Starting Your Year Off Right

"He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all he does, he prospers."  

(Psalm 1:3)

A tree planted by a stream has a decided advantage over one planted in an area that is plagued by drought.  I remember one particularly dry summer when the trees produced little fruit and lost their leaves very early in the season.  Some trees even died.  The tree by the stream, though, has a constant supply of life-giving water.  For this reason, it flourishes.

We are much the same.  Our ability to spiritually flourish and produce fruit depends upon how well we have planted ourselves near the life-giving stream.  Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to a stream of living water.  In John 4:13-14, he told a Samaritan woman who had come to a well for water, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Later, in John 7:37-38, Jesus said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rives of living water.'" In the following verse, John adds this commentary: Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

A major difference exists between a tree and a Christ-follower.  The tree has no choice as to whether it is planted by a stream or in a desert.  Once the seed is dropped, the tree's location is settled.  On the other hand, we have a choice.  We choose the stream or the desert, and many times we choose to vacillate between the two.

A new year gives us a new opportunity to start fresh.  If you have spent the last year in a spiritual desert, spiritually thirsty and beaten down by constant sandstorms; start the year with a spiritual relocation.  Come to the river.  Sink your roots into the One who gives life and gives it to the full.  Reconnecting to Jesus is the first step to a prosperous 2016.

94 Kindness Ideas

Here are 94 ideas as you give out your "Kindness Cards."

Just follow this link:
94 Servant Evangelism Ideas

Facing Adversity

In 1986, back when they actually played basketball in the NBA and men's shorts were actually, well, short, the NBA All-Star weekend included it's first three-point contest.  Eight competitors, all long-distance sharp-shooters, participated in this inaugural event.

With the other seven already in the locker room for a precontest meeting, Larry Bird walked into the room and silently surveyed his competition.  After a few moments he threw down the five of the most famous words ever uttered in NBA trash talk history: "Man, who's comin' in second?"

With that statement, Larry Bird set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy that he would win the contest... and he did. Yes, he still had to go out onto the court and back-up his words.  He still had to face the competition and make his shots.  The other seven players did not just give up and walk away.  But at the end of the contest, Bird's attitude helped him win the day.

Real life is the same way.  Our attitude will determine how we face adversity and whether we come out on the top or on the bottom.  Many people face a bad situation, quake in their own shoes, fall apart, give up, and lose without ever even giving victory a chance.

That's why it's so important to fill our minds with God's promises concerning adversity.  Tough times are going to happen to all of us.  It's part of life on planet Earth.  None of us are immune.  Jesus told his followers, "In this world you will have trouble" (John 16:33).  The psalmist reminds us that "many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Psalm 34:19).  However, neither Jesus nor David stopped with what seems like a dire proclamation.  Jesus completed his statement by saying, "but take heart, because I have overcome the world."  David concluded with this promise: "but the Lord delivers him from them all."

Begin each day filling your mind with the promises God gives us in Scripture. Here's one to get you started: "No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 54:17 NIV)

God's promises firmly planted in our hearts will develop the attitude that when we face adversity we can look it squarely in the face and say, "Man, you're comin' in second!"

Unplowed Ground

Sow righteousness for yourselves,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes
and showers his righteousness on you.

Hosea 10:12

Each new day is like unplowed ground.  We get to choose what we'll do with it.  We can do nothing with it, and waste it.  We can sow seeds of vengence, bitterness, envy, or self-pity and thus abuse it.  Or, we can sow seeds of compassion, gentleness, kindness, humility and patience, which will yield a multiplied return.

None of us can escape this truth: today is the result of what we sowed yesterday.  This year is the result of what we sowed last year.  This also means that tomorrow will be the result of what we sow today.  Next year, the result of this year's plowing and sowing.

Take a look at the day that lies ahead of you.  Let's not leave the ground unplowed.  Hitch up your mule, strap on your plow, and make the most of this day!  Sow seeds of righteousness today and you'll reap showers of the same when you need it most!

"Whatever we are is multiplied, whether it be for the good or for the bad. Whatever we have on our tree is what were going to get in our orchard." --John Wimber

Procrastination

"Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy."- Wayne Gretzky

The results of procrastination are both hidden and staggering. How much growth, gains, progress, success, joy, happiness, surprises, increase, prosperity, satisfaction, and rewards have we missed out on because we simply put something off that seemed either too difficult or too boring at the time?

Today, take a look at your to-do list, pick a task you've been putting off, and start working on it. You'll see your fear recede, energy rise, and satisfaction soar.


"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done." --Ecclesiastes 11:4 (TLB)

"One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys."--Proverbs 18:9 (NIV)

PYW pt. 3--"Who Cares More?"

"Before"

Our house on James Island has a bayview window in the eating area of the kitchen and a window in the living room.  Each of these provide a nice view into the backyard.  However, one would never know this due to the condition of the azalea bushes in the flower behind just outside.  When my workday moved to the backside of the house, I encountered this monstrosity of overgrown azaleas that had become intertwined with vines growing under, around, and over them.

Although the lease agreement included the tenants' maintaining the yard as well as the inside of the house, it became obvious that besides a bi-annual lawn mowing, nothing else had been done to the yard.  I guess this is to be expected.  Who wants to put sweat equity into something that isn't there's?  It would be kind of like washing a rental car; it's just something you don't do.

