1. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.
2. Dear God, I have a problem, it’s me.
3. Growing old is inevitable. Growing UP is optional.
4. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.
5. Silence is often misinterpreted but never misquoted.
6. Do the math. Count your blessings.
7. Faith is the ability to not panic.
8. Laugh every day; it’s like inner jogging.
9. If you worry, you didn’t pray. If you pray, don’t worry.
10. As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home everyday.
11. Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.
12. The most important things in your house are the people.
13. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still so He can untangle the knot.
14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.
15. He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

“Three Things That Destroy Faith”

1. Wrong Focus & Remembering the Past

Isaiah 43:18, 19
Israel kept thinking about Egypt.
Isaiah 65:17-19
II Corinthians 6:16
(II.Cor.5:17) (Phil 3:13)

2. Wrong Thinking or Forgetting God’s Word

Deuteronomy 6:10-12    grasshopper vs. giant killer  i.e. David was physically small but he saw himself as a giant-killer!
Joshua 1:6-8
Numbers 13: 27, 28, 30-33
Proverbs 3:1 “Forget not my teachings…”
Remember:  Isaiah 43:26

3. Wrong Living aka: Sin

I John 3: 20-22
Ephesians 3:12
Gen 4:7 “If you do well, won’t you be accepted? But if you don’t do well, sin is lying outside your door ready to attack. It wants to control you, but you must master it.”
Rom. 5:12-21 / 6:11-23
If you don’t yield to temptation you don’t receive the wages of sin or yield to death.  If you don’t yield to symptoms you don’t receive or yield to sickness.  Yield to the Word of God and the Spirit of God’s leading.

Conclusion:
1. Narrow Your Focus  2. RIGHT Thinking   3. RIGHT Living

How do you balance your commitments?

The key to “balance” is your schedule.  You must schedule your priorities & then stick to the schedule as much as possible.

Get a plan to do what you say is really important and then work the plan.  You will only have time for some things if you MAKE time for them.

Sounds simply right?

Maybe not simple, but helpful & true.

pkc

I had a neat moment last Wednesday: an old friend “facebooked” me & emailed me a MP’3 message he taught his church on being a servant and being “incarnational.”  Being the Body of Christ in “our world” is a big focus for Harvest Church right now, & earlier that same morning I was meditating on having a servant-heart.  So here’s a few thoughts on a very important matter:

God Almighty, the animator of all things, needs your permission to act in your life.   It’s the “privilege” of being a Free Moral Agent.  But Jesus’ example to us was lay aside His privileges. I believe He acts through us when we “lay our life down” to serve another.

If you want to be more like Christ then desire to be better at serving.  Everything He did was for others & not Himself.

If you want to be more like Jesus you can’t pick & choose which parts you want to be like. He’s offering His entire Self to us!  What an indescribable gift!

Phil. 2:1-11 Implementing this passage into our lives would see our lives change almost over night!  That’s a powerful reality!

Ultimately it’s not whose for you or against you – it’s who you are for!  Who are you supposed to serve?  What people are you called to serve?
Follow the Person of Christ & find peace.  Follow the principles of Christ & find abundance.  Both are by His grace!  Giving… serving really make us look like Jesus.

A REMINDER of what the 7 categories or baskets of your life are:
1.  Spiritual
2.  Family
3.  Personal Growth
4.  Financial
5.  Social
6.  Professional
7.  Physical

By now you should have set one measurable priority for each of the 7 areas of your life for 2010.  If you have & if  you work the plan, you will have a very fulfilling & balanced year.

Remember: schedule is the key to Balance.  Get a plan; work the plan. Don’t make the mistake of getting bored, tired or discouraged.  It’s always too soon to quit!

“If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time.”  Bro. Jim Wideman

Peace Out!

Pastor K

You can literally “schedule” your future in small increments each day.

Today has to do with practical, hands on doing of your dream.  A goal is a dream with a deadline.   So – set finish lines and establish your daily success routine. It’s been said, “I can’t change your life until I change something you do daily.”

