Get Rid of Normal

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May 142010

I’ve been reading one of Seth Godin’s books titled “Tribes“. What an awesome book! Something that I read I wanted to share with you guys here. It’s about breaking the status quo. Breaking the boundaries of normal.

Seth used the double quoted phrase “Everyone Knows”. You don’t always want to have your life, career, characteristics, or business model summed up with these two words. Example: ‘Everyone knows’ you will have a sale at the end of each month, or ‘Everyone knows’ you will be done with an assigned project in so many days- You are in school for a degree and doing a project and ‘everyone knows’ what to expect in your presentation- In a manager’s meeting it’s your turn to speak and you will give a good speech as… yep ‘everyone knows’. How boring for everyone to know what to expect. Change it up! Be bold, be different!

Have a random sale in the middle of the month unannounced until one Friday at noon you hit the intercom system with enthusiasm letting the customers know you will be having a sale for the next 24 hours. (Planned sales are normal, be different, cause ‘sale hysteria’ and the customers will be contacting all the people they know about it because they feel they are playing beat the clock to buy whatever they can within the next 24 hours.)

Finish an assigned project in half the time. If doing that project at school, don’t do the run of the mill ‘good’ project- do a Great project. Spend time actually thinking of what people would NOT expect.

In that manager’s meeting- do something totally crazy that keeps your staff watching and wondering what’s next. People hold on to so much more knowledge when it is engaging!

So break the status quo. Don’t do what people expect- do something that will really break boundaries. Break the norm- get rid of it- it’s boring!

It’s Seasonal

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May 112010

It can be easy sometimes to let the fluctuations of life’s events and circumstances determine our mood. But you need to make up your mind to stop that today. It’s your mind.

Do you know how powerful your mind is? You were made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26)

Let’s look at something interesting- Mass Hysteria. Mass Hysteria is a very interesting phenomenon. It is a display of the power of the mind. It happens when a group of people form similar symptoms of another individual because they believe it is contagious. It occurs mostly with disease or sickness but has occurred with other triggering events. There have been times when a mysterious substance has been found (chemical, or powder) and one person thought they were getting sick from it and then an entire staff was hospitalized because they all thought they had exposure to what was later found out to be non-toxic. People suffering from mass hysteria have formed all symptoms up to strange spots on their body of similar nature and even loss of consciousness. The mind is a powerful thing. You are what you believe!

What does the bible say about this?

Proverbs 23:7
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…”

So if you believe you’re supposed to be poor, you will be poor. If you believe you are supposed to be an employee, you will never run a business. If you believe you are to follow, you will never be a leader. If you believe you are where you deserve, you will never have better.

If you believe how others define you, you will never discover who you are!

So as a man thinks… so he is. It’s time to change- but you first have to convince someone, yourself. You can make up your ‘mind’. You can decide to be different. You can decide to change your family tree. You can decide to do the opposite of what you normally would do. You just have to change your mind. Once you get your mind set to something, nothing can stop you. People can define you all they want to- but they will not be able to stop you from becoming who you were born to be unless you allow them to. It’s your mind, make it up. Don’t look at your surroundings, or current position in life, or on a job- that’s temporary.

I was listening to Myles Munroe speak recently about President Abraham Lincoln. Before he became president he was in an insane asylum. Who knew? The next president of the United States of America would come out of the insane asylum, and he was a good one! Paul was a murderer, David was a sheppard boy- but one would write virtually the entire new testament and the other would become king of Israel. What if they had let their positions in life define them. Joshua arose from the prisons of Egypt to become the second in command of the superpower of his day. What a difference when we don’t believe our circumstances but have a vision of something greater.

Remember your current place in life may not be what you want it to be, but it’s only seasonal. Seasons come and seasons go. Nothing stays the same. The only thing that is constant is God and His word.

Mondays Are Awesome

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May 102010

Do you ever hear anyone say this?
Rarely. In today’s society it’s a badge of honor to hate your boss, hate your job, get aggravated in traffic, complain about your wages, and to “just get by” in life. It means your ‘normal’. You fit in with everyone else- well most people. Since elementary school you were reformed into believing if you could be like everyone else you would be alright.

