Are you a risk taker or play it safer?...

I’ll never forget El Dorado, 4th grade classmate TJ Morton. He was the kid in elementary school that everyone wanted to be friends with for the summer because he had the olympic size swimming pool @ his house. And while all the kids were jumping off the diving boards and swimming around, my mom made me wear floaties around my arms and I had to stay in the shallow end of the pool. I know she was worried about me, but the solution wasn’t to cover up the problem, but fix it. I needed to learn how to swim. That and I didn’t want to be the only one in middle school still with mickey mouse floaties, so I taught myself to swim.

I didn’t want to limit myself and keep playing it safe--I had my sights set on the diving board--I was determined. By the 5th grade i was launching off the diving board into deeper dangerous waters.

What has to happen in your life to get you out of your safety zone and become a risk taker for God? I don’t want to tell my great grandchildren about all the times I played it safe, I want to talk about big dreams, and big faith.

But it starts on a personal level.

Where’s your eyesight? the diving board, or the baby pool? You’ll never do the high dive spending all your time airing up your floaties.

Most people will only dream of doing great things for God, but the difference between the risk takers and the play it safers is their sights are set on Jesus and their faith isn’t a just a word to make them look religious, but it’s a way of life.

Going all out... Is it worth it...

I was watching some Michael Jackson concerts a while back at the prime of his career. An amazing dancer no doubt. A great song writer, among the best. Great performer, you can't argue...but what I saw that captured my attention was the amazing, all out, no holds barred worship that I saw going on...

Mobs of people in the hundreds and thousands glued to his every move. ON every continent they gathered waving hands in the air, some fell to their knees, others reaching hoping for just a touch...It was some of the most intense worship I’ve ever seen; anywhere...and for what??..Theres no denying Michael Jackson is a legend in entertainment, but he’s not a great god...not even close, yet the worship was phenominal, Demonstrating the very thing thats rooted in every person.. But you can’t blame them for worshipping... They were people doing what they were created to do...

In the same way you and me worship something all the time

Think of it this way..Worship is about value.... Worship is our response to what we value most...

Thats why worship is that thing we all do..Regardless of race, gender, spiritual, religious, or even atheistic preference, it’s what you and me are all about on any given Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or any day of the week...

Because worship is about saying this person, this thing, this experience, (this whatever) fill in the blank... is what matters MOST TO you!!! and whatever is worth the most to you is -What you worship!

As a result Worship determines your actions! Its the driving force for what you do..

So how do you know where and what you worship?!?

Its easy. You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money, and your loyalty. At the end of your trail you’ll find a throne... and On that throne is what you worship...

Who or what is on your throne? Is it worthy of your worship...your life?

Jesus willingly came to the earth to connect us with God and awaken us to the possibility of centering our worship on who and what matters most... forever....

Paul said... in Acts 17:28 For in Him we live, move and exist.

In John 7:37,38 Jesus said "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.

Bigger than me...

I can't believe I'll be 30 this month! 30 years ago I came into existence. Not only me though...@ some point in history you also came into existence. We call it a birthdate. The fact is that everything in existence began at some specific point in time.

That is...Everything, except God. He’s always been. Before there ever was an earth, a galaxy, or a universe. God exists outside of time, and since we live within time there’s no way we can ever grasp that concept.

I don't know about you but I have to have directions, a map, something concrete I can figure out. I have to be able to wrap my mind around whatever I'm working with...But no matter how hard I try, I can't figure God out. IT frustrates me everytime I attempt to go down that road.

But if I can be totally honest with you, I’m glad I can’t wrap my mind around God... because If I could, would He really be that great? Think about it, If you could describe God in a few words and had Him all figured out, He really wouldn’t be all that Amazing and Awe inspiring. The bible says He is an Awesome God and I’m glad I worship a God that’s bigger than what I can comprehend.

For example: If God is the size of all the oceans and my mind is the size of a glass of water, it would be foolish and ignorant for me to say that God is only the small amount of water I can fit into my glass. TO limit God because I’m limited. He's unlimited and He's all powerful.

Gives me confidence to know where I've placed my life, my trust, my everything.

What's your trust in?

THE GRAMMY APPROACH...

