Too Busy

Once I was driving on the highway and I saw a bumper sticker that read, "Jesus is Coming: Look Busy." I thought this was hilarious, but it also got me thinking that we are actually sometimes too busy. We are busy with work, church, family, school, sports, entertainment, our days are filled with so much stimulation I wonder if Christ appeared in the room, would we realize he was there.

This reminds me of the story of Martha and Mary. Martha asked Jesus to to reprimand Mary because she was just sitting at the master's feet while Martha was doing all the work. I have found that whenever I pray I seem to find work or entertainment to do instead of just sit and prayer at the master's feet. Just now I was praying before writing this entry and I got up because I realized I hadn't put away all the fruit from my peapod delivery. I started to cut away the bag that contained a beautiful ripe pineapple, I took a whiff of this lovely fruit and thought I need to cut up this pineapple right now. Then it dawned on me, I had left the presence of the Lord to work and when the work was over it lead me not back into the presence of the Lord instead the work lead me to seek pleasure. I was Martha.

The Martha syndrome is the enemy's way to keep us from talking to God and hearing from Him. And if the enemy can keep us from hearing God, he can cloud our vision and without vision the people perish. That is why it is so important to keep the Sabbath holy. We need to dedicate quiet time every day but specially on Sundays to hearing from God and talking to him. There is nothing more powerful that spending some time in the presence of the Lord. When we read the passage on Mary and Martha most of us cannot identify with Martha. Jesus was right there in the room with them, of course we would be like Mary. But we are all Martha's because Christ left us the Holy Spirit and He is right there with you right now as you read this, knocking on the door of your heart wanting to sit down with you and spend sometime. There is no job, no deadline, no deliverable, no exam, no meeting that can't wait until after you have had time to sit at the master feet.

300 Culture Shifters

When God asked Gideon to fight a battle he told Gideon that his army was too large and he decreased the size of his army by allowing anyone that was fearful to go home. He further dwindled down their size by watching how they drank water from the river. The majority of those that went to the river layed down on their bellies and lapped the water like a dog, 300 of them instead cupped the water with their hands and brought it to their mouth. I have heard many messages on why these 300 mighty men were chosen and all of them are correct. The first reason is that God wanted the glory so he had to dwindle their numbers to show that even at impossible odds with God we can be victorious. An alternative reason has been proposed as to why these 300 men were chosen was because in kneeling to drink the water they were more prepared for battle than their counterparts that laid down on the ground and drank it like dogs.

In addition to these reasons, I would also like to suggest a third alternative. God chose these men because they were culture shifters. Since 10,000 of the men drank water by laying on the ground and lapping it like a dog this suggests to me that maybe that was the culturally acceptable way warriors drank water from a stream. Instead these 300 men weren't conforming to the normal practices of their culture, they were culture shifters.

If God is going to use us we need to not conform to our culture but transform our culture. We need to look at new ways of conducting commerce, new ways of spreading the gospel, new ways of ministering to people. Are we still comforting to the way the world operates or are we being directed by the Holy Spirit to act in a new way, to fight battles in our workplace and in our homes in a new way. If indeed we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, then why are we trying to operate according to the rules of our culture instead of using spiritual tools and approaches that are "outside of the box."

Lets become one of this generation's 300 mighty leaders and transform the world around us by becoming culture shifters.

Don't Give Up, Keep Growing!

Our society wants to label every action as either success or failure, but God has a third label, "growth." If I were to tell you to hold my baby daughter who is only a few months old and then I call out to her and say, "walk to daddy" most of you would expect that little girl to fall a number of times on her way. Then if I asked you if her walking a success or a failure, you wouldn't really be able to label it as either. She didn't complete the task of walking across the room because she fell several times, but she didn't fail either, she tried, because she is still growing. She will continue to try and she will fall several times as she tries but one day she will try and not fall.

In our earthly walk are continuously in the process of trying to walk out the vision God has called us to. Often we will falter and make mistakes, but God wants us to pick ourselves up and try again. We learn from our mistakes and we are growing both spiritually, physically and emotionally.

In 2010, I fell a lot in my walk, I made a lot of mistakes, I made investments that didn't work out, I took risks in the stock market that didn't pay off and I made a number of poor choices. The enemy would love for me to label these events as "failures" so I would get stuck on the missteps and not try again.

However, in 2011, I plan to not dwell on the mistakes of my past but instead I plan to pick myself up and look forward, knowing that I'm am growing, that I am learning and I will never give up!

