Progress

As a person who really enjoys coaching my kids and their teams, there is one huge thing that I like to stress.  My goal is to have every kid make progress every season. Some kids will make a lot of progress, while others will only inch along. Yet, if they are making progress I am a happy coach.


I think God feels the same way with all of us.  He's happiest when we are making positive progress with our spiritual lives. Some of us will be making huge leaps in our spiritual walks while others will just be crawling. The most important thing is that we are all making progress every day.


Are you making progress? If not, maybe it is time to get back on track.   Get on track through prayer, Bible study, small groups, or even worship music.  Just get yourself back to making progress.

Put God First

Can you believe that it’s almost the middle of June already?  I remember when I was a child and the days seemed to go on forever.  Now as an adult with five million things to do every day there never seems to be enough time in the day. 

I mention this today, as in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of our daily lives and the stuff we have to do, it’s so easy to forget about the most important thing.  Every day you have to make sure that God is a part of your life.  Through prayer, worship, and your activities God needs to be there.  He isn’t an afterthought, He is the main attraction.  If you can put that kind of focus on God every day, then those millions of activities won’t be so hard to conquer.

"In everything you do, put God first, and He will direct you and crown your efforts with success." - Proverbs 3:6

Slip & Fall

So this last weekend my son Noah had a birthday party.  He had invited a number of his friends all over to have a game night.  The party started at 7pm, and since the majority of the guys liked to play football, we started the party with two hours of two-hand-tap football in the open field behind our house.  I was asked to play along with everyone to make the teams even, and we played a number of games and the players on the teams kept rotating. 

It was during the last game that something happened that I didn’t expect.  I was punting the ball during a kick off when my left foot must have slipped and I landed with all my weight directly on my back.  The unexpected fall took me by surprise and knocked the breath out of me.  I took a moment or two to figure out that I wasn’t dead, or at least injured in any major way, and then finally got up and continued playing the game.

I bring this up today as when I was looking back at what had happened one thing really stuck out to me:  When I’m not paying attention it’s really easy to slip and fall backwards.  No, not just when playing a sport, but in my spiritual life as well.  Things in my spiritual life can be going along just fine as I may be praying daily, reading my Bible , worshipping Christ, and talking with others just as God says that I’m supposed to be doing.  Yet, if I take my eye off the ball for a moment, it’s possible that I could slip and fall.

Yet, I don’t think that is the main point that God was trying to show me.  I feel that the main point is that the fall is probably going to happen, no matter how much I try to avoid it.  What is more important is how I get back up after the fall.  If I had slipped and decided to never get back up, what good would I be for my team?  If I fall spiritually and just lay there, what kind of example will I be for the world that is looking at me to see what I’d do? 

Today what I want to impress on you is that you will more than likely have times when you slip and possibly fall.  God knows that.  What is the true demonstration of your character and your faith in God is how to rebound from that slip and fall.  Do you stay there and give up, or do you dust yourself off and get back in the game?  God knows you aren’t perfect and that there will be times when you go down.  What He expects from you is your desire to get back up and keep up the fight for His cause.  To continue the fight against sin.

Are you ready?  Can you get back up again after you fall?  I did, and I hope you can as well.

Where I Belong

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, then you know one thing about me:  Music is how I really connect with God.  There are points in my life where a certain song really gets me in tune with God and allows Him to speak into my life in ways that no words on a page could ever do. 

Well, recently another song has been reaching me in that way.  I had my first real encounter with this song at Winter Jam in Columbus when the band Building 429 sang it along with 20,000 other people in attendance.  The song:  "Where I Belong". 

What hit me the most is the chorus of this song.  The fact that all 20,000+ people in attendance were singing this all at the same time was just huge to me.  I felt His presence at that moment.  Just read the words here:

All I know is I'm not home yet 
This is not where I belong 
Take this world and give me Jesus 
This is not where I belong

Up to that moment, I don’t think I’d ever thought of my life here on Earth in that.  Since I became a believer in Christ I’ve known that the world wasn’t my home.  But the way this was sung along with an arena full of people really took it to another level.  This world is just a stopping place on our journey to Heaven.  The fact that this isn’t my home makes it easy to give up.   I’m willing to give up everything I have for Jesus.  Are you?

Watch and listen to the song on YouTube.  The words are there on this version so you can get the full effect of the song….well, as full as it gets without being in a room full of other believers singing this out with all their hearts, minds, and souls along with you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOtsB4O1p3o

Be Careful What You Ask/Pray For

The other night I was on Youtube checking out a few live concert clips from some of my favorite bands. It got me to thinking about how much the people in those groups must have really wanted to play their instruments or sing in front of people. I thought about the journey they must have taken to get there, all the work they had put in, etc. Then I started to wonder how many of the people I was watching were bored. I mean, how much fun can it be to play the same songs, in the same order night after night at concert after concert? Do they still enjoy what they are doing? Is the dream that they achieved all that they thought it would be?

The reason I bring this up is because I think very often we as Christians pray for something, not totally prepared for the results. We do the Prayer of Jabez study and pray for God to enlarge our territories and then have no idea what to do when He give us what we asked to have. We then get overwhelmed, and instead of using that opportunity to further grow with Christ we instead shrink back to something that we never wanted to be. Instead of going out there and being bold for Christ some go back to what they were before they had a relationship with Him.

Today I want to encourage you to prepare for what you ask or pray to have. Just like the bands that I’ve discussed above, I’m sure that there is joy in getting what you are asking to have. God wants to keep you advancing in the Kingdom and for the Kingdom. You should pray expecting to get what you have asked for! If you are going to get it, God knows that you can handle it. Yet, too often our human minds get the best of us and tell us we can’t handle it! Know that He is ready to expand your territory. Know that He wants to answer your prayers. Now you need to be careful what you ask for, and be prepared to take what you’re given and run with it for Him! Those bands I was watching are leading worship for millions of believers all the time. Talk about running with what God has provided! Now it’s your turn. Go out and pray, expecting God to answer those prayers….Oftentimes He’s just waiting for you to ask!