What has God made possible in You?

     "I chose the specialty of surgery because of Matron, that steady presence during my boyhood and adolescence. 'What is the hardest thing you can possibly do?' she said when I went to her for advice on the darkest day of the first half of my life.
     I squirmed. How easily Matron probed the gap between ambition and expediency. 'Why must I do what is hardest?'
     'Because, Marion, you are an instrument of God. Don't leave the instrument sitting in its case, my son. Play! Leave no part of your instrument unexplored. Why settle for Three Blind Mice when you can play the Gloria?'
     How unfair of Matron to evoke the soaring chorale which always made me feel that I stood with every mortal creature looking up to the heavens in dumb wonder. She understood my unformed character.
     'But, Matron, I can't dream of playing Bach, the Gloria...,' I said under my breath. I'd never played a string or wind instrument. I couldn't read music.
     'No Marian,' she said, her gaze soft, reaching for me, her gnarled hands rough on my cheeks. 'No, not Bach's Gloria. Yours! Your Gloria lives within you. The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you.'

What's Love Got to do with it

"After hearing the lecture, I knew what I was doing wrong. It was selfish, and what's more, it would never work. By withholding love from my friend, he became defensive, he didn't like me, he thought I was judgmental, snobbish, proud, and mean. Rather that being drawn to me, wanting to change, he was repulsed. I was guilty of using love like money, withholding it to get somebody to be who I wanted them to be. I was making a mess of everything. And I was disobeying God. I became convicted about these things, so much so that I had some trouble getting sleep. It was clear that I was to love everybody, be delighted at everybody's existence, and I had fallen miles short of God's aim. The power of Christian spirituality has always rested in repentance, so that's what I did. I repented. I told God I was sorry. I replaced economic metaphor, in my mind, with something different, a free gift metaphor or a magnet metaphor. That is, instead of withholding love to change somebody, I poured it on, lavishly. I hoped that love would work like a magnet, pulling people from the mire and toward healing. I knew this was the way God loved me. God had never withheld love to teach me a lesson." From the book "Blue Like Jazz" by Don Miller.          

Brainwashed

This is about a Jewish you man but could just as easily apply to a follow of Jesus Christ. Click on the brain below!!!!!!

SIMPLIFY

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Nothing left... for God

 
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Idol Worship

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Can Marriage Last?

If I'm not happy, I mean, chronically, mistreated, put down, mad fun of, and yelled at... can I still stay married? Click on the picture below.

The Power of Listening

‘LISTEN’
When I ask you to listen to me
And you start giving me advice,
You have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me
And you begin to tell me ‘why’ I shouldn’t feel that way,
You are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me
And you feel you have to do something to
solve my problems,
You have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I ask is that you listen;
Not talk, nor do – just hear me.
And I can do for myself – I’m not helpless
Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.

When you do something for me, that I can
and need to do for myself,
You contribute to my fear and weakness.
But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel,
No matter how irrational
Then I quit trying to convince you
And can get about the business of understanding
What’s behind this irrational feeling.

When that’s clear,
The answers are obvious and I don’t need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when we
Understand what’s behind them.
Perhaps that’s why prayer works sometimes for
some people;
because God is mute, and doesn’t give
advice to try to ‘fix’ things,
He/She just listens, and lets you work it out
for yourself. (And helps you to work it out through His wisdom.)

So please listen, and just hear me, and if you
want to talk,
Wait a minute for your turn,
And I’ll listen to you.
Anon
This poem was written by a mental health consumer who was institutionalised over a number of years in Queensland. He wishes to remain anonymous.

It's More than Just a Talk, it's a Conversation!

Teaching our kids about God's design for sex is one of the most essential lessons we can teach our children as they are growing up. Be brave and courageous and don't let your past keep you from applying God's truth, with conviction, to your children. That's not hypocrisy, that is wise parenting... to save them from so much regret!

Click on "Sex" above for more ideas.

A What? A Budget?

