I recently read this week that pastors should quit using the word Gospel unless they define it. We talk the talk but are we living the Gospel out on a daily basis. I want to make sure everyone at Journey Church knows what the Gospel is all about. So here we go! I believe the more we learn about the Gospel the more we realize how messed up we are and in need of the Gospel. The Gospel, or the good news, is the story about how Jesus Christ came and lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death for OUR sins and rose to life so SIN could be conquered indefinitely. Our sin is so bad that Jesus had to come and die for us.

Like I said before the deeper we understand the Gospel the deeper we understand our sin and we also know how bad we are and how much Jesus loves us unconditionally showing us by dying for our sin and taking our place on the cross. That’s the Gospel.

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I recently took my daughter swimming on our vacation and after I was throughly worn out I experienced something very unique. My daughter started playing by herself and her vivid imagination went into action. For about thirty minutes she played a game where she fought alligators while being spiderman. She moved back and forth with great emotion like she was vying for a Grammy Award. During my time of being a proud dad and feeling so blessed I begin thinking of Psalms 116:6

The Lord protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and he saved me.

We’ve read this verse and ones like them and without hesitation we tell people to have child like faith but do we really comprehend the implication of this faith?

How would your faith change? Would you have a vision for what God is going to do that apart from Him would sound impossible. Having a child like faith allows us as Christians to believe without barriers, trust without fears and believe for the impossible!

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Most Christians that I meet and will meet are in need of an intense rediscovery. They walk through everyday life going through the motions and missing out on some of God’s richest blessing because they think they are doing what God has called them to do, when in reality they have no idea. So that begs the question, “What has God called you to do in this life?”

I’m not talking about a general calling but rather a specific calling, one that is unique to you as a believer. We must being to live inside the call that God has placed on our life so we don’t get to end of our lives and say, “I wish I would have…” What is He calling you to do and how will you respond?

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What would your life look like if you were living out the calling God has placed on your life? I find most people work their way through the corporate grind punching the time clock allowing a dream about retirement to be the only motivation to get up each day. I am not satisfied with that notion. I believe we are missing a complete dimension of our faith when we fail to live a sent and called life. We need a generation that will step up and live an audaciously transformed live. A live that will not stop until God’s call is accomplished.

What does audacious transformation look like? Audacious transformation is arriving at the end of your life with no regrets. Most people will end their life with all the regrets in the world. Start identifying your calling God has placed on your life today.

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You always have to ask is your organization, project, cause, etc is answering a problem. If it is not, then you need to regroup and try again. Well, www.helpendmalaria.com is our answer for fighting malaria. Although we are not going to conquer this deadly decease on our own we feel we are doing our part to make a difference. Big things are already happening through helpendmalaria.com. We are doing some cool things with World Vision coming up so stayed tune. And when I say huge…its huge!!

Every shirt you purchase at www.helpendmalaria.com we will send a treated mosquito net to Mozambique a county in Southeastern Africa. Buy your shirt now and start saving lives.

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I was recently challenged with a new idea for spiritual formation in the church. Most commonly, the church will do there best to “assimilate” their members into the church. This commonly happens when we connect people to small groups or a bible study. Churches have full time pastors on staff just working to assimilate or orientate their people into the fold. Lets just pause for a moment and consider we might have been doing this in the wrong direction….?? Yes, possibly we have been doing church wrong for years. The purpose of assimilation is to connect your people and for discipleship. What we we started asking people, “What talents has God given you that can serve the body?” or “What are you passionate about?” “What makes you move?” You see, maybe, if we started identifying peoples God given talents and passions and equipped them to live and operate within God’s structure instead of the church’s structure we might see more participation and more assimilation than ever in the history of church. I don’t know, I’m just a nobody in this mix but its time to start looking at how we do church and ask the tough questions. What do you think?

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I recently was reminded that in our culture men have become wimps. I for one am fed up with this and challenge all men to start acting like one. Our grandpas wouldn’t walk around without a pocket knife and now we can’t walk around without a latte. Something is wrong with this picture. I am not saying there is anything wrong with lattes but we have let culture ruin our perception of the man. TV will tell us that men are spineless, incompetent and unimportant. I know we are not perfect and we have definitely brought some of this misconception on ourselves but we have to be done acting like boys. MEN…grow up, man up, put a pocket knife in your pocket and eat some red meat. Just some randomness from my scattered thoughts. What do you think?

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My friend Michael from Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, GA recently wrote a post about submitting to someone else vision before promoting your vision.  I have never thought about this concept but it make lots of since.  He talked about youth pastors venturing out and planting churches because they don’t want a boss telling them what do to.  He suggest to his readers that they should submit to someone else vision first.

This shows lots of wisdom because when we submit to someone’s vision we learn first hand how to lead the people that will follow the vision that God has given us.  If your thinking about planting a church, attach yourself to a church plant a sell out to the vision and learn.  If you are looking for a team to join hit me up and we can learn how to plant churches together.

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I am down in Memphis, TN and Little Rock, AR this week meeting with potential partners for our church plant.  These churches are looking at helping us financially and bringing mission teams to our area.  With this said here are some random thoughts reflecting on this last week and the weeks ahead:

• Our church rocks!!
• Last Sunday was probably the most moving series I have experienced at Journey
• I am so pumped for our new marriage series starting next week.  www.canihaveanewmarriage.com (bring your friends)
• I love pastoring journey church!!
• I truly believe we are on the verge on a major breakout of the Spirit in our church and our community.
• The BEST is yet to COME!
• Can you believe there are already Christmas decorations up??!!
• I believe Sunday will rock your world when we study the foundation of marriage!!!!

That’s all for now…pray for me as I travel and meet with pastors and PRAY for SUNDAY we WILL see lives transformed by the Gospel!!

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No matter where your marriage is or was we have all been challenged in our marriage.  Some of you reading this today are ready to call it quits in your marriage.  On November 14th at Journey Church, we are starting a new series called “Can I Have a New Marriage.”  This series will take a look at what the Bible has to say about marriage.  We will find that most marriages that are struggling have a JESUS problem and not a MARRIAGE problem.  Join us on November 4th that will change your life and give you the best marriage on the face of this planet.

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