Legacy

Goals 2008 Revisited: Goals 1-4

I want to revisit and assess the 16 goals I made at the beginning of the year. I will break this down over the next few days. Today I will look at goals 1-4:

1. Be faithful in blogging.

I believe I have been a lot more faithful at blogging in 08 than I was in 07. I once went over a month without blogging last year! "Being faithful" is relative, but I would like to blog at least once a day.

2. Read 25 books.

Ouch! I am currently on my 4th book. I think I will have to pull a couple of all nighters in December to make this goal!

3. Reduce my weight, and maintain my weight at under 170lbs throughout the year. Do you believe in miracles?

Oh crap! My goal keeping is not going well at all so far, and #3 is a real downer. I feel like Stuart Smalley,the fictional character invented and performed by Al Franken that originated on Saturday Night Live! I got on the scale the other day and I was at 192. Here is the good news. I just started another Daniel Fast (Goal #15) and I'm working out like a mad man. I believe, if I stay injury free and healthy, I will meet this goal! I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!

4. Increase Speed The Light giving to over $10,000 for the year.

This will be a tough one. Last year 2Twenty Youth and Christ's Chapel gave over 9,000. A big chunk of that was given when we had an amazing speaker come in and challenge the church. I am challenging the youth to increase their monthly support, and we plan on having another great speaker come in the fall. :)

Tomorrow, we will look at Goals 5-8. Remember, I am posting this so you can hold me accountable. In other words, push me, prod me, bug the crap out of me!

Goals 2008 Revisited

At the beginning of the year, I posted 16 goals that I hoped to accomplish by the end of the year. It has now been about 4 months and I am going to assess my progress over the next 3 or 4 days to where I am at meeting my goals. My fear is that I am not going to be happy at the end of the assessment.

Here are the goals that I posted in January:

1. Be faithful in blogging.

2. Read 25 books.

3. Reduce my weight, and maintain my weight at under 170lbs throughout the year. Do you believe in miracles?

4. Increase Speed The Light giving to over $10,000 for the year.

5. Begin planting the seeds for a Master’s Commission.

6. Establish more accountability in my personal life, the youth at 2Twenty’s life, and the church’s life.

7. Complete my credentials with the A/G.

8. Plan a youth conference to be held at our church next year.

9. Establish a culture of encouragement in the youth.

10. Begin consistently praying with my wife (Evie).

11. Love Evie with more devotion and passion than ever before.

12. Take Evie on a date at least once a month.

13. Take Alexa on more Dates.

14. Spend more time with Luke one on one.

15. Complete a 21-Day Daniel-Fast every other month this year.

16. Commit to obeying God at all times, even when it doesn’t make sense.

Tune in tomorrow as I break down goals 1-4 and see how well I have done at working toward the goals. Yikes!

Some People Don't Learn from Their Mistakes

The NFL Draft was held this past weekend and many fans look forward to this annual event with great excitement. I, however, am a loyal Bengal's fan. Bengal's fans just sit back and wait to see how the Bengal's front office can mess up another draft. This year, the Bengals, who have in recent years earned the reputation of drafting players with character flaws, repeated the same mistake yet again. In the fifth round, the Bengals drafted Jason Shirley, who played in only three games last year at Fresno State because of three separate off-field incidents and suspensions. The Bengals have had 10 players arrested in a 14th month span in 2006-2007. They obviously have not learned from their mistakes.

As I type this rant about my beloved Bengals, I am averaging about 3 yawns per minute. Not out of boredom, but because I am dog tired from staying up too late the past several nights in a row! I know I need to go to bed earlier, but I never seem to get to bed until it's way too late. Some people don't learn from their mistakes.

The Israelites wandered around the wilderness for 40 years because they did not learn from their mistakes either. They were known as stubborn and foolish in the history books.

David, caught in the act of adultery and murder, repented, and learned quickly from his mistakes. He is now known as a man after God's own heart.

I know there is a great lesson to be learned here, but I am too tired to figure it out today. Maybe I will have better luck tomorrow if I can get to bed at a decent hour tonight.

Crusade in Nicaragua

The team I went with last year to Africa is in Nicaragua this week. Once again they have teamed up with my brother-in-law, Jeff Leake and his church in invading the country of Nicaragua for Christ! Last night was the first night of the crusade and 8,000 were in attendance with 1,000 making decisions to follow Christ! They are also holding several smaller street crusades throughout the week.

You can follow the progress on Jeff's blog page, and please continue to lift the crusade up in prayer!

The Dancing God

Did you know that God actually dances in joy over you?

Look at Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.

The Hebrew word for rejoice is Gywl, which means: To spin around under influence of emotion.
As we see in this scripture, the Lord dances over us with singing! He is so in love with you He gets excited when you seek Him.

