Altars to God or Monuments to Self?

I Samuel 14:35: "And Saul built an altar to God; the first one he had ever built." So far so good. Saul is building altars to God. But fast-forward one chapter. I Samuel 15:12 says, "Saul went up to Carmel to build a monument to himself." Somewhere between those two verses, Saul stopped building altars to God and started building monuments to himself.

There is a fine line between Thy Kingdom Come and My Kingdom Come. At some point, it was no longer about God. It was about Saul.

Here are seven habits of secure leaders:

1) Don't play the comparison game.

No one wins! Comparison either leads to pride or jealousy!

2) Success isn't our “works”

Saul got caught up in the numbers game. And David had better stats. Listen, if my children grow up to love God and everything else falls apart I'm successful. But if I do all “works”, it means nothing if my family falls apart. Jesus was successful because he poured his life into twelve people!

3) Celebrate your failures.

Insecure people are afraid of failing. Secure people laugh at themselves. They celebrate failure because it accentuates what God can do inspite of us!

4) Don't panic

Saul panics when his men start scattering so he makes a sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel. Insecure people get nervous. They give up. Secure people hang in there no matter what.

5) Don't get defensive

How you handle criticism will make you or break you. You need tough skin and a soft heart. If you're insecure your defense mechanisms will get the best of you. So instead of leading out of imagination you'll lead out of insecurity.

6) Surround yourself with the right people

Who was Saul's greatest asset? David. But if you are insecure, your greatest asset will become your greatest threat. And it will short-circuit your ability to surround yourself with great people. And it will limit your influence.

7) Keep building altars to God

God often uses us at our point of insecurity because then He gets all the credit. I pray for the favor of God as much as anything else because I want God to do things for me that I cannot do for myself. And every time we experience God's blessing we need to build an altar. The blessings of God either turn into pride or praise.

Are you building altars to God or monuments to yourself?

A Letter of Christ

And you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 2 Corinthians 3:3

I love that. "Show that you are a letter of Christ."

Like walking, breathing epistles -- emissaries under Christ's Lordship, ambassadors for Christ's kingdom -- we testify with our very lives to the good news of Jesus.

This isn't just a relaying of information; it is a subsisting on revelation. It's carrying the Spirit-illumined Word of God in our blood, in our marrow.


They are not just idle words for you -- they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. Deuteronomy 32:47

I am in constant need of repenting of using God's Word and returning to being used by it. I try too often to live by bread alone.

In my heart of hearts, however, I want to stop using Jesus, appropriating Scripture, and doing church and begin trusting Jesus, living Scripture, and being the Church.

I WANT TO BE A LETTER OF CHRIST.

Pick Up Your Baton

During the 2004 Athens Olympics, the American team was fastest qualifying team in the women’s 4x100 final. They should have won; but didn’t. There’s a 20 meter exchange zone where’s it’s legal to hand over baton. If you don't hand it over the right way, the whole team gets disqualified. During the race, between runner 2 (Marion Jones) & 3 (Lauren Williams) the race was lost because of a bad exchange.

In a relay, it doesn’t matter how fast, how big, how strong or how fantastic you run your leg of the race… an entire team can get disqualified because one person doesn’t hand the baton over right. [Paul likens our life to a relay race in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.]

God has a purpose for your life as part of a bigger plan than you even realize. You're not running this alone; it’s not an individual sprint. The church is interdependent; we're all on God's cosmic relay team,running this together. It’s our time in history and we have God's baton of faith in our hand. So what are we to do?

STRIP DOWN

Hebrews 12: 1-2 Runners strip themselves of any unnecessary weights so they can run unencumbered. What do we need to strip? It might not even be sin, it could be another type of weight that holds you back: culture, tradition, extended family expectations, etc.

Or, unresolved issues in your heart: anger, fear, insecurity, jealousy, etc. The baton exchange between Saul and David should have been seamless, but Saul didn't deal with issues of his heart so it became complex affair.

LOOK AT THE TEAM

Don't forget others have come before you. You better remember this, because if you don't, you just might forget there are still others to come after you. There's an eternal purpose to what you do. It's not just about the here and now; but about your part of something bigger that God's been doing throughout all of eternity. We can lose sight of what's going on if we don't remember we didn't just arrive. There was a whole generation that came before you that paid a massive price for you to be here. And, there are others to come after you counting on you to carry the baton to them.

TAKE YOUR PLACE

Everything will take longer than you think. In a relay, runner #4 doesn't get his nose out of joint when he doesn't get to run with a baton when the gun does off. He understands there is a process that happens before he gets the baton.
In churches, in life, God sees beyond what we do. He sees runner number 4 in position years before they’re ever there. Too often though, we've Christians across the world out of place and they’ll never be in position for the baton because they didn't take their place at the beginning.

PLAY IT OUT DAILY

It’s not the responsibility of politicians, the media, educational systems; it’s our responsibility to carry the baton to leave a legacy for this generation. God is trusting us to carry the baton. What does this look like every 24 hours in our seemingly insignificant life?
It doesn't matter if you’re a full-time homemaker, a corporate CEO, in manufacturing, a teacher, a student, a librarian, a doctor…don’t drop the baton…every normal, daily decision counts.

