Many will say, “Lord” but He will say, “I don’t know you.”  People don’t play with Christianity.  There are people (and we know this because the bible said they exist) who attend church and profess the faith without a saving grace of God.  These very same people attend church (some regularly), donate to missions, sing in the choir, attend small group, work on community projects, and whatever else the church can do without understanding salvation.  Worse yet, they create their own version of what salvation is.

Claiming to be a follower of Christ is more than a bumper sticker or fish decal on your car.  God is very clear that repentance is required along with action.  That action is to obey God.  It is like my wife said before we got married, “You can tell me you love me, but your actions speak louder.”  I wanted my actions to speak love.  I love her.  God is the same way.  Many will claim Him as Lord but never demonstrate the love through action.

There are people out there distorting and perverting their lives without fear of God because they have in their minds rationalized sin.  Perhaps it is time to be honest within ourselves.  Maybe the best answers are still found in the bible.  We should be more than hearers of the word but doers of the word.  We need to let our actions demonstrate a love for God through obedience.   You think living up to what God wants for us is so hard to do.  Think again.  When we allow God’s strength and grace to fill us we are VICTORIOUS.  The government once had a program for kids and drug prevention that stated, “Just say No.”  Just say, “No” to sin.  You will know the sin because the Holy Spirit convicts us to repentance.

Still not getting the picture?  Try this.  Ask God to reveal those strong holds in your life.  Be honest and listen for the answer.  I bet you won’t listen long.  I believe we each know the sin that bubbles to the top and we smash it down to keep others from seeing it.  “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.“

I am not the same because You live. I am not the same and I am glad I am made new in Christ. I see with new eyes filled with grace and mercy because of the grace and mercy extended to me. I know the truth.

I want you to be new too. I want you with all my heart to know that joy can be yours. You don’t have to live brokenhearted another night. You don’t have to cry those tears of past hurts. You don’t have to hide. Love waits for you with arms wide open.

Let’s not be the same together.

We’re also going to take better care of ourselves and each other.  No more burning the candle at both ends and rushing to do everything that can be done.  There are others that are capable and willing to help out.

I’m also back to writing, reading, and prayer more!  Look out.  I hope to post at least once a month.   I would love your prayers and humbling accept them.  I’m looking forward to this year.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  Love does not celebrate injustice but rejoices when truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through all circumstances.

Paul wrote these words to a little church in Corinth a few thousand years ago.  Love one another is the command Jesus gave us.  I have witnessed that many followers of Christ are more understanding of rituals and traditions than of loving others.  The problem may be that we don’t love our selves and believe that we’re incapable of loving others.  There are those that won’t love another until the other loves them first.  They don’t want to waste what little love resources they have on a person that would not appreciate it.

Love.  What a dysfunctional and difficult concept for broken souls.  I’ve had people tell me they can’t love.  They’ve stated that love is not in them.  But, I disagree.  If you believe in God and have really accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior… LOVE is within you.  The kinda of love none of us can understand.  We don’t have to understand it, just accept it as unconditional.  Not only then should we accept it, we must share it.  Give it away.  As if that could ever be done.  God replenishes it faster than you can give it away.

Maybe the problem with us is that we love ourselves too much and want the world to recognize and agree with just how special we are.  I was once told that I could never get something from someone who didn’t have it to give.  What I was looking for was acceptance and encouragement.  The person I thought I needed to hear and feel that from couldn’t accept themselves for who they are let alone another.  They were more discouraged than motivated and once again could not give encouragement.

That lesson applies equally to seeking love.  You can not get love from someone who does not love themselves.  Healthy love that is.  Not the self indulgent kind you watch on reality TV.  There is no Flav-O-Love or whatever else is out there.

Whatever we do has to be motivated by love.  How’s your love life?  Are you motivated by love or self-promotion?  Do you genuinely care for others or do you just like the sound of your own voice?  Could you provide a meal or shelter someone less fortunate without the world knowing?  When was the last time you built someone up instead of tearing them apart?  Let me really get personal.  If you died right now would you regret anything you’ve said or done even today?

I’ve said some things I’m not proud of.  I’ve been motivated at times by selfishness.  I have to admit it.  I wish I was the kind of man Paul said we should be.  I want to love without conditions.  I want to love everyone even if they’ll never love me in return.  Knowing the condition of this world, there is a pretty good chance I won’t be loved in return.  Then I realize, so what.  The greatest love of all is waiting for me.  The love of Jesus.

Look out, I love!

This is one of those “I will if you will” promises of God.  God says, “I will prosper you and give you a future filled with hope IF you will call out to me in prayer. Seek me in prayer and worship and you will find me.  IF you seek me with all your heart and soul.”  Knowing the plans God has for us is just that.  We know, but that doesn’t mean it is going to fall into our laps because we believe.  We have to seek God and devote our everything to a relationship with Him.  Seeking God in prayer and worship with all your heart and soul is a bright future of hope.  Can we seek God together with all our hearts?  Pray that 2010 is the year we wholeheartedly seek God and bear witness to the completion of His plans.

The Valor Center will offer a diversified curriculum of free life development courses structured to teach the life skills needed to overcome obstacles, and achieve victory in everyday situations.

Today, more than ever, people are struggling to overcome obstacles in their everyday lives. Unemployment, the economy, overwhelming debt, self-doubt, and health issues are all complications that can “freeze” people in their current situations. Many people have the talent and ability to achieve success, but lack the tools or knowledge to move forward. The Valor Center has rolled out a comprehensive schedule of free classes that will provide people with the life skills they need to overcome obstacles standing in their way to succeed in life.