So I gave a gift to myself this New Year's Day, the book, "Never Give Up! relentless Determination to Overcome Life's Challenges" by Joyce Meyers. I have yet to read it, but here is a small excerpt:

"Some of the most successful people in history failed and, instead of being discouraged, refused to give up. For example, consider the following:

• Henry Ford, who invested the automobile, went broke five times before he succeeded in business.
• The great dancer and movie star Fred Astaire took a screen test at MGM studios in 1933. A studio memo reported he was slightly bald, could not act, and could dance a little.
• The family of Louisa May Alcott, the great author who wrote the popular book 'Little Women', thought she shold abandon the idea of being a writer and become a seamstress instead.
• A newspaper fired Walt Disney for lack of ideas, and he went bankrupt several times before building Disneyland.
• Enrico Caruso's parents believed a voice teacher who said he hand no future in music - he simply could not sing at all. He did not believe the teacher and became one of the most famous opera singers in the world.
• Theodore Roosevelt suffered the deaths of both his mother and his wife on the same day in 1884 before he became a war hero and a very effective president of the United States.
• John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was often asked to not return to churches after preaching in them once. When he preached on the streets, townspeople kicked him out. When he preached in a meadow, people turned a bull loose on him. But later, because he refused to give up, he preached in a pasture and ten thousand people came to hear him.

Waiting for God

Ever wait on a long line at an amusement park? It requires an incredible amount of patience. The line seems to wind and turn and just when you think you are at the entrance to the ride, the line continues inside. The only reason we wait on line because we are expectant that eventually we will get on the ride promised.

Waiting on God to deliver on his promises can be a lot like waiting on line at an amusement park. Sometimes the road God has put us on takes twists and turns and we are not really sure what to expect around the next corner. Abraham, Moses or Joseph would have never thought that the promise of God would have taken as long as it did. Abraham waited nearly 25 years before his wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac, Moses and the Israelites spent 40 years in the desert before coming the promise land.

There are promises that I know God gave me that currently seem so far off they are like a dream. I have no capacity on my own to make them happen, all I can do is trust and believe God is going to deliver. When I am waiting on God and I don't know how long I have to wait my strategy is to bloom where I"m planted. Contentment is where you are. While waiting for God to deliver on his promise for that job, that wife, that dream business you need to live in the moment of where you are now and be content and know that God's promises are true and you need to exercise spiritual patience.

In our earthly eyes we look to the future and think the day that I reach this goal, then I will be happy. The problem with this thinking is that once you have gotten to where you were going the bar is reset and there is a new goal line, and we say again to ourselves if only I get to this new goal then I will be content. But God wants us to bloom where we are planted. The soil we are on is fertile ground. While Paul was in prison he was still preaching the gospel. While I am out of work, I'm going to continue to do my best to impact the kingdom. This requires me to be content in all circumstances and bloom where I'm planted.

The Power of a Whisper: Samuel's Ear

My mother lost custody of three of her children before she met my father. Because of her age, my mother never expected to have any more children. So when my mother would called me her "little Samuel" I thought it was because I was an answer to prayer. I was a child she so wanted but didn't expect. I was God's consolation prize for to make up for the children she had lost in an ugly legal battle. This put an incredible burden on me as a child and teen to never let her down, but that is for another blog entry.

I now know that the reason my mom called me her "little Samuel" was not because I was an answer to prayer but because like Hannah my mom had dedicated me to the Lord and like Samuel as a young child I heard from the Lord. At a very early age I learned not only hear the voice of God but more importantly to respond. As I grew as into an adult, God's voice has seemed more distance, harder to discern. I remember recently telling my wife as we were trying to make tough decisions regarding our careers and our finance, that I felt I had all together lost the ability to hear God's voice. I no longer knew what it sounded like.

We arrived in Florida on Saturday to temporarily live with my in-laws since we rented our home in Westchester as my wife and I both seek career direction. I was pretty tired from our trip but I felt like I should go online and see if I could find a church we could attend the following morning. This didn't make sense, we hadn't yet unpacked our bags, besides, it wouldn't be as good as my church C3M in New York, yet despite these excuses I went online and found a church called the Bridge in Bradenton. The next day we got up early and made the long trek the chuch, where the pastor starting a lecture series based on a book he was reading, "The Power of a Whisper" by Bill Hybels. The message he gave was a simple , not anyway near the intellectual somersaults I was use to, but it was exactly the message I needed to hear. I realized, God hadn't stopped speaking to me, I forgot how to hear His voice and I would have to get back on a mission to having Samuel's ear to hear God's voice and obey it. In that simple but elegant message I realized God had been in fact whispering to me all along, and it started with the whisper to go online and find a church even though it would have been reasonable for me to take a Sunday off after 22 hours behind the wheel.

