I saw a couple of skits that I thought were worth watching so here are the links. Yes I cried and laughed. They were that good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXut0HxncvY God's Chisel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Pju_bjlWo Coffee for Dad

We Are Able

We are able. That is what Caleb said to the nation of Israel upon returning from an exploratory trip to see first hand what God wanted Israel to have. With the exception of Joshua, the other 10 princes had a different opinion. You see they were only able to see who they were and what they were capable of doing. They left God out of the equation.
Don't we do that often in our lives. Leave God out of the equation. We work and do in our own ability. It is only when we see an impossible task that we consider the Lord in the situation or we attempt to include Him. But in general we base our future on our ability.
If we could only understand a simple truth. Well actually several simple truths. But here is the first one. God doesn't show us what He doesn't want us to have! And along with that if He wants us to have it then the ability to have it does not lie in our strength.
That is what Caleb understood. He knew that whatever battles or difficulties they would encounter would be met because God was giving them all they saw. The Lord didn't tell them in Numbers 13 to go check out the promised future(land, benefits, goodness, etc.) that He had provided to see if they could take it. He already gave it to them! He just wanted them to taste and see!
We are able. Listen to that phrase with the understanding that it is we with God! Not just in our power but in His. We are able to conquer. We are able to be set free. We are able to succeed. Be set free, change, have victory over sin, live in peace and joy, etc.............
Stop counting on yourself and thinking it is up to you. Start trusting in what God has provided and enter the battlefield to take possession of all He has prepared for you. It is time to acknowledge that we are able!

Here is a thought: Why did Jesus walk on the water? He could have gone in the boat with the disciples. There doesn’t seem to be any great spiritual meaning to Him walking on water except to catch up with the disciples and go across. Why didn’t He just get translated? The result of Him walking on water was Peter walking on water! Such a frivolous adventure. But what an awesome and unforgettable experience Peter had!! Matthew 14:22-31

Not everything Jesus did can fit into our box of religion. He showed us the Father and His glory. Maybe with all of this He showed us that God cares about more than our basic existence. He cares about our enjoying life further than obligation will allow us to live. It is alright to enjoy life beyond the just getting by mode. Pleasure is part of life! Walk on water! Lighten up a little!

We need fresh faith. We need to unclutter our Christian past and awaken a new and fresh faith in our hearts. In the story about the Centurion that comes to Jesus for his servant to be healed the Lord proclaims that this man had great faith. This man was not familiar with the Jewish religion. He was a Roman soldier. But he grasped the idea that Jesus was a man under authority from Heaven. Whatever Jesus said would be dispatched and fully backed by the Father in Heaven. He actually said to Jesus something that was amazing. He said, 'just say the word and my servant will be healed'.

He came with a simple faith that believed Jesus' word. This is the faith we need to have. Uncluttered by all the reasons that it won't work, or by circumstances that negate the remote possibility of God moving on our behalf. A faith that trusts what the word of God says.
Now there is an important note that I see in this story. The Centurion was asking for Jesus to say a word for it to happen. He wanted to hear Jesus say it right then. Something that was spoken for that moment and not the past or future. We know the word of God is alive and powerful. But don't we need the Lord to speak to us today for our situation. Not something from the past. But a now word.

We can have that present word in our lives today. All we need to do is ask Him for it and listen. I believe the bible has a word for every situation. We simply need to open our spiritual ears and listen. Spend time with the Lord by reading His word or praying. The Holy Spirit will speak to us. He will quicken a word and make it alive for our present need. He will bring life where there is death. Let Him speak to you. Then believe what He says. Use fresh faith. Don't let anything in your past interfere with trusting Him NOW!

Set a date with the Lord. Yes that is right. Everything we do in life happens at determined times. Yes there are some surprises but basically we set our alarm clocks in order to keep appointments. We even do that for church. So we decide we are going to meet with the Lord at certain preplanned times such as Sunday morning church service. We fully expect(hopefully this is your expectation) to meet with the Lord on Sunday morning and have some kind of spiritual encounter. And we are not disappointed.
So why not set times to meet with the Lord without the guilt of thinking we should not and cannot do that. Do we think we will offend the Lord if we desire to meet with Him at certain times? When you sit down to read or pray at specific preset times in your life do you expect God to accompany you? Of course we do. Well then maybe we need to raise our level of expectation in life. Maybe we need to bring future hope of God meeting our needs or showing himself to us into the present.
I think too many times we are looking into the future and expecting some day for things to happen. We should begin to believe in a God that is NOW present. Not future tense. A God that says things to us like He did to Zachaeus in the gospels, "today I will eat at your house". We need to know that faith is NOW.
Sure we can't demand of God to do things. We ask. But we need to ask believing He will, He wants to, and He can. Expecting the Lord to do something in the future is fine. But we can also begin to expect an outpouring of His grace today. Didn't He say today is the day of salvation?? Does that mean when we come to the Lord to receive salvation that He will save us someday? No it means He will save us NOW. How cool is that?
We do not get saved at some future time but in the same moment we ask. Yes I know that many times we need to pray and believe patiently until the answer comes. But even then we are to believe it happens before we ever see it. Right? Check out Mark 11:23-25. That is what we are told to do. So don't believe everything is for tomorrow. Begin to open your ears to hear Him say "today I will come to you", "today is the day".

We have had a name change at our church! We are now called lifepoint church. It was so hard to explain our other name to people that we decided it was time for change. We are also in a new time for our church. An exciting time. We are very much looking forward to what the future holds. And as we move forward we want to be sure that our community knows who we are.

Three words that describe our vision are the words reaching, touching, and changing. In a nutshell we are passionately going after God and at the same time we want to touch people's lives with the power of God. We are also very much about relationships. Our vision can be found in the book of Isaiah chapter 61. The first four verses speak to us about three different areas.

The first area speaks of the call of God on those of us that love God. As Christians we are called to reach out people with God's grace and love. To bring healing to the broken, declare liberty to the captives, and generally help people to know the grace of God.

The second area speaks of bringing healing and wholeness to Christians. So many believers are hurting or broken in some way that they are not able to help others. God wants to make us whole so that we can in turn help others become whole. The Lord has provided for believers grace to be made whole.

The third area speaks of rebuilding the ruined places. I believe God is calling church to once again bring healing to our society. The family needs to once again be restored. The only way this'll come about is if the church is made whole and therefore able to be a testimony of God's goodness so that others would desire to follow.

All of us I think understand that life is filled with battles. There are all kinds of battles. Personal battles, relational battles, life battles, etc. There are also spiritual battles that all of us face throughout life. Many times we try to fight the spiritual battles on our own and then pat ourselves on the back when we seemingly win a victory.
But there is a phrase in the Word of God that makes me rethink how I fight the battles I face. That phrase is "the battle is the Lord's".
Actually God asks us to not fight but to stand firm and take our rightful place or position in Him. Let's face it, all of us at one point or another realize that we can't win the wars that rage in our lives alone. And our attempts at doing so are at best temporary if not totally failures. We need the Lord on our side. Well better said, we need Him to fight for us. We are not able to stand up against spiritual powers by just wishing it away or by doing works in life. We need spiritual POWER to fight spiritual battles.
He, Jesus, has won all the battles we will face in life. So why not let Him fight for us. Remember a scripture that says, "greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world"? He is greater! So let's get our strategies from HIM!! Let's wait and see His salvation. Let's learn to turn over more of our life to the one who has already won the victory. Let us enjoy the victory He purchased for us.