• MARRIAGE: don’t quit working at, give up or walk out.
• FAMILY: don’t believe Nick Jr. can do a better job raising them.
• MONEY: don’t give up on believing on God for your finances.
• MORAL PURITY: don’t cheat or give-in to shortcuts other accepts; relationally or legally.
• PRAYER: don’t quit believing prayer works and makes a difference in your life and others.
• GIVING: don’t stop making a difference with your hands and wallet.
• WITNESS: don’t believe it doesn’t matter when you gossip in the lunchroom.
• SCHEDULE: don’t believe you’re too busy to help and that somebody else will do it.
• CHURCH: don’t skip a week to go fishing believing it will be there when it's convenient for you.

These are the batons of the faith; the values, the morals, the relationships.

ENDURE

But, this is just too hard. I am tired. The heat is turned up too hot. I just want to give up. Though we are confronting great obstacles and hurdles as a church (and individuals), this is not a time to give up. It's a time to endure. To get our eyes off our temporal circumstances. There is a bigger picture. YOU are part of a bigger purpose.

WHO CARES? WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Church, don't be surprised when a generation ends up living like they came from nothing, live for no reason and they're going nowhere when that's all they've been taught.

God will look at the 21st century and say "who was the church?" What’s going to happen to the nation on your watch? It only takes one generation to drop the baton to severe the next generation so they don’t know God the works he's done. Those who have paid a huge price before us will have paid it for nothing if we drop the batons on our watch believing it doesn’t really matter. Don't abandon the next generation.

Our legacy isn't about just what WE do; it has everything to do with what happens when we leave.

GO BACK AND PICK UP YOUR BATON

We are all interdependent on each other. I can run like Marion Jones, but unless you run your 100 well, cross the line and exchange the baton successfully, then the whole team loses. Get back in your lane, take your place and start running your race to finish your course. If you dropped a baton, go back and pick it up yourself. Don’t wait for somebody else to do it.
Jesus gives us forgiveness for our past, a brand new start today and hope for our future. So, don't waste time feeling like a loser if you dropped a baton. Just go back and pick it up.
We are blessed to be a blessing.

We’re given prosperity for a purpose. The baton is in our hands. TAG! Church, you're it.

You Have Unbelievable Potential

You Have Unbelievable Potential

I believe in people.

I just do!

I believe that every person on this planet has an incredible potential to do great things for God and live a life that is so far beyond their imagination.
I believe that once Jesus Christ comes into to someone’s life–there isn’t ANYTHING that can get in their way IF they will completely sell out EVERY area of their life to Him…

Their passions
Their possessions
Their relationships
Their job

It ALL must become His–we must let our dreams die so that His dreams can live through us; after all, our dreams, if allowed to come true, usually turn into nightmares!

I believe that God has called all that He saves to NOT just sit…but to accomplish GREAT things for Him (Ephesians 2:10), to make the name of Jesus famous…to live an abundant life.

God did not create us to be mired in mediocrity…but to live a life that causes those who don’t know Christ to say, “I WANT WHAT THAT PERSON HAS!”

I believe if a person will give every ounce of their being to Christ–He will take them and shape them into something both beautiful and incredible. (Please see Jeremiah 18:1-6)

God’s not obsessed with your past–He knows everything that you’ve done–and He can still use you to do awesome and incredible things…look what He has done with a screw up like me! (Yes, I WILL boast in all that HE has done!)

God’s not obsessed with your present–He doesn’t care about how high you climb the ladder OR how big your bank account is…THE ONLY thing that He is obsessed with is our obedience to Him…because He knows that in our following of HIS direction that we will ultimately live the life He desires for us.

God KNOWS your future…in fact, He is holding it in His hands right now…and the one thing I am learning over and over again is that I can trust Him with EVERYTHING. He is HOLY & PERFECT…and so are His ways!

You, reading this–right now, yes you…I believe YOU have UNLIMITED POTENTIAL in Christ!

I believe God IS NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!

I believe that no matter where you are in life…you can begin right there and embrace the life that Jesus desires for you.

My prayer is that you will become all that He wants you to become! It is a journey, not a destination…but there is nothing better in life than walking in the divine plan that God has laid out for us!

Is it time for swing change?

April 10th, 2005 Tiger Woods won his fourth green jacket from the illustrious Master’s. This was in my personal opinion the finest two hours of television that I might have ever seen.

But what many non-golfers might not know was the huge controversy going around about Tigers “swing change” back in 2004. If you are not aware of Tiger success, let me give you some bullet points.