There’s a lot of people who say they know Jesus, but their life represents something different. There’s nothing personal about it. I’ve heard people say “I believe in God”. I hear it a lot, But James 2:19 says even the demons believe in God and tremble at His name. We hear people say “I believe in God” and that’s a great thing, but God doesn’t want some sort of a shout out when it’s convenient to pull Him out of our back pocket and talk about Him. I call this the grammy approach to God.

You ever see someone at the Grammy’s go and accept their award. Their album had 35 F words, 17 songs about sex and they’ll get up and thank their producer, their mom, their drug dealer and then they end the whole speech by trying to give a shout out to God.

Let me just say, God doesn’t want a shout out if it’s not personal. You can’t pimp God out like he’s just another trophy on a list.

If we know Jesus It’s Personal. It's Relationship. It's More, but Nothing Less.

Appreciate The Process...

Some of the best memories I have with my dad are building stuff. We built houses for the dogs, for my pet mice that would get out occasionally, we had to modify that one, fences, we redid the roof, all kind of home improvements stuff. I look back and think, it probably would have been easier to just buy a dog house @ home depot, or an escape proof mouse cage @ the pet store, or hired someone to do all the home improvements. But then I never would have learned to work with my hands, hammer a nail, replace a roof, or build a dog house.

I’m proud to say that about Two months ago I built my own dog house from scratch. I got all my wood from a construction dumpster. It's amazing how much good material they throw out. With the material I got, I built a massive dog mansion, that's what I like to call it. You can’t buy a dog house that big @ the store, I know because I looked for one. 4ft tall 6ft wide. I put house siding, solar board panels to reflect the heat in the hot summers and slapped a roof on top of that bad boy. Once I finished it, I took my wife out back to look @ it. I tried to explain the custom design and said, amazing isn’t it? SHe said yeah, it’s a dog house... AND I know it’s just a dog house. You stand back and look at the finished product and it might not be great to you. But to me it’s so much more than that, BECAUSE I see it and think of the years my dad poured into me, molding me, teaching me and giving me the skills I would need to create things with my own hands.

The end product isn’t everything. It’s not all about the destination, the graduation, the promotion, or some ultimate goal in life. Make goals, but appreciate the process, learn to live right now in the journey because if you don’t, you’ll miss the good stuff in life.

IN THE ZONE...

One sport I got into a few years ago with sandra was Tennis. We were starting to get the hang of it, but then she got pregnant with Lilly.

I remember the first time I went out to play tennis, I was probably 11. Had no idea about the concept, rules, whatever. What I did know is if you hit the ball just right, that sucker would launch. If you've hit a tennis ball you know what I’m talking about? I remember being at Mccallister park and my friend was on the other side of the net on the tennis court and I was serving, didn’t even know what I was doing, but I hit it just right on my first try, It was perfect, My friend didn’t think so, but it Went clear over the fence right onto loop 410. I loved it.

With a tennis racket, if you hit the ball just right it’s effortless. It’s got something in it called a sweet spot, because of the way it was created. The intertwined strings on the racquet make a platform to hit the ball AND The sweet spot is usually at the center. Its where you want to hit the ball, EVERYTIME. It’s the right spot, its the zone. You hit anywhere else on the racquet and the ball might not make it back over the net in a game, but the zone, the sweet spot is where the pros aim for.

But the zone, the sweet spot takes skill, an understanding of the game, action to move. You gotta pivot and juke and have mad skills on the court.

In the court of life there is also THE ZONE, THE SWEET SPOT.

Fact is, God designed you and me with the intent that we spend our time on earth in the sweet spot of His success- Not in the worlds terms, but God’s definition of success in every area of life. He custom designed us to be zoned in, not zoned out.

It works out perfectly when we do it according to Ephesians 5:1 where it says "Be imitators of God.” WHich boils down to seeing God for who He really is and mimicking His character in your life.

It's challenging, but it's worth every drop of dedication and it's the only way to live life IN THE ZONE!

CPR At It's Finest...

We had an incident a few months back. To explain what i do briefly, i inject patients with radioactivity, take their picture on a camera at rest, then we stress the patient on a treadmill. While they're running at peak exercise I inject them one more time so the doctor can compare rest to stress to determine if there are any changes, or to put it simply clogged arteries. Well, we stress this patient and we finished on the treadmill. We sat him down and we’re talking to him and the next thing we know his head falls back and we look at the monitor and see he is in Ventricular Tachycardia of the worst kind. Which means, not good. , at all!

