Coffee Breath

You Follow God & Lead Others

Let's make sure we get first things first...you have to be a good follower before you can be a good leader!  It was written this way in "The Emerging Journey" experience, "Influence is not something we simply do or acheive, but rather it grows out of who we are."  If we are followers of Christ, if we are being molded and shaped by God.  If the Holy Spirit is leading in our hearts and minds...then we will BE someone who others will want to follow.

How do you "follow God"?  This really is back to the basics...here you go:

1. Read the Bible - Simple, right?  Why then...if this is so simple...are so many guys failing to do this?  I know that every time, EVERY TIME, I get into God's Word I am strengthened by it.  I approach God's Word for that very reason...I pray and ask God to open my eyes and heart and allow me to hear Him speak through the written Word of God.  Right now, I am reading through the Gospel of Luke three times this summer.  My first time through I am just reading through it.  Second time through I will journal through it chapter by chapter.  Third time through it I will grab a decent commentary and tackle some "hot-spots"!  This is a summer goal for me....and I am loving it!
2. Pray - Again...basic, right?  This is another area that we just aren't passionate about!  The good news is that there are so many ways to tackle this one.  Make a list and pray through it.  Journal.  Do the ACTS acrosstic (Adoration, Confession, Thanks, Supplication).  Pray while you are driving.  Cutting the grass.  Getting up or going to bed.  Pray before meals.  Pray with your spouse.  Pray with your kids.  It is almost as if I'm suggesting you pray constantly...huh?!  1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pauls says, "Never stop praying."  Wow!
3. Fasting - I'm telling you that nothing gets your attention and gets you in line like a good fast!  I'm really private about this one.  I only communicate my fasts to a few people (wife, a friend for accountability).  If I'm fasting from food...every hunger pang is met with prayer.  If I'm fasting for something or someone in particular, the prayer is directed that way.  If I'm fasting from noise and electronics (tv, music, computer, gadgets, etc), then during those times I might fill up with noise, I sit quietly in prayer...to write, journal or read the Word or to...
4. Solitude - Be still and know that He is God (Ps. 46:10)!  This one is difficult, but invaluable.  Its hard to hear the voice of God so that we can follow when all we hear is our own or those around us.  Get away from noise and quietly ask God to speak into your heart and spirit by His Spirit!

Those are just a few (not to mention Sabbath, Worship, serving, fellowship, counsel and many more!) things you can do to hear God's voice and know what He is directing you to so that you can FOLLOW!  So that you can OBEY God and let Him lead your life.   Then and only then can you lead others...by faith, by example and with wisdom!

Being an IronMan

This morning, we had our first of four IronMen Training and Development sessions. This is for a new Men's Ministry initiative in the fall (launches on September 17). Part of the morning we spent going over the six things that make an IronMan. Check these out. I will be blogging about each one over the next several days!

Being an IronMan means...

...you follow God & lead others.
...you love your wife & kids.
...you aren’t lazy...you work & get it done!
...you are confident, courageous and willing to risk.
...your eyes, mind & heart are pure.
...you put others & their needs first.

Starting this fall the men of our church will start holding each other accountable for these things!

Priorities

You ever list them?  What comes first, second...third in your life?  I honestly haven't thought about it much for a while.  Don't get me wrong, I have priorities - just haven't written them down to often.  That also means I haven't evaluated how I'm doing living out my "ideal" priorities.  I'll give my first five:

1) God - my relationship with God, my devotion and obedience to Him. 

2) Wife - Yep, gonna list that one separate from the kids...so often I think we lump our families together so that games, activities, sports and everything we do as a "family" counts towards our spouses.  Not true.  I need to make my wife a priority!

3) Kids -Each individual kid too...I've got 3, so that means balancing time and what I do with each one.  They vary in age, personalities, likes and dislikes...honestly this might be one of the toughest jobs for me as a parent.

4) Myself - Not selfish fun time, but the way I take care (or don't take care) of myself matters.  Am I sleeping enough, eating right, exercising?  Am I accountable to others?  If this isn't happening, if I don't care of myself, it effects all the other aspects of my life.  I actually toyed with the idea that this should be second priority.  Because who I am or how I am, is what my wife and kids recieve.

5) Ministry (Work for Me) - It certainly helps to LOVE what I get to do!!  I love working for the church, being a pastor, working with others, watching people come to know Jesus and have their lives changed by him!  It's amazing...but again, this doesn't happen unless I set the example with the previous priorities.

So, here's the thing, I attend to all these things.  It's not that I work myself down the list and can't get to one of the priorities until I've dealt with another.  The point is to work, integrate and balance all these things in my life.  The Holy Spirit is a huge help in working this out.  I look at the above list and ask honest questions of myself.  This is my blog, not my journal!  But, I'd encourage you to write down the priorities in your life and evaluate your time and energy towards those things.  Set goals to live them out!  Ask God to direct your life and give you wisdom!            

 

Fired Up Men's Ministry Podcast Week 7

Week 7, featuring Phil Heller.  He'll be taking us through 1 Timothy 5:1-16.

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Fired Up Men's Ministry Podcast Week 6

Week 6, we finished up chapter 3 and moved all the way through chapter 4!

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Fired Up Men's Ministry Podcast Week 5

Week 5, Phil Heller is teaching at Perkin's Restaurant.  This is our Wednesday morning venue for our guys!

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30 Days of Prayer

I'm thinking this will be the most important thing we do in the months of March and April.

I Live to Frolf

What a great day to frolf (Disc Golf)!  Corey and I hit the course at Morse Beach Park.  As you can see it was pretty soggy and turned out to be a little more windy then we expected.  There are a few reasons that this form of golf surpasses that other game of golf with the white ball. 
#1 - free
#2 - equipment to get started $15-$20
#3 - takes 45 minutes to play 18 holes
#4 - no funny clothes to wear

We had a great time and I beat Corey on the back nine (we won't speak of the front nine, that was warm up round).

What have you done in the last couple of days to enjoy this weather before we get our last big snow of the season?

Fired Up Study

Wow! What an amazing semester of Men's Bible Study this has been. 1 Timothy has been such a great book for our men to study. That being said, I'm looking at some ideas for men's ministry that should shake things up in a big way this fall. Be afraid. Be very afraid!

Fired Up Men's Ministry Podcast Week 4

Week 4, I'm teaching 1 Timothy 2:8-15.  It's a pretty intense teaching on the roles of men and women given to us from creation!

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