When we lived here; while we weren't "yard freaks" by any stretch of the imagination, we did maintain a nice-looking and appealing landscape.  St. Augustine grass covered the ground like a thick carpet and we kept it mowed and the walkway edged.  A flowerbed welcomed guests as they came to either the front or side door.  With tenants it's just not the same.  Owners mow their lawns every week during the season, while tenants might mow the lawn once a season.  Owners trim the hedges, while tenants don't seem to even notice them.

"After"

As I was working through the mass of limbs and leaves that stood like a mountain on the backside of our house, the Lord began to teach me the nest lesson, and this one may have been the most powerful one I heard on this day.  As I lopped off limbs and piled them to the side, I heard the Holy Spirit speaking inside of me, "The people living here do not care as much for this property as you do, do they?"  "Nope" was my simple and to-the-point reply.  Truth is, I wasn't in much of a mood for talking by this point.  It was mid-afternoon, hot and steamy, and since I didn't want to lose any time going somewhere for lunch I had packed a PB&J sandwich that was wearing thin.

What I heard next stopped me in my tracks: "It's the same between you and Me.  I'm much more concerned about your life that you are.  I bought you."

The owner is more concerned about His property than the tenant ever will be.

We have a tendency to think that we know more about what's better for us than God does and that if fully commit to following Him that He will somehow short-change us and we will regret it.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  I've often said that if God would pull back the curtain of time and show each of us what the end-result of our lives would look like if we committed to His ways and His will that every one of us would take Him up on His offer.  Of course, this would require no faith and without faith it is impossible to please God.

This promise still rings true: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own undestanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6).
The Lord made a HUGE investment in order to purchase us.  "For he rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom (with his blood) and forgave our sins." (Colossians 1:13-14 NLT).  If we are concerned about the biggest investment most of us will ever make, that being the purchase of a house, that we buy with mere money; how much more is God dialed-in to us since He paid for us with the life of His own Son?

The temptation to go my own way, and not fully trust God with the steps of my life, should be about as strong as the temptation to eat dirt... virtually non-existent!

PYW pt 2: "I Think I Mis-Under-Estimated This Project"

I arrived at our house on James Island a little after 10:00am.  I really thought that I would be able to complete the entire yard cleaning in a day; after all, lots on James Island tend to be small, in fact, ours is only about 3/10 of an acre.  When we lived there, I could mow the entire yard, with a push mower, do the weed-whacking and blow off the driveway in less than an hour.  Hedges need trimming about  twice a year, and so that project only took a couple hours.  I had this idea that I would be done and on my way home before dinner time.  I was only partially correct.  I was on my way home before dinner time; however, dinner time had been pushed back and I wasn't done.  Well, the work wasn't complete.  I, on the other hand, was done.

Here's the first lesson the Lord taught me that day: We tend to OVER-estimate what we can accomplish in a day and UNDER-estimate what we can accomplish in a year.

I began on the left side of our property, where my neighbor had planted some bamboo along his fence line, evidently for privacy purposes.  If your neighbor plants bamboo, eventually you'll get to have some too!  Our yard, from the fence line to the house was overrun with the stuff.  It looked like a jungle!  This guy also has trees that have never been trimmed back and I found limbs from his trees overhanging my yard to the point of touching the house.  Added to this were vines growing through both the bamboo and the trees, the result was something like cleaning out a rain forest.

What I had hoped to complete in 90 minutes became about a three hour project.  I didn't take a before picture, but here you can see the work on that side of the property once finished.  The overgrowth had pretty much killed the grass, but it will come back now that it can get some sun.

I knew once I finally completed this phase of the project that I was not going to complete the entire yard in a day.  I had over-estimated what I could get done.

It also dawned on me that I had under-estimated something as well.  Had I the forethought to take the time to drive down to the lowcountry two or three times a year, odds are the yard never would have gotten in the shape it was in.  Had I taken each Labor Day and Memorial Day, for instance, and dedicated those days to this piece of property I could have maintained it.

Spiritually, we make this same mistake.  We over-estimate what takes place in a moment of decision, like a decision we make on a Sunday during worship when the Holy Spirit begins to speak to us about an area in our lives; and, yet we under-estimate how much change can occur if we just stay faithful and obedient over time.  To put it another way, we over-estimate the moment of decision and under-estimate the power of process.

Now, I'm not in any way trying to downplay the importance of decisions; whether its a decision to trust Christ, give up a bad habit, recommit your life to Christ, or a commitment to service.  Decisions are powerful because they get the ball rolling.  Decisions overcome the spiritual inertia that tends to keep us standing still, going nowhere.

However, for that decision to have it's most powerful effect, there must be follow-through.  The apostle Paul put it this way, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12).

Over-estimating can lead to discouragement and defeat, if we let it.  When I found myself three hours into this project, having accomplished as little as I had planned, this tempting thought invaded my mind: "You have completely wasted your day coming down here.  You should have paid the landscaper to do it."  The truth however, was that I had not wasted my day at all.  I had accomplished something.  Had I been able to stay another day, I may have completed 90% of what I wanted to do.

Here's my encouragement for you today: instead of getting all wrapped up in what hasn't happened, revel in what has taken place in your life.  Our estimations are just that... a rough calculation of what you anticipate.  Just as a financial investment needs time to produce a profit and a diet needs time to produce the desired weight-loss, our spiritual life needs time to develop into what it can be.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)