Something you see in the textbooks that you hope you never see in real life. So we call a code, i ran to get the cardiologist. I get back, the patient is on the floor turning grey-blue at this point. We got the crash cart, and what was running through my mind was this guy is dead! I’m glad the doctor took over b/c All my advanced cardiac life support and CPR training knowledge I was trying to remember in that moment, but when your knee deep in the mud it’s kinda hard to apply something you learned a year ago and never had to use. It was like Grey’s anatomy, Were pushing meds and the doctor looks at me and says grab the paddles so i turn on the defribillator, hand him the paddles everyone clears and he shocks the patient, We look at the screen and see his heart go back into a normal rhythm. EMS Arrives and they take him away.

Looking back, one thing I've realized is that it doesnt matter what you know, or how much you know, IF there’s no application of the knowledge. I’m the Nuclear tech and I’ve had advanced cardiac life support training, CPR etc, but code blue isn’t what i do on a daily basis and If it would have been just me and that patient with no doctor, i can’t guarantee that it would have turned out the same way. He knew exactly what he was doing and more than that, he was able to apply what he knew when it mattered.

In the same way spiritually speaking the bible does nothing to change your life. There’s tons of people who own a bible, who know the bible, who will never change the trajectory of their life. I know it sounds crazy but listen CLOSE TO what I’m saying, ITS NOT THE BIBLE ITSELF, BUT THe APPLICATION OF THE BIBLE that will change your life. You have to know it, but more than that, you have to apply it. Check out what James 1:22 says,

22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Super Bowl Sunday...

I read a headline this past week that said "New Orlean Saints The Ultimate Super Bowl Underdog”. In other words, there the ones favored to lose. That's what that means. This is the first time the Saints have ever made it to the super bowl. In an interview with one of the Saints top defenders this is what he said,

"I think we're a confident team. We know we're the underdog . . . I don't mind them telling us that we can't hang, or we shouldn't be here. "We embrace it. Go ahead and tell us we can't do something."

It doesnt Matter what the headlines say, their game plan isn’t on the headline, they’re not depending on what people are saying about them. Their focus is on the the challenge their about to face.

In comparison, “ Real Faith doesn’t depend on the direction of our culture.” The headlines in your life might be counting you out as the underdog in the situation. The probability of you making it through your season of life as a champion might not be looking so hot. But faith doesn’t look at what’s going on around you, it’s not focused on what you read in the paper, watch on the news and what you might be going through personally. When the situation tells you, you can’t do something, don’t bank on that. Don’t take that to the bank and cash that check, bank on what God says. 2Cor 5:7 says For we walk by faith, not by sight. and Romans 1:17 says “The just shall live by faith.” You gotta have a vertical, focus, from you to God, not a headline focus on everything going on around us.

Life Through The Eyes Of Potty Training...

Well this past week was a milestone for my family. My daughter did last Wednesday what we all aspired to do at one time in our lives, that is getting potty trained. At least I hope you got it down by now. But this past week was an amazing week in the joys of parenting. Potty training in itself isn’t amazing, especially when you have to clean up after a hearty meal. And my daughter can eat, I’ll just leave it at that.

It’s the way it happened. See a few months ago, we got her this little potty and we tried to teach her how to use it, but she thought it was an addition to her doll house or something. A hideaway cave for her dolls. It just didn’t work out like I planned. She would rather not interrupt her playtime, but instead leave us a wet one. Which is fine, she’s my beautiful princess. But this past week, on Wednesday something just clicked. She not only sat down on the potty but she actually left us a surprise. We were all excited and proud of her. I never knew I could be so enthused about the restroom. But out of the blue she did it. Something inside her woke up. There was an awakening.

See, that's what life’s all about. not potty training, but waking up. realizing there is more to life than wearing diapers. Realizing the whisper you hear in your heart, the longing in your soul to know the life you’re living right here, right now has the ability to make such an amazing impact on your world. I love looking at the history of the bible, Moses leads a nation out of slavery, David slays a giant, Peter tells a crippled man to get up and walk. They inspire me, They changed their world, but the truth is they were nothing without God. Somewhere along their journey, They made a decision that they weren’t gonna let life slip right by. But that's what happens so often. Matt 22:14 says, Many are called, but few are chosen, and I read that verse and can’t help but wonder how many people in the course of history heard the call of God, but aborted their destiny because they chose comfortable over challenging and discipline. Awakening is all about lifting up Jesus by the life we live. He’s the source of life and When you go after the source there is nothing greater.

