Daily Challenge #28

Today's Challege: Upload some photos to your facebook account. 

Anticipation is building...

Can you feel it? Can you sense the anticipation building? I certainly do.

There's a prompting on my life to pounce on a new adventure. I can't avoid it. Seems like every article, blog, book, radio program, etc., that I pick up focuses on discovering what my  passions are and pursuing those passions. It's everywhere! Literally, everywhere. In the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep, I picked up a parenting book from John Maxwell from 1996 called Breakthrough Parenting. I only made it through page 33, but so far it's loud and clear that I need to keep learning. And to do that, I need to figure out what my passions are. (See the trend?)

So how does one figure out what he is passionate about? 

• Listen to what you talk about the most
• Look at your bank account to see where your money is going
• Peruse your bookshelf to see what interests you have
• Think about which websites you spend the most time
• What would you really like to do in the next 5 years
• If money was not an issue, where would you like to be

Check out this personality test: Keirsey Temperment Sorter or this career test: The MAPP Assessment

Daily Challenge #27

'Wow Moments'

Think back over your life. What have been some 'Wow Moments' for you? How did these moments make you feel? What made them so special to you? Were there others with you during these experiences?

Now go and tell someone about one of those experiences. The person you're telling may need to hear about something positive which happened to you. Give as many details as possible. Let them know how you were feeling when it happened. 

It may just help you get out of the funk that you're in on this Monday.

I want to hear about your 'Wow Moment'.

Don't be a quitter

Found these tips on one of the blogs which I follow and wanted to share.

Before you quit anything:

1. Remember once again why you began this course of action. Remember why you started this degree program. Remember why you got married. Remember why you volunteered for this project.

2. Know that anything worth doing is probably going to be very difficult at times. In fact, there may be moments when you feel stuck. Before you quit, ask yourself, "Is this to be expected?"

3. Many people will exit once something becomes really difficult. Anything worthwhile is going to have its "but-this-is-hard" moments.

4. Seek to make progress just today. Take a step or two forward.

5. Talk with people who have a track record of persevering. Learn from them. Remember that there will be far more people who will give you reasons why you should quit.

6. Pray, thanking God for the ways you can become more Christlike even through a very difficult process.

Daily Challenge #26

Prayer Donor

Check out the site - sign up to pray for someone. This could be revolutionary. You might want to write your own prayer as well. Everyone needs a little help here and there.

So what are you wrestling with? What decision are you struggling to make? What needs do you have in your life which don't feel fulfilled? 

Daily Challenge #25

5 minutes. Do you have 5 minutes to spare? I was listening online to Craig Groeschel from Life Church in Oklahoma speak on his new book called Soul Detox. He was speaking of the toxins which corrupt our lives. You can listen to his 3 part message here. I originally found out about the book from this website. It's crazy how you can get from one place to another on the net without even really paying attention where you started from. I recommend listening to the message from Craig. It's a good one, especially part 3.

Back to where I started from: a question. Do you have 5 minutes? Do you think you can spend 5 minutes a day for 5 days straight thinking about nothing by God. Just sit and think of God - what He has done for you, what you are doing for Him, what He desires of you, etc.

Craig says it this way, "You don't have time to not be still before God."

This song by Casting Crowns helps me to realize the need I have to rely on God. Here are the lyrics.

Jesus, friend of sinners, we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
Jesus, friend of sinners, the truth's become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they're tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I'm so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours

Yeah...

Jesus, friend of sinners, the one who's writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of these
Let the memory of Your mercy bring Your people to their knees
No one knows what we're for only against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks yours

You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet

'Cause You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever

Oh Jesus, friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus, friend of sinners, break our hearts for what breaks Yours

And I was the lost cause and I was the outcast
Yeah...
You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet

Daily Challenge #24

Good morning, (or for my friends in Europe - Good evening!)

So there's this song out by Matt Maher called "Rise Up". Check it out here. I think you can even download it for free from that link as well. See the lyrics below. It's a rocking song with a powerful message.