But the truth is being like everyone else is horrible. Being like everyone else is easy. It’s the path of least resistance. It means you’ve settled. Settling is boring and gives nothing in life. What really stands out are the ones who challenge. Challenge themselves, the system, the normal ways, and standard convention. These are the ones who do something worth remembering, who make things exciting, who improve the standard, and who get the most attacks. That’s right… attacks. After all you’re not in line with the rest of the lemmings.

What would life be without these kinds of people. If it wasn’t for these kinds of thinkers, America would still be a colony of Britain. Anyone can fit in- it takes risk to achieve great results.

I like to start off any project or implementation of an idea with the thought of “What is the absolute worst thing that could happen?” When I face these realities, it doesn’t sound as bad as if I didn’t say it out loud and I let it loom in my mind as ‘the end of the world’. It’s not. It can’t be.

I love Mondays! See for me, it’s just another day in the kingdom, and everyday in the kingdom is a good day. So what can I change today, who can I encourage, what can I influence, what area can I impact? Ask yourself these questions. Do you like your life? If not, then change it! Change it all up. You are in control of your life and where you are. Think about this statement…

You are in the position you thought you were worth.

You either need to be where you think you should be in life, moving towards the place you should be in life, or making a change of your direction to go where your purpose is. That’s where true self worth is- fulfilling your calling, exercising your gift, and loving every minute of it.

That’s Kingdom!

What’s Your Plan

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May 072010

Did you hear the weather this morning? If you hear them say it’s going to rain- do you get an umbrella or a coat?

Have you been praying for something for your ministry, or in your life that you need finances for? What’s your plan? God got my attention on this the other day. He asked me “If I gave you $100,000 dollars what would you do with it?”
I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know. I had not got that far. I was waiting for the funds then I would think what to do. But, this is out of order. God is a God of order. You have to have a plan if you go to a bank for a loan for a business venture. You have to have a business plan. God ‘is’ order- so why would He give funds to someone who doesn’t have enough faith to plan what to do with the funds. “We ask God for things but we don’t have enough faith to plan what to do with the answer.”

What great faith to show, by planning your operation, ministry, or business before you have the resources to implement. Without faith it’s impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

Show God how much you believe that He is Provider. If you have prayed, and you ask according to His will and not your own- then ‘Act’! Do something! Put some actions to your faith. Show you know Him as Abba! Source and Sustainer! Get a strategy! Start a plan! Do something visible for the invisible that’s coming!

Restoring the Natural Order of Man – Kingdom Study Series – Lesson 5

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May 042010

You were born for a purpose. You were created in the image and likeness of the Father in heaven for a reason. God created you with the intent on making you a ruler on earth. You were born to dominate the earth. So why are we letting life dominate us? Why do we continue to live in sin? We are out of order. It’s time to return to the natural order of things. The way God originally made it. The way He originally intended for things to be. Ruling under His authority. Carrying out His will. Return to the Creator’s natural order for your life!

What If

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May 042010

What if we were concerned more about our relationship with God than our relationship with people? We seem to have this backward most of the time. We spend hours with people and very little with God.

If we looked at the kingdom for what it is, the government of Heaven, than we would want to stay in right standing with our home government. We would want to keep our relationship with the government healthy. After all if you are not getting your intelligence daily from the government- what do you know?

We are after all ambassadors for Christ…

First Things First

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Apr 262010

Priority

(Definition from Dictionary.com)

1.) the state or quality of being earlier in time, occurrence, etc.
2.) the right to precede others in order, rank, privilege, etc.; precedence.
3.) the right to take precedence in obtaining certain supplies, services, facilities, etc., esp. during a shortage.
4.) something given special attention.

–adjective
5.) highest or higher in importance, rank, privilege, etc.: a priority task.

Take a look at these definitions for the word priority. Now ask yourself…

Is God your priority, first thing, every day or do you put everything else ahead of spending time with him because “you’re just too busy”?

Well with our refreshed understanding of the word “priority” let’s take a test and see.

Is the occurrence of prayer the first thing on your agenda?