The Most Important Thing I've Learned...

One of the games loved playing as a kid was smear the... guy with the football. You might have known it by another name. Basically the football is thrown in the air and whoever catches it becomes the target to take down. It's all fun and games 'till someone loses a toe. Well, No one actually ever lost a toe, but it could be harmful to your health if you were a target on purpose.

I was that target a time or two. Talking trash like kids do, I could see the bigger kids getting mad. They pretty much made sure I was getting the football because they wanted to knock me into next week. I knew it too. But I was confident in my skills. I wasn't big by any means. I was actually referred to as a short toothpick quite often, but I knew I could run. Outrun the bigger kids trying to get my blood. It made them even more upset. I loved it. We had a blast.

The problem is when I got older I tried applying the same principles to my life situations. I was confident that I had what it takes in myself alone to be successful. I didn't need anyone's help or advice. No one knew more about life than me. I knew all there was to know about life... That is until I ran my life into the ground. Its been a great climb up though!

I have learned so much over the coarse of my life, the most important being that without God I am nothing. In John 15:5, Jesus says it plain as day, you can't do anything without Me. The only way to really live life is through the One who gives life. That's why it's so important that we have a laser beam focus on Jesus. He said "I am The Way, The Truth and The Life."

If your trying to find life, for everything life is, don't settle for your way, or a cheap imitation. Jesus is "The Way."

Thats Not Normal...

Ahh the blessings of morning traffic. The car that gives more than its fair share of carbon monoxide exhaust to you and everyone around you within a 400 mile radius. What usually takes 15 minutes to get to, is about 45min-1hr. The guy that cuts everyone off because he didn't wake up in time. The woman who doesn't know how to drive. Morning traffic, there's nothing like it...

The other day, what I witnessed in morning traffic made me think a little deeper about the drivers involved. It's not something you see everyday. You could probably say it was unusual, to the point of abnormal.

It was loop 410 about 7:50 in the morning. Cars stacked up on the freeway. Some guy in a truck is trying to get on 410 and this white volvo refuses to let him in. He goes out of his way to stop him from getting on, it was VICIOUS. Morning traffic at it's finest! So the truck ends up squeezing in somewhere else. Now up to this point nothing unusual has occurred. Thats the blessing of getting up late and hitting morning traffic. Its pretty much the norm. But what happens next makes me look at the situation to a deeper degree. I never thought traffic would do that for me. Anyway... The truck gets on the highway, its pretty heavy traffic. The truck happens to get a good position in a faster lane. The lane you want to be in, but got stuck instead in the slow lane. Thats what happened to the white volvo. He was stuck in the slow lane trying to get over. Then all of a sudden the same truck that got cuff off by the volvo slows down to let the white volvo in. The same volvo that wouldn't let him get on the highway!

It was abnormality unfolding right before my eyes. NO ONE DOES THAT! When a car cuts someone off, there's usually a war that takes place. But not this time. The guy in the truck goes out of his way to be nice to the guy that cut him off. I wonder what the guy in the volvo was thinking? I wonder if he thought about it later like I did?

I saw that and thought, Thats Christianity at it's finest. Loving those who least expect it and least deserve it. Returning kindness for anger. Thats what Jesus taught! That's not normal in our world today, but That's what an unbelieving world can't ignore. The love of Jesus Christ. It's different. It's not normal, But it's the very thing that makes people say "I dont know what it is that you have, but I want it!" AND Thats how it should look like when you do it right.

Can God turn it around when it gets bad?

I was kickin back a cold one a few hours ago, A&W Rootbeer of course, and I was chewin on a jalepeno popper with little bit of ranch dressing, when I saw a story that was pretty dramatic on 20/20.