4 Tips to Conquer the Zero-Based Budget

Ah, the zero-based budget. Like tackling any new skill, it can feel totally overwhelming at first. Of course, we know—and you know—that if we give ourselves time to master it, the zero-based budget becomes almost second nature. And then, it’s no longer a burden but a total blessing.
Unfortunately, some members give up on the zero-based budget before it reaches the blessed, second-nature state. That’s too bad, really.
Because we’ve found that the zero-based budget is where it’s at when it comes to winning with money. Not budgeting at all is bound to produce problems, and a basic budget may produce results, but it’s the zero-based budget that gets things done!
It’s not just theory either—we’ve got numbers to back it up. In a nationwide survey of Financial Peace University (FPU) class graduates, we discovered that people who do a zero-based budget (versus those who don’t) pay off 19% more debt and save 18% more money!
That’s why we made the zero-based budget a big focus of the nine-week FPU. If you haven’t seen the new version yet, we think you’lld be pleasantly surprised to find that Dave talks about the zero-based budget in every lesson. Each week, members are asked to dive back in to their budgets. This way, they learn the why and how of zero-based budgeting long before they ever leave your leadership.
So, encourage your class to keep working the zero-based budget. Share the numbers above as a practical reason to continue. Then, share the tips below to help avoid setbacks.

1. Every single dollar needs a name.

   Sure, Dave says this in FPU, and you’ve likely repeated it to your class often. But here’s where many members get tripped up: the leftovers. They’ve covered every bill and all categories that might require money during the month ahead. But they’ve still got $120 left over. It seems like a victory!
   Unfortunately, leftover money provides a false sense of security and allows members to not really stick to their budget after all. That $120 needs a name. Even if it goes in a “spend as you please” category, it needs a name. Maybe it can go toward the emergency fund, Christmas savings, or extra vacation spending. We don’t really care what you do with it as long as you plan to do something with it before the month begins.

2. Just because every dollar gets a name, that doesn’t mean you have to spend it all this month.

   Some zero-based budget newbies assume that planning your spending before the month begins means you have to spend it all before the month ends. This is not so! You can plan ahead for as little as one month or for as long as a year—or more!
   Remind your class that they’ll need to think of large, irregular purchases in addition to small, monthly purchases when planning their budget. If car-repair savings or your clothing envelope gets bigger each month, that’s a good thing. You’ll eventually need that money and will no doubt be glad it’s there. So don’t sweat it!

3. Track any budget mishaps as you go through the month and correct accordingly.

   Do your members find themselves at the checkout counter, ready to pay for an item, but they have no envelope to pull that money from? These no-man’s-land purchases can feel pretty discouraging. That’s why Dave says it takes a good three months to get a handle on the budget.
   Encourage your class to simply write down any budget mistakes that show up and correct them at the next month’s budget committee meeting. If the mistake is a pretty dire one, they can always call an emergency meeting with their spouse or accountability partner to make sure everything is covered and that it all leads back to zero.

4. Consult Dave’s Complete Guide to Budgeting.

   What more could your class want than a free, downloadable PDF on all things zero-based budgeting? The Complete Guide to Budgeting is the perfect resource for answers to questions on the envelope system, irregular income, budget mistakes and so much more!

Busy is a Drug

 

We live in a world that is so rushed, so busy, so jam packed with everything that we can fit into it. I wonder, in our super busy lives, do we actually have time for what is most important, most life-giving, most essential to both now and eternity?

I am so guilty of this. God’s word says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10a

I believe we have busy-ed ourselves out of a vital relationship with God and, as a result, we have done the same with our families, friends, and truly real connection with others. In fact, I would argue that we have busy-ed our spiritual lives almost to death. What is it that is absolutely essential to the vitality of our faith in Jesus Christ, our families, our marriages (if we are married), and more? I believe the answer is time. Time to be with God in prayer, study, worship, service, listening, and more. Time to be with our children, if we are married, our spouses, and time to be with family and friends, and time to share our faith with others. These are some of the most important parts of life. What would I, what would you be willing to adjust, give up, change in order to de-clutter and refocus our lives?

God hasn’t called us to sit around and do nothing but I genuinely believe that isn’t our problem in our culture. We run from place to place to place and can unwittingly kill the relationships in our lives.

It’s time that we reevaluated, that I reevaluate. What does God want each of us to invest in? What does God want us to do? How can we de-busy and refocus our lives on God?

It won’t make life easier but it will make it God’s, and only with God can we each individually and together become all we were created to be. WOW!

Should we be Judgemental?

Does judgment ever play a legitimate role in our lives?

Click on the picture below for more.

Mighty Moms!

No matter what the guise, those who mother are mighty!

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Click on the picture below for a powerful video.

Porn

Watching pornography is an addiction that hits 12 to 17 year olds more than any other age group, but has ramifications that last a life time. It is received like a drug and takes over your life. Over 90% of teenage boys and 65% of teenage girls has viewed pornography. The wreckage of relationships, the destruction of faith, and the destruction of marriage lies in its wake. Indulging in pornography is a sin that must be dealt with severely and swiftly.

