Praying for God to Show Up

Will you watch this video and considering joining me in praying for Spiritual Awakening? 


Looking at the rapidly declining moral state of our country and world and then realizing that the Church has fallen asleep, these are times when the faithful few must rise up and cry out to God. 


He is waiting to see if we are willing to seek Him with all of our heart. 


Will you?

OneCry for Revival

My heart and passion is for God to show up. Sadly, most Christians never experience the power of God in their life and church because they are experiencing the sin of the church at Ephesus - they've lost their love for Him, also stated in Scripture as losing "their first love" (see Revelation 2:4).

If your heart craves to see God move in your life, your church, our nation and world, consider joining OneCry. It is a very helpful sight to assist you and thousands of others in praying and preparing for revival. Join by clicking here. 

Zach's Middle School Band Concert (March 6, 2012)

Here's a 3 minute piece from Zach's band concert last night at Challenger K-8 School. Kim and I are so proud of our son!

You can view it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN9fbe7qdps

Sermon (video): Nine Things We Lose When We Fail to Enjoy God

If you're satisfied with the fact that you're saved and want no more of God than you already experience, then this sermon was preached with you in mind. In fact, if you don't consciously enjoy God, I imagine that this sermon may completely change the way you look at your standing with Him.

Here's my request: Will you watch the first 8 minutes and then decide whether to keep watching? At that point, you can turn it off if you want. 

This sermon is a bit lengthy. Yet, I noticed that almost everyone in the congregation stayed tuned in and were actively taking notes during the whole sermon. I believe this sermon touched a nerve and the Holy Spirit was driving the truth home to all of our hearts.

To view the sermon, click here.

Running, Endurance, Trials and the Christian Race

As I was finishing up my morning run today, I realized that I had not allowed enough time to recuperate from yesterday's run. My legs were tiring out and felt like I had taken them about as far as they wanted to go today.

I was reminded of a bit of information I had picked up in a running book recently - if I'm going to run longer distances, I need to develop muscle endurance. 

Muscle endurance isn't dealing with the strength of muscles. It speaks of a particular muscle's ability to perform a particular activity for a prolonged period of time.

Now, there's a lot of variables that go into a muscle's ability to endure. But, when you boil it down, to build muscle endurance, you have to run long distances. Pure and simple. To get your leg muscles to take you on a 3 mile or 10 mile run, you've got to train your muscles to endure for that long by running those distances. 

As you are training, your legs are going to get soar. You're going to feel tired the day after. You've got to make sure that you consume some carbs immediately after the run and make sure that you're taking in more than the amount of water that you lost on your run. You've got to do muscle stretches.

But, to build endurance, it's really not that complicated. You've got to just get out there and put in the miles.

Knowing that one day I will run much longer distances, I fought through the discomfort this morning. While my left calf was beginning to ache and I realized that I did not have nearly as much energy today as I did on yesterday's run, I fought through it.

Why? Because the pain today means gain tomorrow! I'm building muscle endurance with every run I take. 

And that's when it hit me ...

That's a lot like the Christian life. The Christian life is a runner's race (see 1 Corinthians 9:24-27). To effectively run it, we've got to develop endurance.

And guess what. God almost ALWAYS takes us through difficulties to build that endurance.

But, take joy in the fact that as you go through those trials, it's God's way of equipping you to build the endurance you need to be victorious in your Christian race!

James 1:2-4 "Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."

Book Review: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Running: Third Ed." by Bill Rodgers and Scott Douglass

This book is a priceless resource for new runners!

For someone who has just started running or wants to start a running program, it may seem that all the sport requires is to put one leg in front of the other. Without being unnecessarily burdensome or complicated, the author makes it clear that there is much more to running than meets the eye, at least if you want to be reasonably good at it and sustain as few injuries as possible.

Some of the topics covered in this book are:

• Reasons why running is a great sport!
• How to know if you're overtraining.
• How to measure and log your runs.
• How to choose the right shoe for you.
• Choosing the right running apparel.
• An overview of the various running gadgets (watches, gps, heart monitor, etc.)
• How to properly stretch to avoid injury.
• What muscles you need to exercise that won't get a workout while running.
• When to run with an ache and when to run to a doctor.
• What foods / nutrients to consume.
• The necessity and possibilities of cross-training.
• There's a whole chapter that addresses women's issues.
• Determining how to dress / run in various weather conditions.
• The joys of participating in a race.
• How to train for specific races (the author provides a general weekly schedule for training for 5K's, 10K's, etc.)

I would highly recommend this book to anyone getting started in running. It's an easy read and every page is saturated with helpful information.