Proverbs say, “as water reflects a man’s face so does a man’s heart reflect the man.” So my question is who is your heart reflecting? Is it Jesus? I heard a coworker say today that Christians are the leading cause for Atheism. It really doesn’t matter if she is right or wrong. What matters is if our hearts are reflecting Jesus. Right?
I broke my first toilet seat a few weeks ago and man was it a trip. I was speaking at a youth camp in a remote part of Missouri and one night before I was going to speak I was going to take care of business in the bathroom. I was using the bathroom and reading my Bible when all of a sudden I felt the toilet seat shift. I really didn’t know what happened until I stood up and saw the toilet seat in two pieces. It was truely a unquie experience and yes I did use it as an illustration that night. I was reminded of Matthew 7:24-27 where Jesus told the story of the man who built his house on the rocks vs. the sand. When the rain and floods came the man who build on the rock was secure and the other man who built on the sand was not sable and the house was destroyed. Simply put, is your life built on rock or sand. When the storms of life comes with your house crumble with the waves or will it stand strong and withhold the winds? If you would like to know how to have a solid foundation in your life read this.
I love God sized goals! There is no way the the ARC (Assocation of Related Churches) will complete their hefty goal unless God is the central focus of what they are doing. I believe that God is very much a huge part of what they are doing to plant 2000 churches by 2020. Do you have God sized goals? If you don’t you really should. Lets take this example of ARC and apply it to our lives. To read more about ARC you can visit their site here.
If you are interested in planting a church ARC would be a good organization to research to see if they would be a good fit for your ministry. Also check out 21 questions you should ask yourself before you plant CLICK HERE.
Can you believe this sign? I want to hear peoples thoughts on this sign. This reminded me of an article that I wrote on my blog previously click. Some of me thinks that this is a joke and that a church would never post this in their parking lot. But the other side of people and my experience with churches tells me that this is probably not a joke, its real! What do you think people do when they see this sign?
There are lots of joys of being a dad. There is something that is unexplainable when my daughter shows her reliance on me. Recently my daughter woke up from her nap in a very different way. She usually cries when she wakes up but this time she had a bit of angst in her cry. Upon hearing her cry I quickly walked into her room and saw something that I was not prepared for. My daughter stood at the corner of her bed with her little arms stretched as far has she could reaching for someone to save her. I scanned her crib to survey the situation and I found her diaper lying in the middle of her bed and poop everywhere. I forgot to put her pants back on her after I changed her diaper before putting her down for bed and the result of my mistake was a mess! My daughter starts to whine louder because I did not remove her immediately from the situation. My daughter was helpless. Even though it was her mess she could not clean up the situation. That is exactly how our lives are before we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. There are three things that i realized from this poppie mess, I realized that we
1. We don’t need encouragement – I could have really encouraged my daughter. “Come on Addison you can clean up your mess!” Same goes for our lives. Although encouragement makes us feel good it doesn’t help us clean up the mess we have made of our lives.
2. We don’t need self help – My daughter didn’t need a 10 step program to cleaning up poop. All though self help programs seem appealing to help clean up our lives…the fact is that they will always come up short because of one key work “self”
3. We need to be rescued – There was only one way my daughter was getting out of that messy situation, I had to rescue her. Just like my daughter the only way you will ever clean up your life is to allow Jesus to rescue you from a situation that is destined to produce failure and we can only be cleaned up if Jesus has our heart.
No matter what situation you find yourself in the only answer is to allow yourself to be rescued. To learn more about allowing Jesus to rescue your life click here.
Why is there a common misconception that you have to clean up your life before you can go to church? Most likely because the church has lost the essential essence of what it means to be the church. Read what Jesus said when the Pharisees tested Jesus on God’s commandments:
Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ‘This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:37-40
The commands are simple, “Love God and Love People.” This means love people where they are at no matter what the condition of the person’s life. I recently had time to work with hoseashouse.com who ministers to women who have been abused mentally, physically and emotionally. Hosea’s House does most of their ministry in the west end of Louisville. This area is a very diverse area and the only discriminator is the economy. This area is not a common area for churches to go because of the common violence and the bad reputation the area has, which is too bad because I found tons of people who welcomed the token white guy with open arms. The main reason I was in West Louisville was to take picture for hoseashouse.com and here is what I found:
Remember that there are no perfect people allowed in the church. LOVE GOD LOVE PEOPLE!!