The pornography industry is huge making more money than major league baseball, the national basketball association, and the national football league combined.

Click on the picture above for a powerful video!

The Media Can't Have My Child!!

It can seem overwhelming to protect your children from the destructive influences of much of our modern media. But we can have a plan. Click the picture above to develop that plan.

If the World were 100 people

From time to time, we all need to step back from life and take another look at who we are, where we are, and what we are doing. If we don’t do this regularly, we tend to get caught up in our own little world—and that is a dangerous place, because it distorts the way we see the world at large, and the way we see the world determines the way we live our lives. How do you see the world? What’s your worldview?

Today there are seven billion people on the planet, but imagine for a moment that the whole world is a village of one hundred people. If we reduced the world’s population to one hundred people, proportionally, this is how the world would look: Fifty-seven of those one hundred people would come from Asia, twenty-one from Europe, nine from Africa, eight from North America, and five from South America. Fifty-one would be women and forty-nine would be men. Six of those one hundred would own or control more than 50% of the world’s wealth, and five of these six people would be U.S. Citizens. One of those one hundred people would have just been born, one would be just about to die, and only one of those one hundred people would have been to college. Thirty-three would be Christian and sixty-seven would be non-Christian. Eighty would be living in substandard housing. Thirty-one would be unable to read and write. Twenty-four would have no electricity. Seventy-one would not have access to the Internet. Thirty-nine of the one hundred people in the village would live on less than two dollars a day. One-third of the world’s population is dying from lack of bread, one-third of the world’s population is dying from lack of justice, and one-third of the world’s population is dying from overeating. How do you see the world?

A simple sketch like this challenges the way we see the world, and draws us out of our own little world. Our worldview constantly needs challenging. Your worldview is made up of a million thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and prejudices. It is unique to you, and largely formed by your past experiences and education. For these reasons your worldview has blind spots and is imperfect. My worldview is distorted and imperfect in the same way. These blind spots and distortions cause us all sorts of problems in life, especially in relationships. This is why God is constantly challenging our worldview.

Jesus challenged the worldview of every person he encountered. Are you open to Jesus changing your worldview? How might your life change?

By Matthew Kelly

Seven Tips for Building Your Marriage

Minimize

Connect

Regret-Free

Touch

Fun

Serve

Say-Yes

Click on the Picture above.

Wouldn't it be cool if our faith grew stronger... by accident?

The Christian Atheist

This Christian Atheist is a challenging, genuine, life-changing book by Craig Groeschel. I highly recommend it.

Only the Rich Can Get Out of Debt?

 

Do you ever feel like you'll be stuck in debt.... FOREVER? It feels like only the rich can get out of debt, right? Click on the article above for hope.

You Make Things New

Yes, wow, we are set free from sin. 

Click on the picture above for an incredible video!

Rated R

     "One Sunday at church after I had finished preaching, I bumped into Lisa and Amanda, faithful members of our church. They serve sacrificially, pray regularly, and give consistently. Most in the community would describe these women as strong Christians. As they were leaving, I asked how they were doing. My friends politely explained that they didn't want to be rude, but they had to leave right away to catch a movie. Always on the lookout for good movie recommendations, I asked they were going to see. Lisa beamed as she said, "We're going to see Wedding Crashers... again! It's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen!" Just thinking about it, they giggled and grabbed each other's hands, like a couple of giddy schoolgirls.

     Suddenly they remembered that Craig is not "regular friend"; Craig is "pastor friend." The happy-happy giggle fest ended abruptly in a moment of awkward silence. Then Amanda added, "But you and Amy definitely shouldn't see it."

    I was genuinely startled. "Why not?"

    "Well," Lisa began sheepishly, choosing her words carefully, "You're a pastor. This movie has a lot of bad scenes. You shouldn't see that"

    What? Hang on a minute!

    Now you may be thinking, You're right Craig. What are you, five years old? Who are they to judge what's appropriate for you? You're a grown man! You've got six kids! I doubt Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn can show you anything you haven't seen before.

     That's probably true, but it's not really the point. Let's rewind our scene. Lisa and Amanda are Christians active in our church, and they are head out to see the hilarious, if somewhat raunchy, Wedding Crashers for the second time. I looked it up: "Rated R for sexual content/nudity and language." Is it just me, or is it odd for someone to believe that viewing a movie could be wrong for me because of my profession, but completely acceptable to other Christians, just because they don't preach on weekends?

Taken from The Christian Atheist by Craig Groeschel