30 Days to Live Series
March 25 2008What if you only had one month to live? What would that mean about what you would spend you days doing?
Psalms 39:4-5 (NKJV)
4 "Lord, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.
5 Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah
Psalms 90:12 (KJV)
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
I mean even God tell us we are to “number” our days. Think about the fact that we will not be alive on this earth forever. We will live forever. In fact we will live infinitely longer after our death than before. How we live, it is important.
We are going to start a series called “30 Days to Live.” I found a cool website about that tells about life spans. It even will give its calculated day of your death... check it out www.deathclock.com
Easter around the World
March 21 2008Acts 4:33 (NIV)
33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
Easter- wow! Think about how many people from all over the world are going to celebrate Easter this year. Our friend Timothy in china, who started 630 churches last year, will be rejoicing with those Chinese Christians as they remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our friends in Puebla, Jalisco, DF, Oaxaca Mexico; Rick Zackary and his churches in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India. They will all be remembering Jesus Christ’s victory of sin and the grave.
I love being a part of something so big and awesome… The church of Jesus Christ! Let’s declare His Name and resurrection to our area!
Anger
March 14 2008Matthew 15:17-20 (NIV)
17 "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?
18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
You know you can have Anger in your heart and try to hide it…. But it is going to come out. We feel like people Owe Us. We overreact to people when they don’t meet our expectations..We blame people, we want to punish people when they fail at something. But really we don’t even handle our own failure well. It is like we live in the world of “pay back”. People can not grow with our failing…we have to replace the Anger with Forgiveness… We get angry with people because they have taken something from us, and probably they can not give it back to us. Our anger can not do anything good, but forgiveness can.
Guilt
March 10 2008Matthew 15:17-20 (NIV)
17 "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?
18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
20 These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'"
Things that hide in that.
Guilt. When guilt is allowed to stay in the heart, walls start to be built around that keep others out. We don’t want others to get too close because they might find out our secret. We will seem distant and distracted. We might over react when someone else shares their weakness. We don’t really want to live like that but until we come to the place of confession. Sin, guilt and shame only have one place to exit--- out of the mouth. AAAhhh it feels so good to be clean!
Change the heart, not just the words
March 03 2008Matthew 15:17-20 (NIV)
17 "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.' 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'"
I am convicted. I just can not get around this. The words I have allowed to come out, are just a sign of what has been in my heart..
Our words show the real condition of our hearts. We say, “I didn’t mean it.” But really the truth is we didn’t mean to SAY it, but….. We meant it. If it was in our hearts, we meant it. It just slipped out.
So the only way to change it is to change the heart, not just the words. Thank God that Jesus said we could. If you are like me I don’t need to say, “I didn’t mean to say it.” The heart of this problem is a problem in the heart. I need to confess what is in my heart as sin and He will forgive and cleanse.
PB
Secrets of the Heart
February 28 2008This last weekend I saw women at the Secrets of the Heart conference, at the altar, committing things from their hearts to God. It was Friday night and Libby preached a great message on those secrets that had been allowed in the heart. It is amazing how the Holy Spirit knows exactly how to touch the heart of a Christian. The Holy Spirit touches you like if you’re the only person in the world.
But then the next day there were all those same women sharing their lives with one another, having fun with one another, and praying for one another. And I thought that we are not just individuals; we’re part of His Family. We are connected heart to heart, life to life. Even though He loves us individually, He does not leave us as individuals. He made us for one another. We are made that way.
We are our best when we are serving Him together.
PB
Our Leadership Is An Act of Worship
February 26 2008Leadership Is An Act of Worship
Hey leaders!
Keeping the passion in our hearts for what we do is crucial. Christian leaders without passion don’t help they hurt. It means we must keep out worship fresh and current. Times of being with the Lord and sensing His presence are our lifeline.
Our leadership is an act of worship. Something that has challenged me over the years is this, “If the path into the place of worship is well worn in your life, it will be easy to take others there.”
Jack Hayford said, “Your worship will determine what flows from your life.”
Things that help:
- Realize how much you need Him, and then draw near to Him. David said,” When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, O LORD, I shall seek." Psalms 27:8
- Practice being thankful for lots of things. Just do it. Tell him again and again during the day that you are grateful to Him.
- Talk to him regularly. If you are driving by yourself, begin to talk out loud to Him (prayer). Practice His presence. He really is there.
A Life of Worship
February 21 2008A Life of Worship
I read this today and it struck me.
Do you find yourself saying, “If God calls me tobattle, of course I will rise to the occasion”Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. Crisis always reveals a person’s true charter. A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness.
If you have not been worshiping in every day occasions, when you get involved in God’s work you will not only be useless, but also hinder those around you… God’s training ground is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint. Oswald Chambers. (great missionary)
How do we maintain a life of private worship? Here are some things that help me;
- 1. Do it every day.
- 2. Don’t evaluate if it was good or not by how you feel.
- 3. Know how much you need Him.
- 4. Let men like Oswald Chambers challenge me
pb
Praise and Worship is just a show
February 18 2008Oh praise and worship is just a show!
