Celebrate Recovery

I am heading out this morning with Bro. Rick Laster to California, to attend the Celebrate Recovery Summit at Saddleback. Pray for our safety and for God to equip us to take Liberty and CR to the next level.Excited about the journey!

Moving Forward

Ezra4:4-5 "Then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work. They bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their plans." the enemy never stops, and his weapons of discouragement and fear are still bombarding the body of Christ. Not only did their enemies use discouragement and fear, but they also bribed agents to work against them and frustrate their plans. Satan doesn't have any new tricks, but he does a real good job of working the ones that he does have. As Christian's we need to recognize the works of the enemy, and allow his attacks to become encouragement to us, realizing that if Satan is coming against what we are doing, then it must be of God. To many Christians and churches stop moving forward because them meet resistance, reasoning that "if God was in this it wouldn't be this hard" well I propose that the fact that it is "hard" is proof that it is a God thing, because all hell is breaking loose against it. If you had a word from God that got you moving, let it be a word from God that makes you stop. Don't allow circumstances, resistance, frustration or fear cause you to stop moving toward what God has called you to do.

Do It Afraid

Ezra 3:3 "Even though the people were afraid of the local residents, they rebuilt the altar..." Joyce Meyer says that sometimes "you have to do it afraid", if we are going to live a life of faith, then we are going to have to overcome our fears. And many times the fear remains present until you actually do what God has asked you to do. You can not wait until you feel no fear to do what God has asked, you have to do it afraid and trust God to make a way even when you don't see how it is going to work. After all isn't that what walking by faith is all about, trusting in God, not in what you see or feel. The Israelites were afraid of the local residents but they rebuilt the alter of God, even though they were afraid. They confronted their fear and stepped into the will of God for their lives and we must do the same. Don't allow fear to control your life, step out in faith upon God's Word and you won't be disappointed.

HS Power

1Corinthians 2:4 "And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God."

Paul relied on the power of the Holy Spirit to change people's hearts, minds and lives, his confidence was in the Spirit not in his preaching. What are you relying on, sometimes our greatest strength becomes our greatest weakness, because if we not careful we will begin to rely on our abilities and not the Holy Spirit. The worst thing that can happen to us as individuals is not that we fail without God, but that we succeed without him. Success without God breeds pride and a self sufficient spirit that causes us to rely upon our abilities instead of the Holy Spirit. Nothing drives us to prayer quicker than the realization of our inability and unfortunately nothing keeps us from prayer more than a confidence in our abilities.

Maturity

Proverbs 20:21 "An inheritance obtained too early in life is not a blessing in the end."

Maturity is the key to lasting success. Fame, fortune and power granted to quickly can become a curse instead of a blessing. Our world is full of "child/teen stars" that burned out and burned up in the light of their stardom. But you don't have to be a superstar to feel the sting and pain of immaturity. And I believe that we as parents are unfortunately setting our kids up for destruction. In our desire to bless our kids and give them what we did not have, we have pushed our children into a world that they are not mature enough to handle. Cell phones, laptops, iPods and the Internet are given to our children at earlier and earlier ages and many times without any restraints or boundaries. Through our world of technology children are being introduced and addicted to things at younger and younger ages. Creating problems that will plague them the rest of their lives. I challenge every parent to look at the "inheritance" that you are giving your children and ask yourself are they really mature enough to receive this as a blessing or will it become a thorn in their side. This doesn't mean that we have to total remove the things that we have given them (maybe in some cases) but it does mean that there need to be guidelines or should I say guardrails put in place to keep them out of the ditches of life. Let make sure our blessings are blessings and not traps in disguise

Division

Romans 16:17-18
Verse 17 "Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. 18 Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests."

Anytime you see someone sowing discord you know that they are not right with God. Division is of the devil and unfortunately many have fallen under the sway of the evil one. Division Paul says comes from people "serving there own personal interest". When your ideas become your God, you are in a dangerous place of self deception. The government of the church is really the safe guard against deception, as long as you are under authority you have a safety net against deception and are free to move forward in confidence knowing that "in a multitude of counselors there is safety".

Join

Romans 15:30 "I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me" When we pray for others we join them in their struggle and by the Spirit bear with them the burden that they are under, lightening their load and strengthening them by the power of the Holy Spirit. Join someone today through prayer and you will find that when you lift their load, your load will be lightened also.