Area business leaders will be providing instruction in their respective areas of expertise. Classes will cover a range of topics from the basics of getting organized and healthy to more complex subjects such as managing finances, overcoming anxiety, preparing for a job interview and effective communication. All subjects are taught with biblical principles as the foundation of the educational content.

The Valor Center’s Life Development Classes will be held at the Country Inn & Suites Conference Center at 17612 Valley Mall Road in Hagerstown, MD. Classes will begin in January of 2010 and are open to anyone who is 16 years old and above. The classes are free, but registration is required due to limited class size. Registration and more information can be found at www.wovministries.org, or by calling (301) 991-6252. The program is sponsored by Women of Valor Ministries, Inc.

Women of Valor Ministries, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Christian public charity called to embrace women and their families with the life-changing love of God.  In partnership with the community, they offer resources and support services to empower those they serve to have the courage to change their lives.

If you’d like more information about The Valor Center’s resources, please call (301) 991-6252 or email info@wovministries.org.

At twenty minutes, I’ve forgotten why I called.  I’m now curious to see if anyone will answer the phone.  I can’t stop listening to it.  At thirty minutes, I realize this is hopeless.  The machine hung up before I did.

Isn’t this just like in life?  We call out to someone hoping they’ll have the answers to our problems.  We don’t mind that they didn’t immediately respond.  Hey, we all have busy lives.  Something happens when we don’t hear from them at all.  We start to wonder if the person likes us or not.  Perhaps they’re not responding to me because they don’t like me.  A little more time and we start disliking them and trying to remember why we asked this person anyway.  I can imagine all the things we think of them.

Who are we putting our trust in to help us?  If we have put our trust in man, “your call is important to us and will be answered in the order it was received.”    I’d rather put my trust in a God that can hear all requests at once.  No one is placed on hold.  God hears us and answers us.  Sometimes we have to wait on the special delivery like Daniel did, but God does answer!  Your prayer is important to Him.  You don’t have to wait.

Think about this for a moment.  Do you really want the world portraying Christmas as this commercial opportunity to buy more for less and get to give to others?  I’m just saying, I don’t want the message of Christ, the only gift given worth sharing to be a jingle for stores to use to sell anything to.  I’ll still shop at those stores and I’ll wish them a “Merry Christmas.”  I’ll do that because it is our mission to take the message of a savior is born to the world.

I’m not loosing my cool over this either.  It doesn’t bother me anymore and I’m not going to boycott the store either.  If they have what I’m looking for and are reasonably priced I’m shopping the best buys.  Think about it and I hope you all have a blessed Christmas sharing the good news that Christ has come to rescue us all.

Merry Christmas.

I believe along the lines of Graham Cooke and Gary Goodell in their book, “Permission Granted: To Do Church Differently in the 21^st Century” about organization and leadership in today’s church or ministries.  Cooke and Goodell (2006) stated that “a little organization around this is fine.  We need enough strategy to keep things broadly moving in the right direction.  But too much organization will stifle creativity, spontaneity, and initiative” (Permission Granted, p. 141).

In my life time, I’ve attended several churches.  Not because I wanted to but I moved a lot for my work.  Having been in several churches at various levels of leadership and followship; I see organization as the very string that not only binds ministries together, but chokes the servants.  I can’t believe I’m saying this; too much organization does stifle creativity, spontaneity, and initiative.

We try to build people up to do the very things our organization prevents them from doing.  We encourage creativity but require them to follow our established procedures.  We advocate spontaneity but are outraged when it doesn’t fit within our schedules and calendars.  And finally, we desire after people who will take initiative but they have too many committee boards and approvals to get before doing anything.  The hurdles we place in front of the spirit gifted people have them jumping more to meet our expectations and need for control than serving others and building the Kingdom.

My wife and I spent a time of mumbling about the church not doing anything to help the poor and needy.  We had grand ideas of ways to serve the “widows and orphans.”  I don’t know if it was because he was leaving the church for another position, but one of our pastors challenged us with, “why do you need the church?”  He said that if God was calling us to do these things, go do them.  You don’t need the church.  Wait a minute, Lori already submitted a point paper outlining how the church could engage in local evangelism and it died on the vine through church bureaucracy.  This guy was saying go do Kingdom stuff!  He didn’t have to tell us twice.

Was it easy?  No.  We had to overcome all our previous conditioning of how churches and ministries operated.  Thankfully wonderful friends were on the same journey giving us wisdom along the way.  We had others praying for us each step.  I’ll admit we’ve made mistakes.  Ironically we sometimes got ahead of God’s will all in the quest to do God’s will.  We’ve had to mend broken relationships and at other times let people go.  Our ministry has order and purpose.  I believe we are providing just enough organization to ensure we’re all together and still leave plenty of room for creativity.

I know we’re doing that because, to be honest, we don’t have a clue sometimes as to what we should be doing.  We’re in new territory without a map.  Proceeding in faith we take blind steps to do what we believe God is asking us to do.  In those moments is when God shows up and shows off.  Believe it or not people would call or stop by and offer their assistance at the very moment we needed exactly what they offered.  One thing to keep in mind is that we allow people to drift with us, realizing that we may drift apart in our visions and then later down stream come together again.  It’s possible.  Check out Paul and Barnabas.  They split in Acts 15:39 and reconciled in Col 4:10-11.  Hey, it happens.

What we are doing wouldn’t be possible if we stuck with a rigid military styled organization and leadership that demanded adherence to strict guidelines.  No doubt that type of organization will be successful.  How sweet it is to have the might and power of God getting us to the same place.  All for His glory and praise.  God gave us some organization and told us to go be like Him.  We get to be creative just like Him.