Lately I have been filled with hope, as though something great is about to happen. I don't know what is coming (or if anything is coming for that matter), but something is stirring in my soul. I can feel it it, like a train that is miles away, but you can hear the bellow of the horn. She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes...

Habakkuk 2.3: 

For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

Troy told me one day what he is going to inscribe on my tombstone. It'll say, "This is her favorite part!". "If it's a good day for living, it's a good day for dying." - that's what my dad's tombstone should say. I can't wait for that day - to meet my Maker, eye to eye.

So what are you are waiting for? What's stirring in your soul? What is the condition of your soul? What do you know you should be doing but you are not doing? What has someone asked you do, but you're chicken? Step up to the plate. It's time to RISE UP... RISE UP when this life has got you down. I want to hear about it. I know that each of us have desires in our heart which we are too scared to do, or maybe we are even too scared to tell our closest companions. It's time to start talking. You need to take a step in that direction. Start getting some books about whatever you need to do. Get some knowledge so you'll be successful. "Don't tell God you have a big problem. Tell your problem you have a big God." It's time to do something.

This is mine... (I'm being vulnerable here by putting this out.) I feel as though I'm supposed to write a book. I don't have any clue how that is going to happen with the insanity of my life, but somewhere, somehow I think that is what I'm supposed to do. For Troy and me, we feel like we are supposed to create a non-profit organization. Troy has the vision, and I have the business skills, but it's a huge endeavor. We'll see where that leads. 

So what's yours? Write it to me. Tell someone. Do something about it. The revelation has already come to you. It's time to start taking the steps to bring it to fruition.

When you see the road ahead

that you've been down before

When you're half way to no where

and you can't pay the toll

You're hanging onto mercy

withered on the vine

With your feet on the ground, your head in the clouds

and your heart on the line

Open up your eyes

Chorus

You've got to rise up (rise up)

when this life has got you down

You've got to look up (look up)

when you search & nothings found

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the love that's here and now

It's coming down

So rise up now.

When your told that day is over

long after the sun goes down

And your mind it keeps on racing

at the dreams that don't come 'round

When you don't know how to surrender

'Cause your whole life's been a fight

When the dark holds you and you can't break through

cause you haven't seen the light.

Open up your eyes…

Bridge:

And all the lambs roar like lions

And all the prisoners breaking their chains

And all the poor find their treasure

Cause heaven is coming this way.

And all the lambs roar like lions

And all the prisoners breaking their chains

And all the poor find their treasure

Cause heaven is coming this way.

Single Mom's Gas Give-Away : May 12

Hey there,

We have an exciting opportunity for any single mom. Our church is giving out FREE gas. On May 12 from 12 - 3 PM, we'll be pumping gas at City on a Hill Church located at 7745 Main Street, Woodstock, GA  30188, next to the Woodstock Library. We'll also be offering things for kids, water, and HOPE. Sometimes when things look bleak, what we need more than anything is to have someone show us that they care. This is what we are trying to do for the single mom's in the Woodstock/Marietta/Canton area.

This is what I need from you: to tell all your friends who are single moms about this event. We are trying to spread the news by word of mouth. We've been asked to not publish any printed advertisements or radio announcements by the county officials who have given us a permit. So basically we're telling everyone we know to tell everyone they know. I believe this could be ever more effecting than printed material. You have influence into your friends' lives. Can you help us spread the word?

You can get more info at Free Gas.

And if you don't have anything going on from Noon to 3 on Saturday, May 12, we would love to see you. We have lots of people involved, but there is always room for one more helping hand. You never know how an event like this can impact someone's life. Troy and I have volunteered for this event for several years now, and each year we hear stores of women who feel hopeless. Then they come to this event, and are renewed with hope to continue living. We'd love to see you there!

Thanks in advance for spreading the word. Let's make someone's day by giving a little hope (and free gas).