Purposeful...

I have heard the phrase that God purposefully placed us in this time for a reason. I completely believe it; however, I never really took in the full statement. Then something inside of me really clicked last weekend during church. Pastor Pete made the comment that we do not get to pick when we are born, where we are born, or even who we are born to. Hearing that resonated inside of me. That is so true... we don't get to pick any of that. But God picked for us to be born at this time... in this place... for this moment.

Why did God pick for YOU to be born during this century? Why are you alive right now during this decade? Why did God pick your parents for your birth and why do you live where you do? Why were you born in the country that you live in? Why did God place you in that specific city? I am certain that God did not pick your parents, your location, and your birth time just to simply bless you and to give you a happy life. He placed you in this time, in this place, and in this moment for a specific purpose and reason. So... what is it??

I am certain that I was born for this time, this place and this moment. God put me here on purpose and for a purpose. I am not certain of the specific purpose, although I have a few ideas. I do know that God has grand plans for me and through time and through coming to know Him more, I will get to work in those plans and achieve the purpose that He has set for my life.

Life Goals

About 2 months ago I came across a posting by Shaun King of Courageous Church in Atlanta, GA, about setting and achieving 100 life goals. I read his blog and listened to his teaching on this and it makes so much sense. (For more information, visit his church website at http://www.courageous.tv/.) Setting life goals is God-honoring and requires deep faith. And to make them public, as I am about to do, requires great courage. By making these goals public, you now have the freedom to ask me about them and to hold me accountable to them.

People may say that establishing life goals is a way of keeping God's plans out of your life. However, God wants you to establish goals in order to effectively and thoroughly accomplish the plans that He has for your life. Ephesians 2:10 says "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." (NLT) The NIV says it this way... "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God made plans for us a very long time ago; before we were born He knew what we were going to do. God has big plans for me. Plans that I know about and plans that I am not aware of yet. Plans that He has yet to reveal to me because, according to scripture, they would be so big and amazing that I would not believe Him if He told me. I truly believe that when God entrusts a great work to me, it is my responsibility to work to my greatest ability to fulfill the job.

So, after prayer and the best discernment I could put forth, the following is my list of life goals. I don't have 100 as Shaun King teaches, but I do have 26. Not a bad start, if I may say. Some of them need a little tweaking or depth, but it's a start.

1. To give a faithful tithe off of our gross income every year for the rest of my life.
2. To add 1% of our gross income to our tithe every year.
3. To be debt free, except for a mortgage, by 2015.
4. To own a house with no mortgage by 2025
5. Complete an MBA degree
6. Teach a college level accounting course
7. Travel to Paris, France
8. Go back to Hawaii
9. Travel somewhere else overseas
10. Be beach ready for our 2011 vacation
11. read the Bible through in one year
12. Teach a personal financial planning class to high school students
13. Write, publish and sell a book
14. Attend New York Fashion Week at least once
15. Start a financial blog
16. Drink 64 ozs of water everyday for the rest of my life
17. Incorporate more fruit and vegetables into my diet
18. Help Kelly pay for college without getting loans
19. Develop a financial freedom program
20. Celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary
21. Have a date night every week for the rest of our lives
22. Have a weekly date night with Kelly
23. Go shopping in New York City or Chicago or Beverly Hills with Kelly when she is a teenager.
24. Take a month long vacation
25. Organize and go on a girls get-away weekend
26. Plan a family Christmas in the Smokey Mountains

A Little Refocusing on My Day...

Today is Christmas Eve and it has already started with a few mis-haps. I decided to do a "spa" for Kelly in our kitchen. We had a little row during her manicure. As I was taking the polish off of my nails, I knocked over the bottle of polish remover which caused a little puddle on the table. I had no idea that polish remover would instantly take the finish off of our kitchen table. Wow, it worked fast. After that was cleaned up and I resumed my finger treatment, I knocked the bottle of polish off of the table and dumped it onto our hardwood floor. Thankfully the polish remover does not instantly take the finish off of the floor. I closed everything and resolved to finish my nails later in the bathroom. Shortly thereafter I splashed my cup of coffee all over a few things in the kitchen and made a mess out of a cheesecake that I was slicing to take to my parents' home tomorrow (but I must admit that the cheesecake tastes really good). A series of mis-steps can take a toll on a person, no matter how small they are. I began hearing a voice that said, "You can't do anything right. You would be better off curled up in a room by yourself and staying there for the next 2 days." After about 2 minutes of this voice whispering to me, I rebuked it and started laughing. I was allowing some small accidents steal my joy of this weekend.

