Through His Eyes

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.Rom.12:2 (MSG) Then you can see things through His eyes.

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Location: Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas, United States

I have the best job in the world. I am the Pastor and Church planter of Life Connection Church. I am married to Lisa for 27 years and have two adult children, Brooke 23, Nick 21 that have been and still are an incredible blessing to my life. Brooke is a graduate of UTA and is in the corporate world and Nick is a business major at Texas Christian University.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Praise Before Victory

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
MARK 14:26

"Praise is greatly honoring to God! In the Old Testament account of King Jehoshaphat, God's people faced a seemingly insurmountable enemy who was determined to destroy them. Yet God assured them that they would ""stand still and see the salvation of the Lord"" (2 Chron. 20:17). The people of Judah believed God. Their army was led by singers, offering praises to the Lord for their promised victory, and the victory came. When King David led the procession bringing the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, he praised God with all of his strength (2 Sam. 6:12-23). David's praise was pleasing to God, and God's powerful presence remained in David's kingdom to give him victory against every enemy.

Jesus was about to go to Gethsemane and to the cross, where God's greatest victory would be accomplished. He led His disciples to sing a hymn. The disciples were all about to fail Him, and Jesus was about to be cruelly executed, yet Jesus insisted that they praise God. Their praise looked beyond the cross to God's ultimate victory. Praise is rooted not in circumstances of the moment but in the nature and trustworthiness of God.

You ought to rejoice when God asks you to proceed in the work of His kingdom because you know the victory is already secured. Don't focus on the problems and failures of others. Focus on God's assurance of victory. If you have trouble praising God with a song in your heart as you serve Him, it may be that your focus is not on God, but on your circumstances."

You can learn more about Dr. Blackaby, his writings, and his ministry at www.blackaby.org, or write:
Blackaby Ministries InternationalP.O. Box 16338Atlanta, GA 30321

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Keep the Heart Burning

The Burning Heart by Oswald Chambers

They said to each other, "Didn't our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?" Luke 24:32

We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, fires are set ablaze, and we are given wonderful visions; but then we must learn to maintain the secret of the burning heart— a heart that can go through anything. It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart— unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus.

Much of the distress we experience as Christians comes not as the result of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test we should use to determine whether or not to allow a particular emotion to run its course in our lives is to examine what the final outcome of that emotion will be. Think it through to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something that God would condemn, put a stop to it immediately. But if it is an emotion that has been kindled by the Spirit of God and you don’t allow it to have its way in your life, it will cause a reaction on a lower level than God intended. That is the way unrealistic and overly emotional people are made. And the higher the emotion, the deeper the level of corruption, if it is not exercised on its intended level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many of your decisions as possible irrevocable, and let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay forever on the "mount of transfiguration," basking in the light of our mountaintop experience (see Mark 9:1-9 ). But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action. When God gives us a vision, we must transact business with Him at that point, no matter what the cost.

We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides, The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides; But tasks in hours of insight willed Can be through hours of gloom fulfilled.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Obedience is Training not Just Trying

All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a boxer who misses his punches. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. 1 Cor. 9:25-27

Have you thought about how easy it is for you to sin? I am not talking about the bad ones, even though many of us are lured into sins that cost us more than the daily little seemingly inconsequential sins. We sin every day, for most of the day, and it is a natural response to the environment in which we live and work. A lie here, a lust there and then that sin that we can't just overlook that really give us a feeling of shame. We ask ourselves with God listening, "why do I continue to do the things I know I am not supposed to do. I try to be a good person. I try to follow the rules. I try to be a good Christian example. I try."

Our Problem, Paul tells us, is that we don't train. We don't train at our faith and then we expect to get out on the field and try and we fail miserably. Living for Christ is not about trying to do right when the temptation arises to do wrong. It is about training so we will be ready to act when the time comes.

The basics of training are obvious. Read your Bible, pray, go to your weekly Sunday and occasional Wed. night worship pep-rallies, but real training happens when we walk and talk and see everything through the eyes of Jesus. Make our little decisions, our every day decisions through Christ. Practice the presence of Jesus in every situation at all times and then when we are presented with the temptation, we are in the zone. We have practiced this move before and it is more natural in the Spirit.