Does God precede all other people, events, and order in your life or do you ever say “I will pray later”…?

Would the Lord say you rank him first in your life? (*Remember- not because you ‘say so’ but by your actions, attitude, and by example)

Does God take precedence in your giving, thoughts, and ways? (*Basically do you discuss with God the plan for distribution and use of resources He has provided you? [money, house, land, personal property])

I love this one
Does God receive special attention each day from you? (Do you carefully strive to be in his will and favor even if it goes against your own?)

Is God of the highest importance each day of your life?

Well how did you do?
I’m looking at these myself and saying ‘Ouch!’ on a few.

If you run a business there are things you do to make sure you are running it well.

-You arrive early in order to make sure everything is clean and in order.
-You make sure the business is ready for production of goods or services as soon as the customer shows up.
-You make sure you are present when the customer walks in the door and ready to serve.
-You make sure to keep good accounting of the business financial records.
-You make sure to keep good inventory of your resources to run the business efficiently and effectively.

After all, if the customer is not pleased with your service, there is no reason for you bothering even to come in. Why would they want to use you as a vendor if your business is dirty, you do terrible upkeep, your goods or services are mediocre, you never open the door on time, you treat them like a bother, and you don’t keep anything in stock they can use? And you want them to reward you with their money?

Let’s look at another perspective…

Jesus is a king. Get religion out of your ahead. Religion let’s you fluctuate your level of service based on your emotions, how you feel, or what kind of day you have had. If He is king- then what gift are you bringing Him each day? Are you bringing Him an offering first, or a basketful of complaints? Sometimes we treat God like that only, a complaint department. A complaint department is a place we really dislike going, we feel we should not have to be there because the product -(life)- should have worked the way we thought it should, and we only finally go there out of last resort because we can’t deal with the problem any longer.

So here we are. Coming to God to pray -(complain)- about your life and God is thinking “I did not know they even came to this place.”

You ever lost a receipt and ‘thought’ you bought something from a store but after going to that business they scan the tag and tell you it did not come from there? Many times we blame God for our product… life.
But God says “I didn’t produce this. This has your brand on it- not mine. Oh and by the way I see the evidence of some horrible material in your design of the product” Who do you get your material from?” Hmmmm…

When we realize that Jesus is a king, and he is from a country (heaven), and heaven is a government -(kingdom)- then we will finally understand you cannot come to God and blame Him for a product He had no business with. It’s time to make a change in your day. It’s time for a reconfiguration of priorities. It’s time to put first things first. After all we plan then design, we discuss then implement, we get the blue prints then follow them.

God wants to put you at the head of everything you are involved with. He wants to establish you at the top of every field in life. He wants to assign you as the leader in each profession on the earth. But He only uses those that are good representatives of the kingdom. After all it’s His kingdom that is being represented through you. Are you a good representative of the kingdom? If you are taking on the role as an ambassador for Christ – are you fulfilling your reasonable duty and service with the up most standards and quality? or are you an example of an official who should be recalled?

I want to stay in right standing with my government.-(heaven)- I want to keep the lines of communication clear.-(prayer)- I want the government to be happy with my work.-(favor)- I want to have access to all of the benefits my government provides.-(covenant)-

I’ve got to keep first things first.

In His Image – Lesson 4 – Kingdom Study Series

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Apr 222010

Who are we? Why do we exist? What is our purpose?
We have all asked ourselves these questions or something similar. Sometimes we feel like nothing. We feel like we can’t be anything because of our background, family history, or what we were born into. But that is simply not true. Our lineage goes back to the beginning of time- when we were created- man (male and female) were created. We were made with a purpose in mind. In the mind of God we were designed. He thought it good to create us in His image and in His likeness. You were made for a divine purpose. It’s time to realize who you are, where you come from, and carryout your Father’s heavenly mandate!

It’s Time To Quit

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Apr 212010

This sounds horrible doesn’t it? …Why?

“BECAUSE YOU SHOULD NEVER QUIT!” – That’s what most say right?