What is your view of God? Let's remember to take our view of God from the scripture and not from our preconceived ideas or from our experiences from our earthly father.

Horton Hears a Who...A Great Lesson In Faith

Yesterday, I took my daughter, Alexa on a date. We went to Logan's Steakhouse because you can throw your peanuts on the floor, and Alexa has a friend in her class named Logan - Two obvious reasons why she picked this as the place to eat. Afterwards, we went to see Horton Hears a Who. The movie was originally a book by Dr. Seuss, which is a story of Horton the Elephant who, on the fifteenth of May in the Jungle of Nool, hears a small speck of dust talking to him. It turns out the speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a city called "Whoville", inhabited by microscopic-sized inhabitants known as Whos.

What I discovered right from the start was this was a great lesson about faith. Nobody believes Horton, who eventually risks his life to save this speck from being destroyed. He can't see the Whos, but he is willing to risk everything to save them. His friends and neighbors think he's gone mad and try to convince him that the Whos do not exist.

This kind of reminds me of my belief in God. I can't see him and can't hear him audibly, yet I know he's there. I've seen him do incredible things in my life and in those around me, but others think I have lost my mind. Or when God has moved incredibly in my life or in someone I love's life, and the unexplainable happens to them or me. Others don't understand it and immediately begin to ridicule or judge. Yet I would stop at nothing to keep believing.

I'm sure Dr. Seuss did not have "faith of a mustard seed" in mind when he wrote this book. In fact I have heard his widow, Audrey Geisel, doesn't like people to hijack Dr. Seuss characters or material to front their own points of view. But nonetheless, you may just see yourself in the character of Horton. And don't look too close, but you just might see people who have ridiculed you in the faces of those who tried to oppose Horton - Even people from your own family or your own church.

Eric Ferguson

Wednesday at youth service, my brother-in-law, Eric Ferguson gave an incredible message. Here is the Cliff Notes version:

The Israelites didn't trust the promises of God
When it was their turn to enter into the promised land that God said He would give them, the Israelites didn't trust God and feared "the giants" instead. They failed to enter into their destiny.

The woman with the issue of blood didn't give up.
Despite being told for several years that she would never be healed of an abnormal menstrual cycle that never ceased, the woman with the issue of blood pushed and clawed her way through the crowd until she touched the hem of Jesus' garment. As soon as she touched Him she was instantly healed.

These two stories from the Bible teach us that despite of what others may say or how bleak of a situation we are in, we must stand on the promises that God has given us.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Thank you, Eric, for giving us this timely message!

Kris and Kirsten are Here!

Kris and Kirsten Carey are the latest addition to our growing staff at Christ's Chapel, and we are so glad they are here. Kris and Kirsten will immediately be a huge blessing to the youth as they are pastoring the youth worship team, among other things. Kris met with the youth worship team this past Sunday and has already made great changes in just one practice. We are so excited for what the future holds here at Christ's Chapel and we are glad to have Kris and Kirsten here to be a part of the ride! Welcome aboard, Kris and Kirsten!

3 New Worship CDs

Three new very good worship albums came out this week on Itunes:


1. Kim Walker: Here Is My Song
On this CD Kim is singing original songs and also was able to release spontaneous songs which is a major part of her worship.

2. Hillsong United: The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts as One
This is the ninth album by Hillsong United and the first of a two-part project. With Hearts as One was recorded across the globe at locations including Toronto, Cape Town, Chicago, Houston, Kiev, Manila, Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney; it contains 30 songs. The second part, The I Heart Revolution: We're All in This Together is a double DVD set which will be released in June.

3. Gateway Worship: Wake Up The World
Wake Up the World delivers a mix of modern worship anthems and intimate moments of worship.

Luke, The Water Monster, and The Bad Jesus

I had a funny moment with my four year old son, Luke (pictured here with my hot wife, Evie and beautiful daughter, Alexa). He said he was afraid to go into his room because of the water monster. I asked him if he had a bad dream, and he said, "no." I tried to figure out if he had seen a movie or cartoon that had a water monster in it and could not get an intelligible answer out of him.

I then told him that God would protect him, and he didn't need to fear a water monster. He paused for a moment and said, "the bad Jesus won't protect me. He's a bad guy." Apparently, after Evie and I pressed him with lots of questions on this "bad Jesus," he must have seen a picture of Jesus in Sunday School, probably one of Jesus dying on the cross, and assumed he was a bad guy. Either that or the the pre-school Sunday School teachers are teaching heresy. Either way, Evie and I have a lot of correcting to do to get Luke back on the right theological path.