There is no doubt, even if you don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus lived an incredible live. He modeled a perfect life so that we may know how to honor God with our lives. He always met the physical needs of the people and always followed up with a spiritual concession. He was the ultimate role model, even on the cross. Jesus, while dying on the cross, which is the most horrific death one could image, decided to look past all the pain and suffering he was experiencing and he chose to focus on other people. We read the most selfless act humanity has ever experienced in John 19:26-27:
26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Here we read how Jesus, even in extreme amounts of suffering and pain, looked down from the cross and committed his mom to his disciple and we see Jesus committing his disciple to his mom. Why is this important? Even in His last breaths Jesus chose to love others over himself. Wow….what a great picture! I am convinced that even in death Jesus knew our name and saw our face just before he took his last breath. Jesus loves you! I know this might sound clique but He really does and he proved that by being a perfect example on the cross. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. He desires to have a relationship with you. However, all though he could, he does not enforce this relationship. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” If Jesus is the way and he is then how do we enter into a relationship with him?
A. Admit you are a sinner.
“There is no one righteous, not even one … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:10,23. (See Romans 5:8; 6:23.)
Ask God’s forgiveness.
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:13
B. Believe in Jesus
(put your trust in Him) as your only hope of salvation.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (See John 14:6.)
Become a child of God by receiving Christ.
“To all who receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12 (See Revelation 3:20.)
C. Confess that Jesus is your Lord.
“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 (See verse 10.)
If you decided to step into a relationship with Jesus by living these three steps then I want to encourage you to tell someone about it. Tell your pastor, if you don’t have one find a church and tell that pastor. Call 1-800-need him (this is a great place to call if you would like to speak with someone about your decision). Email me Jeff Jackson at jeff@jeffjacksonlive.com . Whatever you do, tell someone. Why? It is important to tell someone so you can be encouraged in your decision and they can help point you in the right direction as you start your jouney with Christ.
Mark Driscoll the senior pastor from Mars Hill Church, Seattle, wrote a book entitled “Porn Again Christian.” Mark addresses what is tearing down Christian and non-Christian men across the world. One of the great things that Mark did was he made this book available online. You don’t have to purchase this book so what are you waiting for? If you, a friend or someone you love is dealing with an addiction to pornography send this article to them and have them download or read the book online.
I love this term. Being half in the minisitry world and half in the business world I have really come to love this term. What is an entrepreneur? According to Dictionary.com an entrepreneur is “an employer of productive labor; contractor.” We have to have more Kindgom Entrepreneurs. Let me restate that, “WE NEED MORE KINGDOM ENTREPRENEURS.” If we are to take the definition of entrepreneur and apply it to Kingdom Entrepreneur then it is time to get up off the couch, off the sidelines and into the game. We must actively prusue the work of the Kingdom. You don’t have to know all the answers or have a degree from a Bible college to be productive for the Kingdom. You see, when you stepped into a relationship with Jesus you aquired all the tools neccessary to become a highly productive employee of the Kingdom. So, what will you do tomorrow? Will you show someone Christ through your actions? Will you tell your coworker that is hurting about the only cure for the soul? “Yesterday is gone, today is ending and tommorrow has almost begun, choose to change!”
My Daughter, only 17 months old, already has a literal security blanket. I finished the classic Go Dogs Go and as I stood up from the rocking chair I could already since the uneasiness from my daughter. As I went to lay her down she really started to kick and fuss, not realizing why she was doing this I continued to tuck her in bed. Finally I realized that I was tucking her in bed with a new pink blanket and not her normal brown blanket. My daughter has already found her comfort zone and she found it hard to leave that feeling of comfort. This really sheds light on how we as humans can easily find ourselves in places of comfort not willing to move for fear of rejection or loss. I want to challenge and encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and do something big. Jesus was the perfect example of this, he was always going to the people who you and I would not consider “normal” or “worthy.” He knew that these people needed something more than what they had and he was willing to step out and make a difference. Next time you fell like staying in your comfort zone, STEP OUT!
Thanks for visiting my blog. Here are the details of my life. I am married to the most wonderful woman in the whole world (I know everyone says this but my wife really is the best!). We have one daughter, Addison (2) a huge dog Turbo (35 in dogie years) and we call New Albany, IN our... Read more
