May 11, 2009
February 24, 2009
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Q. Now that I've started my home-based business, I feel as though I work all the time. I feel guilty when I don't work, even on the weekends. Is this normal?
July 9, 2008
July 6, 2008
January 24, 2007
Find Rest
Thoughts to Ponder:
Are you living a burden free week? As we talked on Sunday it is time to exchange our yokes for Christ’s yoke, for His yoke is easy and light. As a reminder to the three ways we can live burden free:
1. Come to Christ for Rest.
2. Give up Control of your life.
3. Learn to trust the Lord in all things.
Matthew 11:28-30—Come to Me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. (RSV)
What is the state of your heart this week? Are there still too many things on your plate? If there are list them out and ask the Lord which ones you should lay down. If we as Christians are going to have influence in the world we must first have influence over our own lives by surrendering to Christ. The lives of most Americans have become so full and stress filled that it must become one of our highest priorities to de-stress our lives and then be able to spend more time and quality time with the Lord.
Action Items:
1. Look over all your personal responsibilities.
2. Prioritize them even to the point of cutting many of them out.
3. Commit to read the Bible through this year.
4. Commit to spending a specific amount of time in prayer each day.
Encouragement from the Word:
1. Isaiah 40:29-31—God energizes those who get tired, and gives fresh strength to dropouts…Those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, they run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind. (Message)
2. Matthew 6:6—Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace. (Message)
January 17, 2007
A Fresh Start
Thoughts to Ponder:
Following our great “supernatural” weekend, it think it is always good to meditate on what God said; what we felt he told us both personally and corporately. 2007 is now here and we all have the opportunity to have a fresh start by forgetting those things behind us and pressing toward what God is leading us toward. It seems that God has some great things in store for this year by what we all felt in the Spirit. However, it will take adherence to spiritual disciplines and continued pursuit of the Holy Spirit to see everything that He desires come to pass.
On Friday night we talked about supernatural encounters. Let’s use this year as a time to believe that we will encounter God time after time and as Moses did receive great personal transformation as a result. God desires to meet with us to share His secrets with us and then to partner in the job of the extension of His kingdom on the earth. I am looking forward to awesome times of experiencing God this year. God is looking for people who “fear the Lord” in order that He might spend time with them and in turn release grace upon their lives. We serve a “living” God who wants to be involved in our lives. Our job is to humble ourselves before Him and expect to be touched and used by Him.
As you attended this last weekend’s Catalyst Conference I know that God spoke into your life many things. Together let’s allow Him to continue to move on us and stand on the Word that was inserted into our lives.
Action Items:
1. Read the Bible through this year.
2. Establish a consistent prayer time daily this year.
3. Look to where God wants you to serve.
Encouragement from the Word:
Exodus 33:13-16—Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people. And He said, My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Then he said to Him, If your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.
January 12, 2007
Priming the Pump
Thoughts to Ponder:
When I was a young boy my family lived out in the country in an old farm house. We had electricity and running water but the water came from a well that sat 30 yards from the house out in the field. My job as the oldest in the family was to prime the pump when it was needed. Every once in a while the pump would stop and water wouldn’t flow into the house. It could be in the middle of the day, at night, early in the morning, or just whenever it stopped. It seemed to me that it was at night more than any other time. Then I would have to bundle up, tread out to the pump house and go through all the activities of priming the pump so we could have water. Without this process we had no water available in the house. But as soon as it was primed the water would start flowing once again.
Likewise there are times in our spiritual lives where we need to have our pump primed. It may have stopped because of fatigue, or lack of use, or for some reason it just stopped. At those times we need to reconnect with God and get the flow of the spirit moving once again. In some ways the catalyst conference is a pump priming experience where we can come collectively and receive a boost spiritually. Maybe your pump has stopped, or your water isn’t flowing as freely as it used to. As you press into God this weekend look at it as an opportunity to get back into the flow of the Spirit and receive a fresh touch from God. Let this time that we have set aside become a priming of your spiritual pump once again.
I am looking forward to this conference. We have entitled the entire series this weekend “Supernatural”. On Friday night we will talk about “Supernatural Encounter”. On Saturday at 6 pm we will be speaking on “Supernatural Communication”. Then Sunday morning first service we will be sharing on “Supernatural Lifestyle” and then Sunday second service the message is entitled “Supernatural Testimony”. Please try to make all of the services if possible. Each service is building on the one previous and they will all be different. Let us press into God and see the power of the Spirit released so that we can all say it was a “Supernatural” weekend.
Action Items:
1. Prepare your heart for the conference opener at 7pm tonight.
2. Read Philippians 3:12-16.
3. Pray that God will allow a mighty move of His Holy Spirit this weekend.
Encouragement from the Word:
2 Corinthians 3:16-18—Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.