Well that’s absolutely not true. The obvious thoughts about good things to quit would be to quit smoking, using drugs, drinking, unhealthy eating habits, etc. Right?

But what else? Think of one of the most valuable resources we have… “time”. You cannot get time back. You can lose money on some stupid deals, or blow it on ridiculous stuff- but you can always get more money. We sometimes become “cost conscious” but we can easily fall back into excessive spending if we are not responsible. However, we spend one of our most valuable resources so loosely. If I could sell time back to peoples lives- I would be the richest man on earth. The most wealthiest of people would give me everything they had earned in a lifetime for another year of time on their death bed. So why do we waste this valuable resource? Well I have several truths on this subject, but I’m only going to cover this one thing for now. QUIT WASTING TIME!
Life is too short to waste time. Do you realize you have something you were born to do? A true purpose in life. It’s true! God makes nothing without a purpose. But we are easily distracted. Well- it’s time to Quit! That’s right Quit!

You should quit something if it is not your calling. You should quit things that are keeping you from your purpose. You should quit things that are not profitable in your life. (This is not referring to just money)
You should quit things that are pointless.

So should you quit a job? How about a profession? How about a ministry?
Hmmmm. These can be tough questions to deal with. But the answer is within you. You have to analyze where you are in life and realize or not if you are fulfilling God’s call in your life; If you are fulfilling God’s purpose that he put in you, by bringing out the potential that is waiting to come out.

It can be hard to deal with, but think about this. What if Billy Graham had decided to be a physician instead, …or a basketball coach. I know you may be thinking… pfffttt.
It’s easy to see where someone is or what they have become but what you don’t see is all the things they went through to get there. The night’s of praying for purpose. The constant seeking for purpose. The rough roads on the way. You will never be happy unless you find and fulfill your purpose. Billy Graham may have been able to be an awesome physician or even a champion basketball coach- but look what potential he would have given up. What true purpose would have never been seen.

Oh yeah! This works both ways too. Let’s go ahead and get it out of our minds the incorrect and dangerous separation we have with people. We sometimes put people in two groups. People in ministry and everyone else. There are nurses, athletes, and artists that are fulfilling God’s purpose in their lives and successful in ministry far more than some of those that label themselves as “IN” the ministry. The thing is God doesn’t see people this way. How do I know? Well He is the creator; He designed you, molded you, and made you. He knows exactly what He put in you to come out in life. He put potential in you to be birthed for the kingdom in this world. He wants to see it come out. That’s why God is so patient with us. He wants to see you reach your full potential. He will clean you up along the way- He just wants you to turn to Him, acknowledge Him, accept Him and return back to His kingdom and He will restore you and bring you into the full glory of His nature.

The thing is God knows what he is doing. He wants what is best for us and knows what will give us joy. It’s in our purpose. He is more pleased with one of His kids who is a firefighter (because he called them to this area of occupation), then if “THEY” decided they want to be a pastor. Ouch! Does that hurt? It hurt’s if you are in something that you have no business being in. That is God did not design you for it.

What’s better? An “OK” surgeon- or an “AWESOME” family counselor. In the book 48 DAYS TO THE WORK YOU LOVE, by Dan Miller, he tells a story of a struggling pastor. After several unfulfilled years as a pastor he was struggling with where he was in life. I mean he loved the Lord, but the thing was he was never called to be a pastor. After talking with Dan Miller they discovered he was an artist and had a ‘passion’ for it. The man went on to paint in people’s homes some of the most beautiful artwork, borders, and amazing pieces you’ve ever seen. He makes a ton of money, does what he loves to do, and has touched more people’s lives with his ministry now then ever before. This has become a gateway into people’s hearts. They have him come in and do his work, which he loves to do, and it opens up communication with this individual that he may have never had the chance to deliver had he been behind the pulpit. What is your calling? passion? purpose? If you don’t know- you need to find it!

