Survival Skills Part 5

This survival skill is called Sabotage. You know yourself and your tendencies, you know what trips you up and can destroy your relationships and your spiritual health. Straight up, you need to become an expert in Sabotage. You need to identify and target, then apply this skill so you can kill off any opportunity where you may get derailed by your tendencies. If you are somewhere in your life that you don't like, but deep down your flesh does like and your experiencing the battle of where you are and where you want to be. You need to trace back to where the setting is that you are tempted, identify those things that take you to that compromise in your character and Sabotage it.
An example is this...Guys have a tendency to be sexually tempted in areas of pornography and lust. One of the biggest culprits is the television, Dude there is some-stuff on there that can (in prime time) mess you up and nothing good for you is on after 11pm anyway. I know we all drop the.... well, SportsCenter comes on at 11. Well look at it this way, if you set an early bedtime you can wake up and watch it in the morning.
Perhaps you are a channel surfing freak like me, you can come across some serious junk. Try this, sit down with your wife and or parents and say "hey this could mess me up will you flip through the channels.....", and block out the channels that have that junk on them, "and honey you put in the codes". Sabotage... HI-YAA!
Hey, I'm serious, this is the hard work of character building, blowing up strongholds is key to create the space for God to work in your heart and life.
Now there is another level of Sabotage and that comes in the territory of battling negative thoughts. We and I have done it, we have put ourselves down, torn ourselves up and it's not good and we do it with the mouth that God created in His Image. You are loved lavishly by the God of the universe and he wants to be in relationship with you! So don't wreck it! Sabotage It!
This is a great opportunity for anyone out there to post your sabotage ideas. I will post them on a future blog.

Parents are Clueless

My kids didn't come with a manual so I must confess that I am a clueless parent. God has blessed me with three wonderful children. A teenager and two elementary age kids make for an exciting and never a dull moment existence. When I was a youth pastor I thought I had all the answers. I would meet with parents to discuss what they should do with their Teenage challenges. That was until I have to parent one myself. Wow, I don't know what I'm going to to when my daughter becomes a teenager next August, Yikes! As a parent nothing will humble you faster than the huge responsibility of raising children.
That's why at NewPointe we create environments like Kidstuf.
We have decided to less for kids and more for parents and kids.
Every thing we do points towards parents becoming the spiritual leaders in the lives of their children. We provide parents the training through the opportunity to serve in their child's environment. Because we know this as a church, we don't have enough time to teach your children everything they need to know about God. We have approx. 40 hours a year, the average parent will spend more time in the car with their kids than they will be at church. Seriously, a Mom and Dad will have over 2000 non school, non sleeping hours with their child each year.
Resources are helpful too. There are churches we keep an eye on that "get it". Newspring Church is doing a series called "The Perfect kid" They have a web site that goes along with it called parentsareclueless.com Good stuff, I encourage you to check it out. I will be listening and learning, I hope you are too.

Survival Skills Part 4

The 4th survival skill is the ability to " know thy self. " Sounds easy, well....uh...it is...... but there is a flip side. The key is an accurate understanding of your weaknesses and how it can derail your marriage, ministry or your relationships. We all have a blind side and deep down it isn't anything we don't already know. It's those tendencies and temptations that we have a bent towards that we keep tucked away.
Knowing yourself is key so you can execute survival skill number 5.
So take inventory and know the things that can mess you up.

Heroes

I recently bought Heroes season 1 and I am hooked!
I was at walmart (america's savings place) and at the time was looking for a de-stress-or, a distraction. I was tired of Movies and I have a long time to wait for the next season of 24, so I happened upon Heroes.
It was awesome!
Multiple levels of thinking and understanding and an overall feeling of something huge is going to happen. The key to entertainment and addiction.
Right now I'm on the 4th disc and this Syler guy has just escaped from Claires' dad, by the way is this mysterious dude who is kind of freakish but I think he's a good guy......I think? Anyway the main deal for Heroes in a sentence or six, is these people have discovered, all around the world, that they have these powers but don't understand why. Now there is this dude from India that studied the whole cell/ dna deal with this and believes that these people exist, but while looking for them he is murdered by this Syler guy who has these powers but goes the bad way.... The scientists son comes over to the U.S. to discover that his dad had indeed met some of these people and after much anxiety and thought decides to complete his fathers research. All of this works together to thwart the worlds worst disaster which looks to be the total destruction of New-York City. Cool Huh!
On a deeper level the real engaging part is the level of intensity you feel about the Heroes and their desire to save the world. It seems that little do they know there is no way to do that apart from their humanity. The key it seems to me is for them to understand who they are, then understand the gift and how it can be used for good. All of this attaches itself to our desire to make a difference. We want to be a Hero, we want to change the world.
You know what? when it comes to that in our lives two words change everything.............IN YOU!
You are a child of God, You have been given a gift, and the power of God resides.........IN YOU! Your His Hero. Cool.