In the book, "The Power of a Whisper" Bill Hybels says, "Do you think anyone is orchestrating those ideas that float through your mind? I mean, do you think your thoughts are just random, or is it possible that God is trying to communicate to you in some way?" As I read this book, I find myself on a mission to have Samuel's ear and hear God's voice by slowing down, blocking out all the extra noise and distractions of this world and listen to His whispers.

Preserving Your Spirit

I'm writing this from a bathroom in the Hampton Inn in Fayetteville, North Carolina on my way to Bradenton, Florida. I have just rented out my home in Bronxville, New York and I'm on my way to moving in with my in-laws. I sit here and think this doesn't make sense, this is not the vision God gave me for our future. I remember something I recently told my connect group, God typically reveals to us the end of the vision without given us the path, because if we actually saw the path our vision would take us we might not want to go. God is cheeky that way. If Joseph had known that he would have to be sold by his brothers and become a slave and put into prison in order for his vision to come true of his brother's bowing down to him, he may have asked God to give the vision to one of his other brothers.

As I uncomfortably sit in a sterile Hampton Inn bathroom so as to not disturb my wife, two year old son and one month old daughter asleep in adjoining room, I contemplate moving onto the army green and yellow diamond carpeting, in a hope that it will be more comfortable. It is then that I see Joyce Myers book "The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word" and I find inside the following verse: "You have granted me life and favor, and Your providence has preserved my Spirit." Job 10:12. I recognize that these gifts Life, Favor and Providence keep in in good cheer and preserve my spirit. Without the gift of life, I wouldn't be able to appreciate the vastness of His unfailing love and mercy, without His Favor I wouldn't be able to recognize His divine intervention even in the middle of trouble times and without his providence I would not have the faith to know that he will complete that what He has promised and that "All things work together for good for those to trust God and are called according to His purposes (Roman 8:28)."

So if your like me and the vision God gave you seems sidetracked, trust that like Joseph you are precisely in the place God wants you to be. His providence that will ultimately preserve the vision and the destiny He has in store for you. So preserve a cheerful spirit despite your circumstances.

Prayer at the Stock Exchange

I recently joined a friend of mine Anthony DiMaio of Bold Ministries for a meeting at the NYSE. We met on the corner of Wall Street and Broad Street in front of the exchange, we pasted through the first checkpoint and then a second with a metal detector and once we were inside we took the elevator up to a room where six men and one woman joined us to talk and to pray.

In the meeting I felt the presence of God as thick as if I was stepping into a pool of water. I have become accustomed to feeling the presence of God when I’m with Anthony (Tony as he is known at the exchange) but I felt it particularly strong this morning. This morning I was reminded of the two other times I written on my blog. Both were times when people at Wall Street were praying and this ushered in a move of God

I was reminded of September 1857 when Lamphier gathered with six other businessmen gathered on Fulton Street, just a few blocks from Wall Street to pray. Seventeen days later the Great Panic of 1857 occurred. Subsequently, God started a move through Lamphier’s group where 10,000 men would gather regularly to pray, this move of God began the “Third Great Awakening.” I realized this event was approximately 150 years to the date of when Lehman’s failure occurred in 2010. Here we were in the NYSE gathered together to pray.

I was also reminded of 1907 when J.P. Morgan was in Atlanta in a church conference praying when he heard of the credit markets ceasing in New York. He immediately grabbed the first train to New York and gathered his banking friends to provide credit to the banks saving many from financial ruin. If J.P. Morgan had not been praying he might have also let the panic of 1907 grasp hold of his heart and not had the wisdom and guidance to hear the voice of the Lord and know what to do during this crisis.

And here I find myself in 2010, post one of the greatest economic catastrophes that occurred since the Great Depression in the New York Stock Exchange with eight other believers gathering to prayer. I realized in this room we have two more than Lamphier had when he helped usher in the Third Great Awakening. I believe we are on the verge of the Fourth Great Awakening. God is trying to get our attention and that is why the financial world is rocking. Whether is be the housing market, or the problem the Euro is experiencing because of the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain), Korea, the Gulf spill or some other yet unknown crisis, the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.” Land is representative of our property and our place of wealth, now is the time to pray for forgiveness so that our land, our country and place of prosperity will be healed.