- 1975 Tigers born
- 1996 Won 2 tournaments
- 1997 Won 5 tournaments (1 major)
- 1998 Won 3 tournaments
- 1999 Won 11 tournaments (1 major)
- 2000 Won 11 tournaments (3 majors)
- 2001 Won 8 tournaments (1 major)
- 2002 Won 7 tournaments (2 majors)
- 2003 Won 5 tournaments
- 2004 Won 3 tournaments
- 2005 Won 3 tournaments (1 major)
- 2006 Won 8 tournaments (2 major) update
- 2007 Won 7 tournaments (1 major) update
Career Won 61 tournaments (13 majors) $76,579,376 earnings

All of Tiger’s critics are saying that he made a stupid decision to change his swing. Tiger was on the top of his game, the best golfer in the world, and he goes off and changes his swing. Why? Why would Tiger do that? Simple, he wants to get better. Tiger saw that with his current swing, he was as good as he was going to be. And that was not good enough for him, so he made a change. A change that set him back, a change that everyone was against, a change that not many people understood.
So, a lot of golf talk today but please do not miss the point. “Swing Change” can be replaced with many different words. What do you and I need to change? Where do we need to go against the grain, against what everyone is saying and change in our companies, churches, organizations? It might be working perfectly now, humming along. Your profits might be higher than they have ever been. Your church may be packed with more people that you have ever had. Who knows what it is, but can it last, are you as good as you can be? Look around the corner, and do not get caught up in being the best today and lacking vision. You might need to change your swing and take a few steps back so you can be even better in the future.
“I don’t want to get back to (year) 2000. I want to become better.

I want to become better than that.” -Tiger Woods

How about you…is it time for a Swing Change?

Radical Christianity?

We all love to look back and read the stories of amazing works and movements of the Holy Spirit. Many names have been immortalized for simply following His lead, heading in the same direction that God and His Spirit were moving. Names like Whitfield, Spurgeon, Wesley.

We look on at these amazing men and their history and think… “Wow! How radical! How amazing would it be to be a part of something like that?” Radical? Consider this… The word radical simply means to go back to the roots, the fundamental essentials. With that in mind, we can’t help but to go back even further to some names that are probably a little more renown. Peter, James, John, and Paul… These guys were really radical! They set the standard, the pace, the bar. What were their “roots?” Of course, their roots were found in The Name above all Names, Jesus who told them He would be leaving but He would also be sending them His Spirit, Who would then be sending them.

I've been thinking about Paul, laying hands on someone for healing, Peter sharing the gospel with thousands. I thought of the countless miracles written in the New Testament alone and asked God, “Why not right now?” These men believed… expected… that God would show up on their behalf (2Chron. 6:19a). They believed that the Holy Spirit “had their back” and when they ministered, laid hands, shared the gospel… the miraculous was going to happen. Now fast forward about 2,000 years… It’s you and I…
What about us? Are we submitting ourselves to the authority of Holy Spirit or are we asking Him to submit to us? Are we showing people BY EXAMPLE that the Spirit is still moving, working and performing miracles or are we just talking about it? The fact is, we need to make sure that we go back to our roots, we need to get back to being radical. If we’re not there, we need to cry out in humble honesty to God and beg for forgiveness for being afraid of being out of control…

That’s what the real issue is, isn’t it? We’re afraid. Fearful that if the Spirit has control and moves in our lives, that we (now out of control) have the possibility of looking “weird, crazy, or fanatical?” Out of control stretches our comfort zones and absolutely requires us to wholly lean on the Spirit. So we’ll trade the leading of the Spirit for a model of someone else who was truly led by Him. We’ll talk about the Holy Spirit and put our seal of approval on the gifts, but we won’t really regularly provide the opportunity or the encouragement to acquire them and use them.

Please don’t miss my heart on this… I’m not putting anybody down. Let’s talk about and share how we are going to get “back on track.” During our regular weekly schedules, how and when are we going to allow the church to be exposed to the real deal, to get baptized in the Spirit, to operate in the gifts of the Spirit? Maybe you’re one of the faithful… please share with us your experience and how this happens at your place of worship. I’d love to hear some God stories too…

The Danger of Drift

Picture this: you’re walking along a beach at sunset, enjoying the view, the weather, and all of God’s creation. The waves washing up on the beach create a soft symphony that soothes away the cares of the world. The sunlight reflecting off the water offers a glimpse of how the streets of gold might look. Along the shore, scattered in no apparent design, are hundreds of pieces of driftwood. They seem to have been placed there by God Himself to add to the beauty of the scenery. At this moment, all is well with your soul.

Later, as you relax by a warm fire, you notice that you’re running low on firewood, and immediately, the driftwood comes to mind. It is then that you realize what God said in Hebrews 2:1. “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so we do not drift away.”

Driftwood provides us with a good illustration of what happens to a Christian who drifts away.
The process begins when a branch breaks its connection to the vine. Jesus said “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).” Through lack of intimate time with God and/or the local church family, the branch begins to break away and eventually falls to the ground. It is no longer a part of the vine, and isn’t even attached to the other branches. Instead, it lays helpless on the ground with the other branches that have also fallen away.
Sooner or later, it gets washed away from even these, and ends up floating helplessly in the water, becoming rotten and bloated by the influence of its new surroundings. It has, by now, drifted far away from familiar ground and has lost its ability to resist temptation-it has become water-logged.
In due time, though, it will wash up on a foreign shore where it will dry out, leaving only a shell of what it once was. Passers-by may notice how well it fits into its new environment, but really, it has no value. Its beauty is only skin deep. “Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned (John 15:6).”

The moral of the story…STAY CONNECTED!