Is Christ Delightful?

[by John Flavel, AD 1630-1691] Show the world Christ - as he really is - through your actions and your words. Is he completely delightful? Let all the world see and know that he is so - by the way you delight in him, in the intimacy of your relationship with him, through your passion for him, and through your readiness to part with anything else you might enjoy besides him. Proclaim his superiority to the world... Persuade them how much your beloved is better than any other beloved. Reveal his glorious perfection as you speak of him. Proclaim him to others as he is in himself: perfectly beautiful. See that you "live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way" (Colossians 1:10). "Declare the praises" of Christ ( 1 Peter 2:9)...

Seek and ye shall be surprised

I almost said no to a miracle. A couple who had just started attending National Community Church requested a meeting, and I almost denied the request because they said they wanted to talk about church government. I  love talking about the mission and vision of the church. Church government? Not as much! Plus, I was fighting a book deadline, so I didn't have much margin in my schedule. So I almost said no, and if I had, I would have missed out on a miracle... After answering nearly ninety minutes worth of questions, they ended by asking me about our vision. I had so much pent-up passion after talking about policies and protocols that I just let it rip. I shared our vision of ... turning our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill into a chain of coffeehouses, with all the net profits reinvested in missions. I talked about launching our first international campus ... and our vision of launching multi-site campuses in movie theaters at metro stops throughout the greater Washington area. Then the meeting came to a rather abrupt and awkward ending. They said they wanted to invest in National Community Church, but they didn't say how or how much. They left, and I was left scratching my head. I wasn't sure anything would come of that meeting, but a few weeks later ... I received one of the most unforgettable phone calls of my life. "Pastor Mark, we wanted to follow up on our meeting and let you know that we want to give a gift to National Community Church." My mind immediately started racing... "We want to give a gift, and there are no strings attached. But before I tell you how much we're going to give, I want you to know why we're giving it. We're giving this gift because you have vision beyond your resources." ... Those four words, vision beyond your resources, have become a mantra for the ministry of National Community Church. We refuse to let our budget determine our vision. That left-brained approach is a wrong-brained approach because it's based on our limited resources rather than on God's unlimited provision. Faith is allowing your God-given vision to determine your budget. That certainly does not mean you practice poor financial stewardship, spend beyond your means, and accumulate a huge debt load. It does mean that you take a step of faith when God gives you a vision because you trust that the One who gave you the vision is going to make provision. And for the record, if the vision is from God, it will most definitely be beyond your means. Having vision beyond your resources is synonymous with dreaming big. And it may feel like you're setting yourself up for failure, but you're actually setting God up for a miracle. How God performs the miracle is His job... "We want to give the church $3 million dollars." I was speechless... It was one of those holy moments when time stands still. I heard it, but I could hardly believe it. I was blindsided by the blessing... God's provision came out of nowhere... It's not our man-made plans that move the Almighty; the Almighty is moved by big dreams and bold prayers. In the awkward silence of my speechlessness, I heard the still small voice of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit hit the rewind button and reminded me of a prayer circle that I had drawn four years before...  -The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears, by Mark Batterson

Lessons Learned from Trying to Force a Miracle

I got what I thought was a $2 million idea for an online company called GodiPod. com. Lora and I invested the capital to get the business off the ground, but that $2 million idea turned out to be a $15,000 personal loss. In retrospect, I think I was trying to manufacture the miracle for God. This is what we often try to do, isn't it? When God doesn't answer our prayer right away, we try to answer it for Him. Like the day Moses took matters into his own hands and killed an Egyptian taskmaster, we get ahead of God. But when we try to do God's job for Him, it always backfires. Trying to get ahead of God cost Moses forty years.  Of course, even then, God redeemed the forty years Moses spent as a fugitive tending sheep by prepping him to tend His sheep, the people of Israel. If we repent, God always recycles our mistakes.

All God Wants

[A religious expert] came to Jesus, because he wanted to trap Jesus in a theological debate. (Or, in our terms, because he wanted Jesus to tell the crowd which denomination he was in or whose side he was on in a political or religious debate.)

[The religious expert asks,] "Of all the commandments [the 613], which is the most important?"

Life review

I was trying to just take a look at what has been going on in my life. I love reviewing my life because I am a living being and there is no way that I will see the spec in another person’s eye when I can not see the log in my own eye.

It is through appreciating my experiences that I can appreciate the testimonies of others. It is only through my reflection, that I can influence other lives.

I was just going through the thoughts I had when I was talking to my friend and saying I don’t go to church.

an opportunity to live differently...

God is constantly giving us an opportunity to live our lives differently - for the best. One thing most people suffer from, is the inability to make plausible decision

Called to serve

So I tell myself i am called to serve, and yes, I am called to serve but in which area?

So often in our lives, we have given up on that dream, that goal, that vision we had because of our failure to realise the area in which we were called to specialise in. So many of us want to do anything and everything that comes through. Not because we have given our lives to Christ, but so that we may look like we gave our lives to him.

So religious in execution yet no relationship with him for whom we are working tirelessly...

Keeping busy with the things of God, and not being productive in Christ..