A little perspective please... This weekend is one of celebration and rejoicing. Over 2000 years ago our Savior was born into this broken, spiritually dark world. Because of the event that happened this weekend, ALL of us have the opportunity to live a life that is full, abundant, hopeful, joyful and free. This weekend represents a gift that every person who has lived, does live, and will live in this world can receive with open arms and an open heart. I embraced that gift several years ago. Will you embrace it?

So, of course I'm going to laugh off the accidents that happened this morning. I'm going to rebuke the whispers of the enemy. There is nothing that will happen today that will allow me to miss the gift that our Father delivered to us over 2000 years ago. My Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ was born this day. I will worship and celebrate.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior-yes, the Messiah, the Lord-has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manager." Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others-the armies of heaven-praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased."
(Luke 2:8-14 NLT)

Evaporating Water

The Dead Sea is a body of water located in the Middle East. Have you thought about how this body of water received its name? The Dead Sea has multiple rivers flowing into it; however, there are no rivers flowing out of it. The only way water is able to leave the sea is through evaporation. When the water evaporates, it leaves mineral salt deposits. The Dead Sea contains a very high salt concentation; saltier than the ocean. The high salt concentration does not allow the sea to sustain any life. Only a few forms of bacteria and algae are able to live in this sea. If a fish swims too close, it will instantly die. Hence, the name Dead Sea, which is better than the Hebrew translation of its name, "Killer Sea."

In contrast, the Red Sea is one of the richest ecosystems in the world. It has waterways that flow in and out of it and contains an abundance of wildlife and some of the most beautiful coral reefs. Additionally, the Red Sea was the location of one of the greatest miracles in history -- God parted this sea in order to rescue His people.

God has unlimited resources and He provides each of us with a certain amount. God has a plan for His people to live in abundance and to distribute His unlimited resources throughout this world. We have a choice to make when God blesses us monetarily. We can hoard and consume those blessings, not allowing it to pass through us. In turn, we have the potential to not allow life to flow from us. The other choice is to live in a place understanding that the monetary blessing is just that... a blessing. It is not our's to clutch and scream, "Mine! Mine! Mine!" We can allow the blessing to flow through us in order to create life and beauty. Would you rather live with goodness and blessings that flow into your life that became stagnant and dead due to your clutching or would you rather allow those blessings to flow through your life so that something beautiful can be created?

Giving is a channel for God's heart to flow through us. Simply put, giving changes lives.

Which will you choose to be? How will you live with generosity during this Christmas season?

From Here to There

Kevin and I have the incredible privilege to teach during the first quarter of Quest University. Quest University, held Wednesday nights at Quest Community Church, was launched in order to help people become more wholehearted, transformed followers of Jesus. We are teaching a class called Open Hands. The objective of the class is to assist people in reaching financial freedom. I thought I would post a portion of our first night's teaching.

The goal of this class is to assist you in achieving financial freedom. Our objective is to give you the information that you need in order to successfully travel this road and reach the destination. During the summer we heard teachings on "Here to There." Now this may not be everybody, but if you decided to take this class you are probably Here - Financial Bondage. In Matthew 6:24 (MSG) Jesus defines financial bondage for us. He says, "You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both." We cannot serve 2 masters! Jesus said it and I believe it. It's impossible to serve 2 masters. We will become confused and chaos will happen. And... God will not share His throne. If we chose to be slaves to money, He will allow us to pick that path. To get to financial freedom we have to go through Transformation. Paul writes in Romans 12:2 (NCV) "Do not be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you; you will know what is good and pleasing to him and what is perfect." Another versions says "but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." We need to take the information that we learn and allow it to transform us, to change us, to allow God to make us into something new. And then, we will reach our destination - Financial Freedom. We will experience financial freedom the way the people of the first church experienced. Acts 4:32 (NLT) states, "All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had." They lived as if what they owned was not their own! Isn't that amazing? Everything that we have does not belong to us but is entrusted to us from God. He provides us with all that we have and all that we need. God created everything and He owns everything. We are trustees. If you are familiar with the word trustee from a legal perspective, you know that trustess have no rights, only responsibilities - the responsibility to care for what belongs to someone else. I don't know about you but I tend to take better care of something that does not belong to me. I will protect and care for it. Can you imagine what our world would look like if everyone lived as if what they owned was not their own? Those of you who have taken the courageous step to take this class and to start the journey towards financial freedom can start the ripple effect that can change the world.

