Recognize the Change

Look, I am about to do something new. Now it begins to happen! Do you not recognize it? Yes, I will make a road in the desert and paths in the wilderness.

Isaiah 43:19 (NET)

I can't tell you how many times in my life that I thought that I was so comfortable that I didn't want to change anything, my house, my job, my church, you know that if something changed, life wouldn't be as good as it is right now. You probably don't think this now, but that kind of thinking will get you stale and burned out. God will continue to make changes in your life so that you will grow and grow and grow to be more like Him and what He wants you to be. The key is recognizing when God is trying to make a change. For example, I had a band in North Dakota called Atone, and we were doing pretty good. Then suddenly I lost passion for my band. Now I could've done one of two things, continued on with my band...without passion...and it would have become a curse rather than the blessing that it had been. Or I could've recognized that God was getting me ready to make a change. I had enough experience with Him at that point in my life to know that He was getting me ready for a change, so instead of fighting Him, I chose to go with His flow. Five months later my house was up for sale and I was moving to Atlanta. We never know when God is going to start getting us ready to make a change in our lives, but we must always be ready and willing to go with His flow. To tell Him "no, I like it this way" will keep you in the same place...forever...with out any growth, and eventually what you are doing will become stale and a curse instead of a blessing.


Take Away...
Don't be so comfortable in life that you won't recognize when God is getting ready to make a change in your life. Be ready AND willing to make that change when you see it happening.

Worship Song of the Week...

Touch the Sky by Hillsong

Racing, Confusing and Rest

Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Matthew 11:29 (NET)

I know I've talked about this before,but apparently I need to hear it again, and if I need to hear it again, some of you probably do, especially since we are approaching the holiday season which means dinner engagements, Christmas parties, New Years Eve gatherings, family to see, etc. Life just gets much much busier in December and you still have your normal routine to do each day as well. For Tammy and I, it is just not additional things to do along with our normal routine, but we are getting ready to start a church in January. So as you can imagine, my mind has been racing, and over the past few days it has been racing faster and faster. And as my mind has raced faster and faster, the sleep has become less and less, my mind is going in about a thousand different directions, all at the same time...yada yada yada CONFUSION! Jesus finally said, "Kent, stop it. Your mind is racing so much that now you have a hard time hearing My voice. You need to just stop...and rest in me." I then got this picture of Jesus sitting down, having a cup of coffee and just relaxing. Jesus wants to take all of our burdens, all of the "junk" we are going through so that we can rest in Him. That's what it means to rest in Him...give Him all your "stuff" you are mulling around in your mind thereby getting more and more confused and stressed...just give it to Him...and then rest! This means once you handyour "stuff" over to Him, you don't think about it any more, you don't try to make things happen so that you can accomplish a goal that you most likely set for yourself, you just stop, sit and rest trusting in Him that He is taking care of it. This is different than being passive or ignoring things. How? If you are passive about something or ignoring something, then it is still not being taken care of and the "thing" is still there when you are done resting, and honestly you aren't really resting. But when you give it to Jesus, He is taking care of it while you are resting so that when you are done resting, He has taken care of it! 

Take Away: instead of allowing your mind to race, thinking on how to take care of a hundred things at one time, give it to Him...and then rest!

Worship Song of the Week...

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong

Do It Scared

Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ, equip you with every good thing to do his will...

Hebrews 13:20-21

Okay, so you are sitting comfortable where you are, you have a nice home, good job, you play on the worship team at church, great friends around you, an incredible wife...life is good and comfortable. Then God says, "okay, its time to make a change, you are going to start a church." What is your first reaction? Is it, "oh, that can't be God, that must be the devil!" Is it, "that's impossible God, I don't have any of the skills to do that," or "right God, stop joking, You know I have a hard to speaking to my co-workers much less speaking to a group of people." Kind of sounds like Moses when God called Him out to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but Moses finally said yes...and the rest is history. God doesn't care about your ability, He doesn't care if you have this degree or that degree, He doesn't care if you have experience in a particular area, what He is looking for is someone who will say "God, whatever it is You are asking me to do, I'll do it!" According to Hebrews, God will give you what you need to accomplish His will, all you have to do is have faith that He will do it, and then step out in faith as He directs you. If you are scared to do it, like I was, then do it scared. If God is telling you to do something, He will not tell you to do it just to have you fall flat on your face. He is telling you because He wants to accomplish His will through you...and that is an awesome thing!

Take Away...when God calls you to step out into something that is totally out of your comfort zone, respond to God with "God, I know I don't have the skills to do what You are calling me to do and I am a little scared, but You are God and You are so much bigger than me, so lets do it, even if I have to do it scared Lord, let go!"

Worship Song of the Week...

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong

The Next Place

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside.

1 Corinthians 13:9-10

Many years ago I was in a band called Atone and I thought that was my final calling. I could've bet my house on that at the time! But during those Atone years, God told me that Atone would be a small part of something very big in my life. Well, a lot of water has passed under that proverbial bridge, and looking back on the last 25 years, I can definitely see how my band was a small part of what God was calling me to. Sometimes we think that what we are doing now is it, its the final, its the "I've made it," but we are only seeing what is here and now. We are not seeing the big picture, and by doing so, we are limiting ourselves. What I mean by that is that when you are doing something that you think is the final call, your final ministry or whatever, and then God says, "okay, now lets move on to something different," we risk either not hearing His voice or we say "that can't be God, because what I am doing now is 'it'." You've got to take what you are doing now, enjoy that time, learn what you can during that time, and at the same time keep your mind open to hear where He is going to take you next...because He WILL take you to the next place, there's no question about that! You are never at your final ministry or calling, there is always "the next place" He wants to take you to!