Losers do occasionally what champions do daily.
Illustration:  I want to invest 1 day a week working on a worship recording project; 1 day a week in study & in prayer; 1 day w/ my staff & leadership team, 1 day a month visiting church members, or having lunch or coffee with folks. What do you WANT to do?
Practical Application: Write on a piece of paper what your ideal YEAR would be: vacations, anniversary celebration, business events, etc.  “Write the vision. Make it plain.”  Put the “big rocks” or the truly important things in FIRST then build around that.

pkc

In essence the basics for creating a daily success routine are simple:
1. Determine what God, you & your family consider to be a success
2. Schedule time to do those things
3. Be disciplined about doing those activities preferably first.

You may feel as though you have 10,000 pieces of your life scattered all over your psyche or mind.  But really everything falls into one of seven categories. These 7 categories or baskets are as follows:
1.  Spiritual
2.  Family
3.  Personal Growth
4.  Financial
5.  Social
6.  Professional
7.  Physical
If you will set one measurable priority for each of the 7 areas of your life for 2010 you will have a very fulfilling & balanced year.

Remember: schedule is the key to Balance.
Psalm 90:11-12 “Who knows the power of your anger? Even according to your fear, so is your wrath. 12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
One translation says, “Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.”

The thought here is “I can’t change your life until I change something you do everyday.”

You can literally “schedule” your future in small increments each day. For example:  read 1 chap a day of “Why We Want You to Be Rich” by D. Trump & Rich Dad. (Financial Basket) Or exercise for 40 minutes at least 3 to 4 times a week. (Physical Basket) Or, schedule to read Pastor Kevin ‘s blog each week this year. (That may go in the “personal growth” basket.”)

Schedule something specific & measurable in EACH of the “7 Baskets” that moves you toward that goal as this year progresses.

A bit more tomorrow…So, SCHEDULE to read my blog tomorrow!

Kevin

I’m jazzed to take a New Testament look at the value & power of God’s people meeting in homes to cultivate a Kingdom Culture of life-giving relationships.

In fact, we will help you find the Group that works best for you!

We will also be dismissing our 11 o’clock service EARLY so we can all hustle down to the city-wide “Festival of Hope” at Ladd Peebles stadium.  All are welcome to come & love on our city!

See you in the morning at 9 or 11!

Peace,

pkc

p.s. – don’t forget to pray for Bret Farv tomorrow in his big game! And “Who Dat!?!” I know – it’s a win/win for me.

King David said, “I will not bother myself with things too hard for me.” Not everything deserves equal investment of your time, focus & energy.  Just as you ARE called to do certain things you are NOT called to do other things. It’s vital that you know the difference.
It’s called Intentional Neglect   (More about this next week.)

Three Enemies of Leadership & Vision: Fog, Fatigue, & Flirtations.  Because goals & vision are not clear we get tired, and when we get tired we begin to flirt with ideas we have no business entertaining.
Yes, there’s always lots to do & much of it is important.  So what is often much needed in our lives is Balance.  What is balance? It’s an adjustment of accounts; to bring to or hold in equilibrium; poise; to arrange, adjust, or proportion the parts of symmetrically.

Ever felt like the parts of your life were out of whack?

The KEY to BALANCE  in your LIFE is your SCHEDULE!

We could compartmentalize you life into 7 basic baskets:
Spiritual
Family
Personal Growth
Financial
Social
Professional
Physical
Practical Application:  Set one measurable priority for each of the 7 areas of your life for 2010.

(more on this MONDAY January 25th!)

Traffic Police just raise their hand and stop SUV’s and 18-wheelers!  All the nation’s power backs them up if need be.  (The badge is the authority; the gun is the power!)

All Heaven backs up the Name of Jesus when you use it!

One day all the universe will gather around satan and say with surprise, “THAT’S the worm… that’s the thing that made the nations tremble?!?”

Satan is defeated!  So don’t allow him to continue illegally in your life anymore.  USE your authority!

Stop being a victim when Christ and His mighty resurrection from the dead and defeat of death, hell, & the grave have made you a VICTOR!!!

Walk like a winner!  We ARE the Champions IN HIM!

C u 2morrow,

pkc