Decide and Take Action

'...everyone who has will be given more...' Matthew 25:29 NIV

Every accomplishment starts with a decision. Choice, not chance, determines your destiny. Jesus gave us the parable of a businessman who gave one employee ten talents to invest, and he doubled them. A second employee received five talents, and he doubled them too. A third employee got one talent, but he buried it. Afraid of losing it, he failed to take even a modest risk. '"You bad and lazy servant!" his master said. "You knew, did you, that I reap harvests where I did not plant, and gather crops where I did not scatter seed?"' (Matthew 25:26 GNT) The Bible says '...we walk by [the eye of] faith, not by [natural] sight.' (2 Corinthians 5:7 NJKV) Unless you're willing to take prayed-over, carefully-considered and well-advised risks, you're not operating in faith. And '...without faith it is impossible to please Him...' (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV) Jesus ended His parable saying, '...everyone who has will be given more...Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.' (Matthew 25:29 NIV) Your goal should be to maximize the investment on everything you do. Ken Blanchard calls this getting the highest return on life. It means putting all your eggs in God's basket (don't worry, He won't drop them!) To get more, you must use what God's already given you. When you step out in faith, God moves, and extraordinary things happen. John Mason says: 'Not what we have but what we use, not what we see but what we choose these are the things that mar or bless human happiness.' When you limit what you will do, you limit what you can do. Think: if you don't act now, what will it ultimately cost you?

Change & Growth

'They go from strength to strength...' Psalm 84:7 NIV

In an old Peanuts cartoon Charlie Brown says to his friend Linus, 'What would you do if you felt that no one liked you?' Linus replies, 'I'd see what I could do to improve.' To which Charlie Brown replies, 'I hate that answer!' There are three reasons we hate that answer and want to freeze life where it's at:

(1) When it took everything we had to get to where we are, 'Let's go' is not what we want to hear.

(2) We're creatures of habit; we form our habits, then our habits form us.

(3) Change makes us feel insecure; deep down, we fear we don't have what it takes.

Near the top of a mountain in the Alps is an epitaph to a Swiss guide which reads, 'He died climbing.' (What a great way to be remembered!) Growth is an uphill climb. If you want to keep growing you must never stop climbing: '...the path of the just is like the shining light, that shines every brighter unto the perfect day.' (Proverbs 4:18 NKJV) How do we grow and change? 'They go from strength to strength.' In his book Teaching to Change Lives, Dr. Howard Hendricks asks teachers these soul-searching questions. 'How have you changed lately? In the last week, let's say? Or the last month? Can you be very specific? Or must your answer always be incredibly vague? You say you're growing, okay - how?' 'Well,' you say, 'In all kinds of ways.' Great; name one! You see, effective teaching only comes through a changed person. When you stop changing, you stop leading. Today ask God to pinpoint the areas in which you need to change and grow.

Examine Your Habits

'...they continue practicing the former [habits]...' 2 Kings 17:34 NKJV

God said, '...they continue practicing the former [habits]; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow...the law...which the Lord...commanded...' (2 Kings 17:34 NKJV) Understand this: any habit you feed will strengthen its grip on your life. Ask anyone recovering from addiction; we only become willing to change when we hit the bottom. Prodigals don't come home until they've lost everything! But that doesn't have to be your story. Your heavenly Father is waiting to welcome you back. You are a child of the Most High; captivity is unnatural for you. You'll never be free until you despise your chains. Whether you're bound by a substance, a relationship or a life that's out of order, your circumstances won't change until your mind is released from the grip of old thought patterns and renewed by God's Word (Romans 12:2). So start putting in place new habits for what you do consistently because they change you permanently. Begin the Bible-reading habit. Put it first on your 'to do' list or you won't do it faithfully. '...for [these words] bring life and radiant health to anyone who discovers their meaning...' (Proverbs 4:22 NLT) Set a specific time for prayer, otherwise everything else will crowd it out. In prayer God will tell you how He feels about things. Can you afford to live without His input? Attend church regularly, support it with your finances, exercise your spiritual gifts and begin to invest time and energy into relationships that sharpen and strengthen you spiritually. God will say things to you in His house that He won't say anywhere else. Your daily habits are carving out an irreversible future. If you want to know where you're headed - examine them!