Almost but not exactly. It is a show and more.
1 Ch 15:16 Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their relatives the singers, with instruments of music, harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals, to raise sounds of joy.
1CH 15:22 Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the singing; he gave instruction in singing because he was skillful.
28 Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the horn, with trumpets, with loud-sounding cymbals, with harps and lyres.
The man who God called,” a man after My own heart,” orchestrated events just to sing, and praise God. He even had a hired man in charge of the singing. They made it an extravagant event- music, shouting, instruments, cymbals (loud ones!). Yeah it was a show – a big show- All done for an audience of One!
Priorities
February 14 2008In the business world you hear a lot about priorities, and putting first things first. I believe that is true. Put the most important things first. Just like everyone else I struggle to” keep the main thing the main thing” But at least I know what that is. It is worshiping God.
Genesis 12:6-8 (NIV)
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.
Abram had his priorities right. He built and altar to the Lord, signifying his life of worship, praise and prayer, and pitched his tent signifying his career. Most people give their best effort to BUILD their tents (careers), and then just PITCH their altars (their worship) to God.
Over the years I have struggled to keep my priority of worship there. I have to work at:
Reading the bible and praying in the morning before I; turn on the computer, read the paper, start planning (or worrying) about my day.
Not allowing discouraging things to make me stop praying.
Not allow well meaning people to take that time I have set aside to worship with phone calls, emails, and things that seem like crises but are not.
Hope you are over coming them too.
I read where John Wesley had a number of Self-Examination questions. Three of them were;
1. Do I give the bible time to speak to me every day?
2. Did the bible live in me today?
3. Am I enjoying prayer?
Man! Pretty challenging, and there were 21 of them... Maybe you have found this out like I have. If I give God enough unhurried time in the morning to read his word and pray, I sense His presence. And when I sense that, I am always strengthened. I wish I could say I am unhurried every day, but I am not. But knowing how good it is to spend that time keeps drawing me back.
Psalms 73:28 (NASB95)
28 But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.
Look at this verse...
February 07 2008PSA 66:1 (For the choir director. A Song. A Psalm.) Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious. Say to God, "How awesome are Your works! Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You. "All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name." Selah.
Make His praise GLORIOUS. IT MEANS YOU, MAKE SURE THAT WHEN YOU SING TO HIM, IT IS EXTRAVEGANT! This inspires me to much effort into our worship. Not lackadaisical, but earnest, heartfelt and excellent. Our praise- our singing- making music for Him, should not be sloppy. In fact when we look at what praise looks like in heaven we see things like jewels- emeralds, sardis, and jasper stones; golden crowns on the heads of the elders- A magnificent throne with a sea of glass, like crystal in front. There was a rainbow over the whole thing… I mean EXTRAVEGANT!! Praise and Worship is suppose to be good…. Very good.!
After September...
October 04 2007I hope everyone liked our series on Rediscovering you Families. I loved seeing so many come out to the prayer meeting last night as well as our prayer and fasting meeting in September. It is the first step in seeing genuine change happen. Winning the battle for our families means taking all the resources available to fight the fight. No one should send soldiers out ill prepared to fight a battle. Remember Sadaam Hussein sent his soldiers out to fight without proper weapons.
Eccles. 9: 18] Wisdom is better than weapons of war,... In winning the war for our homes and families we need WISDOM...
1 Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life ...
The real battle is a spiritual one. And it must be won spiritually. Changing the mind, the heart, and there for actions of ourselves, our families and our culture requires us to fight a spiritual war.
2 Cor. 10:4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are engaged in a different kind of war. The battle for you family will not be won with personality, money, education, or guts alone. You will not win the battle because you have a great personality and people like you, or your education, or your determination alone. IT IS A SPIRITUAL WAR. You must have God involved in this war.
Proverbs 21:31 The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But victory belongs to the Lord.
In a war you try to disrupt communication and supplies, and the factories making armaments of the enemy. Much of the war concerning your family is won by prayer and fasting.
REAL SPIRITUAL WAR IS CARRIED OUT BY PRAYING AND FASTING.- Adonira Judson
Matthew 6:16-18 "And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17"But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face 18so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. Let's fight to win this war!
With My Wife
September 17 2007Hey l liked preaching with my wife on Sunday.
She does a great job of connecting with people. We wanted to be open about our marriage.... Had lots of issues to work through but the Lord helped.
A new website, for a new campus
May 16 2007Hey, check out our new website. Pastor Josh has opened up a preaching website that will be advertized and viewed by young people of Guadalajara. Really it is cool!
CCI Guadalajara
Tell us what you think
-PB
This morning...
May 08 2007...I was meeting with some leaders and talking about the retreat they had just finished leading.. they were really pumped !. Seeing people experience real repentance , getting their hearts healed , and freed from addictions and spiritual prisons is an awesome thing. We talked about how much God requires people to walk away from their old lives in order to experience the life He has for them. He puts a fork in the road for everyone and then leaves the choice up to us.
Have you had to make hard choices to follow him?
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