It was about a girl in her 20's who used to work as a model. She was working out in London doing television modeling for programs like QVC. Anyway she gets involved with the wrong guy, he's some psycho jealous control freak. He ends up raping her and threatening her life. Pretty intense, I know. It gets worse. He then gets a friend to ambush her and throw sulfuric acid on her face. It's so bad it TOTALLY disfigures her face eating away the flesh. She described it as her flesh melting away along with her hair. If you think I'm being graphic, just think about how she must have felt.

When they show her before pictures and how she looks now it's like night and day. IT took like 40 surgeries to work on her. She has bad burn wounds on half her face. It took years of surgery, rehab and recovery. So I'm watching this thinking how horrible that someone could even do something like this. Her life is forever changed.

After all that drama and horrifying incident, there was a part of the story that took a turn... for the better. She was pretty involved in a party lifestyle before the whole thing happened. She was usually the center of attention. Everything in her life was about her. But she says in the interview that there was always something missing in her life. A void that she couldn't explain.

She went on to say that when she went through this whole thing her perspective changed. She would never be a model again, she lost her physical beauty and didn't even recognize herself in the mirror, but what she found was so much greater. IT goes beyond the superficial stuff in this world. She had found a relationship with God and the void she had felt previously was no longer there. She lost something GREAT, but she found something SO MUCH GREATER.

As I watched, It reminded me of Romans 8:28, that no matter how bad your situation, or how impossible and unsolvable, or even unfixable, God is able to work all things for the good of those that love Him. Now That is a God I love. That's who God is. He is Great and He is able to work all things together for good, not just some things, but all things, no matter what happens in your life!

The Faith Factor...

I was having lunch a few years back with my Dad. (I love my Dad, just a side note). I would have conversations with him about life and faith. He had his own ideas and beliefs. One day he decided to share an intimate moment in his life with me about why he stood where he did in his faith.
It all took place when I was about 3 yrs old. My dad had moved down to good ole Dallas, TX. He was living there for a little while and decided to try church out, but mainly for social reasons. He figured it's a good place to meet some nice people. That's probably true, I could see his line of thinking, for the most part.
So he's doing the church thing and his thoughts start going deeper than just making it a social event. He starts to consider, "What if there is a God". So one night he was out jogging, it was a clear beautiful night under the stars. He looks up and says "If your there God then show me."

What my dad was asking for was evidence before he was going to believe or make any type of commitment. He said " I didn't see anything, so from that point forward I made up my mind that there is no God". I was actually thinking back to that conversation this week and what I thought for the first time was He looked up and missed the fact that there were millions of stars. The magnificent sky and all it's beauty stretched out before him. The amazing galaxy and all the planets suspended in orbit. The wonder of God's creation stared back at my dad, but he said "I saw nothing." So he dismissed God.

This isn't unique to my dad. This happens all the time. People tell God if you show up, then I’ll give my life! God if you provide, then I’ll follow you! If you get me out of this mess, I promise to turn to you.

That's our line of thinking, but that's not how God set it up to work! He set up something called faith.

What We see in Joshua ch 3 is a turn of events that speaks to this very situation in your life. God told the people they were going to cross the Jordan River. A flooded river that was probably violent and tearing over the top of trees, this wasn't some stream or creek. He continues on to say, and when the priests walk into the water, THEN the water would stop flowing.

This is so significant because their whole Journey in the wilderness God leads them out of Egypt by wreaking havok on the enemy. Its easy to follow God when He's blowing up the enemy, right?. He parts the Red Sea. AMAZING! I can follow that kind of God, thats easy. He constantly Proves Himself and provides evidence for them their whole journey in the wilderness. But when we get to THIS point in the story, God flips the script.

He switches it to a faith factor. He says When YOU step in the water, THEN I'll stop it from flowing and For the first time God says YOU MOVE, THEN I'LL MOVE! HE WAS transitioning them from spoon feeding to faith. God knows He's faithful. He knows He'll come through. That's not the question. The real question is are you faithful? He's given you life. He's ready to lead you into a new year and give you directions along the way. Are you willing to GO, and step out into a new year trusting God's got your back. GOD IS FAITHFUL, HE WILL COME THROUGH! We must operate with faith, God will never disappoint.

Start The Year Right!...

The Exchange church is joining hundreds of churches across the globe in fasting and prayer for 21 days starting January 10. Join us as we fast and pray for our city, our nation, for direction and the best year yet!

Click Here to check out the details.