Your Vision "Fullfill It"

'...Write the vision and make it plain...' Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV

There's an interesting picture in Amos: '...A shepherd who tries to rescue a sheep from a lion's mouth will recover only two legs or a piece of an ear. So it will be...' (Amos 3:12 NLT) Picture Satan as that lion, you as that lamb, Jesus as that shepherd coming to pick up what's left of you, and see how God brings victory out of defeat. Has life torn your dream to pieces? With God, you only need two things for a comeback: (1) An ear to hear. Stop listening to voices that discourage you; it's not over until God says it's over! God told Ezekiel to prophesy to a valley full of dead, dry bones (Ezekiel 37:4): 'So I prophesied...and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.' (Ezekiel 37:10 NKJV) Your hopes may be dead and your soul dry, but if you listen to what God is saying your dream will live again. (2) A leg to stand on. The God who gave Job twice as much at the end of his trouble as he started with before it, isn't finished with you yet. Read what He's promised and stand on His Word. Achan was stoned to death in the Valley of Achor for stealing the spoils after the battle of Jericho. End of story? No, later, God in His mercy said, 'I will give...the Valley of Achor as a door of hope...' (Hosea 2:15 NKJV) You may be living with your consequences, but by God's grace you can still live to see your dream fulfilled.

Your vision - you must 'fulfil' it! (1)

'...Write the vision and make it plain...' Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV

When a dream comes from God and you commit yourself to it, it will 'surely' be fulfilled. Yes, you'll stumble, be stretched to new limits and maybe even stagger across the finish line, but you'll make it. You'll get to the Promised Land. Look at Moses: he had a history-changing message to deliver to Pharaoh, yet he was a poor speaker. He had marriage problems. He was a 'sole trader' who had to reach his breaking point before he learned to delegate responsibility to others. He had a problem with his temper, as a result God said, 'This is the land I promised...I have let you see it... but you will not cross over into it.' (Deuteronomy 34:4 NIV) But Moses finally got there! 1400 years later he stood with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration: right in the middle of it! You say, 'I've failed so badly.' David committed adultery, yet his psalms bring strength to multitudes and he's quoted in pulpits around the world. God didn't excuse David, but He forgave him and used him. '...David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God...was buried...' (Acts 13:36 NKJV) The Bible describes God as, '...ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness...' (Nehemiah 9:17 NKJV) Notice the words 'ready to pardon'. God is ready when you are, all you have to do is turn to Him. Before Habakkuk wrote about his vision, he said, 'I will...watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.' (Habakkuk 2:1 NKJV) Corrected but not discarded! Isn't that wonderful? That's how God's grace works.

God's Vision "Follow It"

'...Write the vision and make it plain...' Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV

Five times in Genesis 39 we read that the Lord 'was with' Joseph. Be encouraged: God is at work in what you're going through right now. Where did Joseph get the wisdom to lead a nation? By dealing with his own family problems, by handling Potiphar's household staff, and by running a prison system. Like rungs on a ladder, each one took him closer to the top. Notice how it worked: his brothers sold him to Ishmaelite slave traders, who sold him to Potiphar, who put him in prison where he met the butler, who introduced him to Pharaoh, who made him Prime Minister of Egypt, fulfilling his dream. Was it easy? No, until the time came,'...the word of the Lord tested him.' (Psalm 105:19 NAS) Your vision will be 'tried' by situations that either make or break you. The birth of the vision is often followed by its death and then its resurrection. When you've no funds, no friends, and no fight left in you (the death stage), remember the words of Jesus: '...unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies [to self], it produces much grain.' (John 12:24 NKJV) When your vision dies and God resurrects it, you begin to talk and act differently. With ego subtracted and grace added, you start saying with the Psalmist, 'I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.' (Psalm 27:13 KJV) At that point God smiles and says, 'You're finally getting it right!'

God's vision 'follow' it! (1)

Thanks for the week off. I'm back from a couple days rest so let's start the new year right...

'...Write the vision and make it plain...' Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV

Paul was on a mission. He travelled light, practiced personal discipline, avoided distractions and kept his eye on the ball. '...one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal...' (Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV) Successful companies live by a mission statement every team member can understand; they keep it before them at all times. God told Habakkuk, 'Write the vision and make it plain...that he may run who reads it.' (Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV) You must write your vision down, read it regularly, remember it at all times and run with it. Your greatest enemy isn't the opposition, it's the distractions. Ever heard of 'a white elephant'? When the King of Siam wanted to destroy an enemy, he supposedly gave them a white elephant. In those days white elephants were considered sacred, and nobody dared refuse a king's gift. The trouble was, white elephants couldn't be put to work but they had to be fed - a lot! So the king's 'gift' ended up causing his enemy's downfall. Hello! Guard against 'white elephants' that drain your time, energy and resources. In order to protect your vision, live by these words, '...lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God...consider Him...lest you become weary and discouraged...' (Hebrews 12:1-3 NKJV)