This class is not closed. You are welcome to join us on Wednesday nights at 6:30pm for the next 5 weeks. And if you have any questions, just post a comment or message me!

Why do you give?

About a year or so ago I heard someone say that the way to increase tithing or giving in a church is to have the pastor preach on tithing. With all do respect to that person's opinion, the last thing we need is to have someone preach to us on tithing; especially in a way that is associated with the negative connotation that comes with the word "preach." The world does not need another person telling them how to give and that they just need to do it. What I believe is that we need to get to the root issues of why people don't tithe or give to their church.

Have you asked yourself why you don't tithe or give? And if you are tithing, have you asked yourself why you don't give more?

Do you not tithe or give because...

* you are afraid? (Afraid of what? That money will no longer exist?)

* how will you pay all of those bills, the mortgage and buy groceries? (Jesus desires for you to live a good life. Paying all of the bills yourself may prevent the opportunity for Jesus to provide you with a gift.)

* the sacrifice is just too big? (What about Jesus's sacrifice on the cross?)

* you are dealing with the consequences of a past sin? (As a follower of Christ, your sins are forgiven! Worked with Jesus as you sort out those consequences and He will bless you beyond measure.)

* you are having a difficult time sorting out the financial pieces of life? (Call out for help. Be known in a safe community. Don't do it alone.)

* financial things are just not your thing? (Then a large part of life is not your thing. Maturity will show that much of life is tied to finances.)

* you don't trust your church with your money? (Then why would you trust your church with your marriage, your kids, or your salvation?? If you don't trust the church you currently attend, then leave that church and become a part of one that you do trust.)

* you don't trust Jesus that much? (Jesus is the ONLY person to show that He is completely trustworthy all of the time. He will NEVER let you down.)

Almost 99% of the time, people don't tithe or give not because they don't have the money to do so, but because they know that if they give up some portion of their money then there will be less to spend on whatever it is that they want. Most people live in financial bondage created by scarcity and entitlement... thinking that not enough money exists to pay for everything that we want.

God created us to not live in financial bondage. His resources are completely unlimited. He constantly chooses how His resources are allocated among us. We get to choose if we will participate in effective stewardship of His resources. Through us He can do wonderous things when we live with open hands around His resources. If you think that you don't have enough money to give and live on, consider the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. Verse 23 states, "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much'." As we are faithful to the little that God gives to us, He will entrust us with more. Overtime we will be led to financial freedom which will ultimately result in financial peace.

Do you live in financial freedom? If not, let me know and I can help you get there!

Do You Remember Your First Bible Verse?

If you attended Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, or a children's church experience as a child you probably learned songs such as "Jesus loves me" and "Jesus loves the little children." The first Bible verse given to children to memorize is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." The first verse my daughter memorized was Ephesians 3:18, "And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is." Each of these are perfect and fantastic to be among the first things children memorize.

My question is... Do they understand what they are learning? To children, are they only cute songs or a verse to memorize because they will get a sticker on a chart?

My larger question is... Do we believe in and understand these songs and verses well enough to teach our children the truth behind these words?

The fundamental truth of our lives is that God loves us very very much. He made us to love us. This is the foundation of who we are. The only identity we ever need to possess is that we are beloved sons and daughters of God. Also, the love of God is designed to be experienced. Can you imagine going through life without experiencing love... not experiencing the love of your spouse, your parents, your children? The same is true for God. He wants us to feel, experience and live in His love. So, do you just believe it in your head or do you truly feel it in your heart? Do you experience God's love in a way that those cute children's songs and memory verses are more than just words but foundational truth for all of your life?

Do YOU believe that Jesus loves YOU?
Do YOU believe that God loves YOU and sent His Son for YOU?