Survival Skills Part 3

The third survival skill is a superior team.
This kind of team has a number of levels to it. The first is an advisory level. People who have been where you are and can lead, challenge and dispense valuable feedback. The next level are those who you lead and trust to lead others. The last level is a buddy, a true friend, someone who knows you and is not afraid to tell you the truth.
Putting all of this together will truly be a superior team. It's vital to have people who are above, below and around you.Leaning on a team is an important part of a solid survival plan. Teamwork makes the dream work!

Survival Skills Part 2

The 2nd survival skill is a vibrant devotional life. Ben says that our quiet time needs to be consistent and Creative. Having a systematic plan for connection is good but it needs to move from the function of set time to the form of our lives. My friend John pointed out in his blog that Brother Lawrence found God while peeling potatoes, that is the skill we must develop. The ability to carry and see God in the flow of our lives. Yes the formal time is important but the touch points with God in our lives are just as Vital. His challenge for me was to be emotionally engaged with God on a daily basis, to touch Him, walk with Him, and worship Him every day.
The special forces have a special team called HALO. High Altitude Low Opening. It's comprised of paratroopers that are trained for special missions that jump out of planes at high altitudes and wait to the last possible moment to open their chutes.At first the training films are hilarious but as they go along it's serious.... they end up as warriors. The skills they learn make them effective in the missions they are given.
We too are warriors on a mission. To bring light into darkness! The skill of connection with God is essential to accomplishing that mission............ HOO-RAAAH!

Survival Skills Part 1

I watch this program from time to time called man vs. wild. It's this show about this guy that drops himself of onto the wilderness and find a way to survive and make it through the circumstances that nature throws at him. It's interesting the skills that this guy has. I wouldn't begin to know what I could eat, or how to light a fire with sticks or what to do if a wild animal were to approach. We learn that skills and knowledge are Important and the where with all to act upon it and not become paralyzed is key to survival.
Along those lines I just listened to a talk from a guy named Ben Stewart called Survival Skills. The skills he spoke of was for anyone in ministry Paid or Volunteer that engaged the daunting task of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Ben shared that there were 7 skills that we must have to survive in ministry to go for the long haul, to finish well.

Number one is a productive schedule.
Stress and a messed up schedule leads to unproductivity. He calls for leaders to have fixed points of their days that lead to a healthy approach to work and life. Exercise, devotional time, self leadership, prioritizing what's most important and then filling in the blanks. Interestingly he mentioned that if there were no blanks to fill in that quite possibly you will soon be heading for a wreck. You can only do what you have prescribed to do in the time available whatever is left must be analyzed and scrutinized to see if the task is realistic in light of the current priorities. If you do not do this you will never have the critical conversations about what is realistic in the season your in and as a result begin a process of slow death in the personal, family and spiritual areas of your life.
Ever wonder why a lion tamer takes a stool in the cage with him? I understand the whip and the gun but I never really understood the stool. Stewart shared that when the lion tamer holds the legs of the stool up towards the lions face, the lion try's to focus on the legs and becomes paralyzed because he can't. That's how we are when we look at all we have to do on our desk and the goal is to focus and NOT become paralyzed.
Ever wonder what a healthy pace is in ministry? Ever really prioritize your tasks and stick with it? Ever make a not to do list?
I truly understand the challenge that Ben speaks of, I'm living it.
I want to survive... Heck, I want to thrive!
So right now I got to get some SKILLS!

Simple

Today I realized that I'm a pretty simple guy. Seriously Simple! I'm wondering if that's good or not. I don't usually compare myself with others but recently I couldn't help but notice that in the current season I'm in there really isn't much going on in and around my world.
Now as depressing as that sounds my simple existence allows me to be thankful for all I have and how good God has been to me. Thankful for my wonderful wife and three amazing children. Thankful for Gods provision and for His leading and guiding my life. Thankful for Jesus who bore my sins and forever changed my life.
I guess if I'm going to be simple I should be thankful.
I know that this season of simplicity will come to an end. Hobbies will emerge, relationships will grow, stories will come and ideas and dreams will blossom. I don't ever want to become so complex that I forget to be thankful.
However, I want to be interesting, current and into everything. Like all the cool blogs I read, and say man those guy's have interesting and unique lives on the cusp of adventure, never an average moment.
Well at this moment I will be taking out the garbage, my adventure right now surrounds the challenge of making this bag fit in an already full can.
So, I will be content in my season, It's Hard but I'm certain there is something to be learned and I'm willing to learn whatever lesson there is to learn in this............... I sure hope It's simple.