled with resistance … consistently. Just like consistency is key in getting bigger and stronger muscles, consistency is key in working out your faith muscle! In fact, James 1:3-4 reminds us of this when it says “… the testing of your faith produces perseverance … so that you may be mature and complete …”

A faith that stretches is uncomfortable, but it’s also healthy! Look at your faith like a tree. It requires nurturing and ultimately we hope to produce delicious fruit. But fruits don’t arrive over night. It’s the wind, rain, and storms that challenge the tree’s roots to go deeper and stabilize the tree before the season of harvest returns. 

I want to encourage you to continue to follow Jesus and live out Colossians 2:6-7 which says, 

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness.” 

Let the roots of your faith grow deeper throughout this time of Covid, no matter how long it lasts. If you are committed, your faith WILL become stronger. I’m confident that this time of quarantine is an opportunity that will lead you to trust God more than you ever have before. Use this time to allow your roots of faith to ‘grow’ to a whole new level.

The reason that your faith needs testing is because God wants to increase it! God is never going to say “you’ve arrived,” “there’s nothing else for you,” or “that’s all I have to teach you” … He’s always going to want us to take that next step of faith!

So let me ask you again … What are you expecting God to do in your life? Are you interested in Him working in your life or committed? Can you hang in there a little longer, lean on Him a little more, and trust Him to come through? Will you do it with an expectant heart knowing that He has promised to move according to your committed faith?

I am believing that your faith is going to grow in new ways and we’re going to come out of this season stronger than ever! I’m committed to it, and I expect it!

New Year’s Goals and Resolutions

04 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in purpose driven, Uncategorized, vision

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“Happy New Year”

 

I love the new year. I love new beginnings. I love setting new goals for the new year and making resolutions to reach them. According to StatisticBrain.com[1] The top resolutions made are

 

1 Lose Weight / Healthier Eating 21.4%
2 Life / Self Improvements 12.3%
3 Better Financial Decisions 8.5%
4 Quit Smoking 7.1%
5 Do more exciting things 6.3%
6 Spend More Time with Family / Close Friends 6.2%
7 Work out more often 5.5%
8 Learn something new on my own 5.3%
9 Do more good deeds for others 5.2%
10 Find the love of my life 4.3
11 Find a better job 4.1%
12 Stop being a Raider fan 13.8%

 

Ok, I added the last one, that category is actually “other.” I find it interesting that only about 9% of people who make resolutions actually attain success with the resolution.

 

Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions 41 %
Percent of Americans who infrequently make New Year’s Resolutions 17 %
Percent of Americans who absolutely never make New Year’s Resolutions 42 %
Percent of people who felt they were successful in achieving their resolution 9.2 %
Percent who have infrequent success 48.4%
Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year 42.4%
People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions  

 

I believe resolutions have POTENTIAL for greatness. Goals are important in attaining success in any resolution. Every resolution needs a process. Every goal needs incremental steps. No resolution can be accomplished without the PROCESS. Committing to a goal is great. But, if the goal is committed to but there is not a clear process of how to achieve that goal, well, a 9% success rate is actually surprisingly high. In that case, it’s more luck than anything I suppose. However, when one takes a goal and puts a step by step process to it, they are much more likely to achieve your goal. According to mindtools.com[2] you need to set goals to be successful in life, but you also need well defined steps to help you accomplish those goals.

 

As a Pastor, I know many people make a resolution to read the Bible in a year. Using this as an example; There are 1,188 chapters in the Bible. If someone were to resolve to read all 1,188 then they need a clear plan to get them there. And, there are a number of ways they can do this. If you take 1,188 and divide it by 365 you will see that you get 3.25 chapters per day. If someone were to read about 3 chapters a day they would read the entire Bible in a year. Reading about 3 chapters a day is a plan and a step by step process to complete the goal of reading the entire Bible. Whether it’s a spiritual goal or a physical goal or any other goal, it must have a clear step by step process and even smaller goals within the bigger goal to be realistically accomplished.

 

In our new series, Re-Wired I will be talking about the different areas of our lives and how we can be changed for the better in the areas of our spiritual, relational, emotional, financial, vocational, and other areas of our lives. But, it takes more than a resolution, it takes a step by step plan to get you there. Thankfully, the Bible has laid it out for us. God’s Word doesn’t just tell us, “Get better!” It shows us how on a step by step basis we can grow in each of the areas God has called us to grow. I hope you’ll join us as we kick off the series on January 7. If you can’t be here in person, join us online, live every Sunday at 8:00am, 9:30am, 11:00am. If you miss a message, you can always grab them on our app or on our website at www.7sd.org.

 

Join me, in Resolving to Change in 2018! With Jesus at the helm of your life, this year will be different!

[1] https://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/

[2] https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_90.htm

Leaving Comfort and other musings

11 Wednesday Apr 2007

Posted by in comfort, mission, seven sd, vision

≈ 1 Comment

What is it like to leave comfort, to leave the knowable, the familiar, the routine perhaps? Welcome to my life. It seems I worked so hard to get to a point where my head is above water. I know the schedule, the routine, the process, what it takes to do what I need to do week in and week out to produce the best life possible for my wife and kids. Well, we made it. Things became comfortable, knowable, routine, good. Then BAM! God shook all that up. I distnictly recall the “aha” moments when I sensed God doing something in my heart to rock my comfortable world. There wasn’t just one “aha” moment, there have been several. Honestly, that’s what it took for me to get shaken out of this comfy life I spent so many years working toward. Several moments of God’s presence, God’s clarity, and His Word guiding me, showing me the uncomfortable path He has in mind for me. I’m not against comfort, heck I’ve spent most of my life trying to attain it. My problem with my own comfort is that it’s not what God has called me to. He showed me, that for me, comfort was a rut. In a rut, there’s a level of comfort to it. It’s familar, it’s routine, it’s knowable and again, for me, that rut might get deeper and deeper and I just might lose my sense of mission. God has placed a clear call on my life to reach people who do not know Jesus….period. Reaching people for Jesus is often UNcomfortable. It means stretching, growing, always changing to reach one more person. That means I can NEVER get comfortable if I am to fulfill my call. So, we’re downsizing, selling almost everything, moving, pulling up roots, heading out, going south (geographically, not mentally hopefully), getting totally UNcomfortable in order to reach more people…God has made it clear in order to reach more we must leave our comfort, leave the knowable, the familiar, and the routine to follow the God who is knowable, familiar, but certainly not routine.