Take Away: enjoy where you are at, but don't think it is "it." Be open and ready to move when God says, "okay, here is where we are going next."

Worship Song of the Week...

Oceans (where feet may fail) by Hillsong

What's It To You

Jesus replied, “If I want him to live until I come back,what concern is that of yours? You follow me!”

John 21:21

Have you ever prayed for something, and you have been praying and praying, and then one of your friends calls you up and says that he just got what you have been praying for? When I was a lot younger I prayed and prayed and prayed for a new car. I told God this is the type of car I want, a blue Monte Carlo SS.  I can't tell you how long I prayed for that car. Then out of the blue, a friend of mine called me up and said "you got to come over and see my new car." Yep, you guessed it, it was the car I had been praying for. Of course I said the Christian thing..."well praise God, God is certainly blessing you, that is awesome." But what I really wanted to say was "God!!!! That was suppose to be my car, not his!" After I had my little tantrum, God said "Me blessing him has nothing to do with you, its not about you Kent, its all about Me and Me wanting to bless him." After that sunk in, I realize how I was "me" centered and all concerned about me and me getting the blessing and making me happy...me Me ME! We don't see the big picture, but God does. We don't know the steps someone else has been walking, but God does. So when God does something in someone's life, it has nothing to do with us, it has everything to do with God blessing someone other than us. And if we get angry or upset or frustrated with God (or even the person that is getting blessed), that should be a red flag going up that something inside of us needs to be worked on. If that happens, you need to go to God and confess to Him your anger and frustration and ask Him to show you why you reacted that way. God doesn't bless someone else to make you angry, or to say ha ha, look what I did for someone and not you. That is not how God operates. He operates in love and He wants the best for everyone.

Take Away...don't be concerned with how God is blessing someone else because it has nothing to do with you. Be happy for the person and at the same time keep God as your focus.

Worship Song of the Week

Here With You by Hillsong

Second Chances

The Lord said to Jonah a second time

Jonah 3:1 (NET)

At this point in the story of Jonah, God had already told Jonah to go to Nineveh, but he refused, was swallowed by the fish, repented and the fish threw him up on the beach. Now we are at Jonah 3:1 where God tells Jonah...AGAIN...to go to Nineveh. I remember something similar to this when I was disobedient to God when I was in Orlando staying at a hotel. There was this guy at the concierge that drew my attention. On one evening I was sitting down in my room getting ready to watch TV and God said, "Go down and talk to that guy." I said, "but God, my favorite TV show is coming on in a few minutes." This went back and forth several times. Finally I said, "God, I know you are not going to give up, so I'm going to go down and talk to him." The end result was that this guy had just graduated from Bible college was going through a really rough time in his life, in fact he was going through what I had just been through. I was able to share how God brought me through it. When God tells us to do something, and we don't do it, that is disobedience, and there are consequences to that. In Jonah's case he was swallowed by a fish. Well I can't say I was swallowed by a fish, but my disobedience did produce a consequence. But did you notice in Jonah 3:1, God gave Jonah a second chance. God is a god of second, third, fourth, etc chances. If you think you have failed Him because you were disobedient and didn't do what He asked, God WILL give you another chance. His plan is still His plan, just because you were disobedient doesn't mean His plan has changed. His plan is still the same, what you need to do is repent of your disobedience and get on board with what He is telling you to do.

Take Away: God is a god of many chances. Don't despair and think you missed it because you said no the first, second, third, umteen times...repent and jump on board with His plan!

Worship Song of the Week...

Here With You by Hillsong 

What Are You Thinking?

We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Ever get thoughts inside your mind and wonder "where did that come from?" And you passively dismiss it. But it comes again, and then again and again until its at the front of just about everything you are thinking about? We need to be mindful of what these thoughts are because thoughts will eventually lead into action. Thats why the Apostle Paul said we need to take every thought we have and take it to Jesus. Whatever we are thinking about, we need to see if it lines up with the word of God. Thats why it is so important to know the word, to know God, to know Jesus, because when you do, you know if that thought is from God or not. If the thought is from God, then you should continue to think about it, pray about it, and see what God wants to do with it. However, if the thought you are thinking does not line up with God, then you need to dismiss it immediately, and don't do it nonchalantly. You need to be purposeful in dismissing that thought. For example, say you're heading to a meeting and you are already late, then on your way you are hitting every red traffic light. Then these thoughts start coming "you're going to miss the meeting, you're not really that important so they wont wait on you, why don't you just go home 'cause you're already late" and so on and so on. Now you have a choice, you could continue to think those thoughts while you sit in traffic and allow them to produce either frustration, anger, and eventually the act of going home and missing the meeting. OR you could say "No! I am not going to listen to these thoughts. My God says that ALL things work out for good for those who love Him, so bless God I am going to the meeting even if I am there for the last 5 minutes!" Never be passive about thoughts, take them to Jesus!

Take Away...thoughts will eventually produce action. Make sure you take every thought to Jesus, and if it is not from God, then rebuke it with His word.

Worship Song of the Week

Here With You by Hillsong