That is when it is GREAT to quit! Make a commitment to quit doing things that lead to dead ends. Quit doing things that are not what God made you for. Quit strategies that are not working. Quit doing the things you were not called to do. I want to fulfill purpose in my life. I want to fulfill the things that I was born to do. I don’t ever want to be caught in the cycle of the daily grind that I cannot fulfill my work. I refuse to do it. I’m too busy about kingdom business to be bothered. See, you may not be in your final place of employment, but it’s just your current assignment. There is a reason God has you there. Something you are there to do. So be an example for the kingdom while you are there- and fulfill your duties and be about your work. But if you are in a position that has no purpose, no growth, no potential… If you are in a position at an assignment that ended years ago- You are wasting valuable precious time. It’s time to realize how important you are, and how much more needs to come out of you and “Quit” wasting time!

If you don’t chase after what you love to do- you will always have a JOB- but you will have never found your WORK… and you will leave this world with something that God put you here for. The bible says before you were formed in the belly He knew you. Who better to bring out your potential, then the creator.

Gospel

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Apr 152010

So what does the word “gospel” mean?

Religion would explain the gospel as this: “Jesus coming to die on the cross.” That’s what you have heard, yeah?

But, let’s quit listening to tradition and actually study the word.

Gospel comes from the Greek word “euaggelion” pronounced
‘yu-ahn-ge-le-on’ . It literally means ‘good tidings’ or ‘good news’. Please read the above again… make sure you understand this definition for gospel. It’s important to understand because if we use a word incorrectly then the message can be marred from it’s original meaning.

[Quick-Thought]
You ever had someone you knew, who used a word in a sentence where it didn’t belong? You knew what word or meaning they were trying to get across but they didn’t use the correct word.
Example: Someone is explaining to you how much money they have made in their stocks and they say “I’m making a lot of money because of this comparable interest thing.” Then you quickly add “…you mean compound interest?”
You would only know what they meant because you had previous ‘correct’ knowledge. But if you had no idea about stocks or investing- you would think they were right and ignorance would have been passed on to you. Now we have two people using an incorrect term. How dangerous a “well delivered error” can be. Think about it… many religions, with some having only slight differences in their beliefs; But even slight deviations can be absolutely wrong.

So, gospel means “good news”. What good news?… What is the good news?…

Can it be that religion has misunderstood, misrepresented, miscommunicated the “good news”? Well if gospel means good news- then there are a lot of things that can be good news. Right? Remember what the meaning of ‘gospel’ is, not what religion has taught. Jesus used this word when He was on earth based on our definition of the word. He would not have used a word for some brand new meaning that no one would understand. So let’s look at the scripture containing this word.

Matthew 4
23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

I have purposely emphasized what we usually read from this verse. And then everyone says “I go about preaching the GOSPEL!”.
Well… what is it? You have stated you preach the good news, so what is the good news? Come on, Come on- tell us the good news.

Can you imagine reading the newspaper and seeing these headlines.

“A TERRIBLE THING HAS HAPPENED”
“A NEW THING HAS HAPPENED”
“WE HAVE A GREAT STORY”

That would make no sense, because you have told us nothing in this headline. So the fix to these above would be this.

“TITANIC SINKS”
“HUBBLE TELESCOPE TAKES FIRST PICTURES”
“MAN RISKS OWN LIFE TO SAVE NEIGHBOR”

Now we have the headline defined and not just a declaration.

So, what is the good news? If we say, without the understanding, “I preach the gospel!” then we have left off the definition for our declaration of good news. So let’s look at what Christ says is the “good news”.

Matthew 4
23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Ahhhhh! There it is! Jesus went about teaching and preaching the “good news”… of the kingdom! That was the good news he was preaching! If I got a job making twice as much as I make now- that would be gospel (good news). If my son was accepted for a full scholarship to any college in America paid in full; That would be gospel!

So the important thing to remember is to read the bible carefully. We have allowed some words to be defined for us by tradition. We have made the word ‘gospel’ mean all of these other things. Just because a word becomes synonymous by tradition, does not make it correct. Study the word, then get knowledge of the words. Make sure you understand the definition for a word. Check several reparable sources. An incorrect definition of a word can be detrimental to your understanding of the rest of the book, its meaning, and its message. So with all thy getting get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7)

So if you preach the gospel- preach the gospel Jesus Christ preached… the gospel of the kingdom.

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