We have to train, if we are going to be true followers of Christ. If we are going to allow God to use us to carry out His plan on earth and be His witnesses then we have to be training and stay ready to step on the field.

Our Goal as Christ-followers is to live a life pleasing to God. The only way that is possible is to stay focused on Christ. Filter every life situation through Him. What would Jesus think, do, feel? How would Jesus respond to this situation? Am I training and in touch with Jesus enough to know? Am I being Spirit-lead?

You can't get there by trying. You need to train.

an apprentice in Christ in training
royal

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Frustrated With Hollywood

Quote from Peggy Noonan - See the rest of the article here.

(Academy Awards) Viewership this year was down an estimated 9%.

Most Americans aren't leading media, they're leading lives. It would be nice to see a new respect in Hollywood for the lives they live. It would be nice to see them start to understand that rediscovering the work of, say, C.S. Lewis, and making a Narnia film, is not "giving in" to the audience but serving it. It isn't bad to look for and present good material that is known to have a following. It's a smart thing to do. It's why David O. Selznick bought "Gone With the Wind": People were reading it. It was his decision to make it into a movie from which he would profit that gave Hattie McDaniel her great role. Taboos are broken by markets, not poses.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Friends Guide Friends

Author Unknown

Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in it. From a distance, each looks like every other horse. But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing.

Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind.

His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him. This alone is amazing. If nearby and listening, you will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to her bridle is a small bell. It lets her blind friend know where she is, so he can follow her.

As you stand and watch these two friends, you'll see how she is always checking on him, and that he will listen for her bell and then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not lead him astray. When she returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, she stops occasionally and looks back, making sure her friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell.

Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our

lives to help us when we are in need.

Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing bell of those who God places in our lives. Other times we are the guide horse, helping others see. Good friends are like this...You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.

Please listen for my bell and I'll try to remember to listen for yours.

"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway"

~John Wayne

Monday, March 06, 2006

"The Bag O' Bliss"

Saturday, March 04, 2006

God Bless the New Biker Chicks

Women bikers aren't your stereotypical bar-brawling, tattooed, leather jacket biker chicks. The new wave of female riders are soccer moms, even grandmas, corporate attorneys and nurses with an average income of $55,850, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.

The number of women who own their own bikes is on the rise — jumping 36% to 635,000 between 1998 to 2003, according to the most recent numbers from the Motorcycle Industry Council, a trade group based in Irvine, Calif.

See the rest of the story in USA Today here......

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Jesus asks: Do You Love Me? - Oswald Chambers

Once more he asked him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was grieved that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, "Lord, you know everything. You know I love you." John 21:17


Peter’s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!" ( Matthew 26:35 ; also see Matthew 26:33-34 ). Our natural individuality, or our natural self, boldly speaks out and declares its feelings. But the true love within our inner spiritual self can be discovered only by experiencing the hurt of this question of Jesus Christ. Peter loved Jesus in the way any natural man loves a good person. Yet that is nothing but emotional love. It may reach deeply into our natural self, but it never penetrates to the spirit of a person. True love never simply declares itself. Jesus said, "Whoever confesses Me before men [that is, confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words], him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God" ( Luke 12:8 ).

Unless we are experiencing the hurt of facing every deception about ourselves, we have hindered the work of the Word of God in our lives. The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses. But this question of the Lord intensifies our sensitivities to the point that this hurt produced by Jesus is the most exquisite pain conceivable. It hurts not only on the natural level, but also on the deeper spiritual level. "For the Word of God is living and powerful . . . , piercing even to the division of soul and spirit . . ."— to the point that no deception can remain ( Hebrews 4:12). When the Lord asks us this question, it is impossible to think and respond properly, because when the Lord speaks directly to us, the pain is too intense. It causes such a tremendous hurt that any part of our life which may be out of line with His will can feel the pain. There is never any mistaking the pain of the Lord’s Word by His children, but the moment that pain is felt is the very moment at which God reveals His truth to us.

Lord Jesus. May I be tender-hearted enough to hear your Word and live It in every area of my life.

an apprentice of Christ
royal