Happy Monday!

Eventful weekend… my contributions seemed to make a pretty big difference for quite a few people… I feel accomplished and at peace this morning. My mood is calm. Today feels just like the ocean shore the day after a tumultuous storm… perfectly calm. The waves, gently rolling upon this smooth and restful shoreline. I feel as is something has PAST OVER and gone back out to sea… leaving my heart at perfect rest.

If you will recall from the past 7 blogs, these recent days have become a time of UNPRECEDENTED bounce back for me and my family… and for so many of our friends and partners. Some time ago, our legendary dream was violently threatened with a hellacious category 5 hurricane. It raged and ripped through our vision for a prolonged period of time… the waves pounded and the high winds howled through the longest night of our lives.

Thank God: he is our REFUGE in times of trouble… Thank God: no weapon formed against us ever really prospers! Over the past few weeks… suddenly by the grace of God, this storm system began to BREAK APART. For a brief moment, the SUN CAME OUT WITH A RAINBOW… giving us a sure sign of survival and the hope of better things to come!

As could be expected… throughout the past week, this relentless storm put forth a few final SURGES… but we prayed to our God… and HIS BEAUTIFUL SON kept SHINING and SHINING and SHINING, until Hurricane ** is now a drama of the PAST!

There is no better reference about successfully weathering storms, than the Biblical story of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls! No matter how the storm surged, Nehemiah PRAYED TO HIS GOD and KEPT ON WORKING. Read the following verses… and BE INSPIRED as you too, successfully weather the hurricanes of life and mission!

Nehemiah 4:1-4a Sanballat was very angry WHEN HE LEARNED THAT WE WERE REBUILDING the wall. He FLEW INTO A RAGE and mocked the Jews, saying in front of his friends and the Samarian army officers, “What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they’re doing? Do they think they can build the wall in a single day by just offering a few sacrifices? Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap-and charred ones at that?” Tobiah the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked, “That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!” THEN I PRAYED, “Hear us, our God, for we are being mocked…

Nehemiah 4:7-9 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites, and Ashdodites HEARD THAT THE WORK WAS GOING AHEAD and that the gaps in the wall of Jerusalem were being repaired, they were FURIOUS. They all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and throw us into CONFUSION… BUT WE PRAYED TO OUR GOD and guarded the city day and night to protect ourselves.

Nehemiah 6:15-16 So on October 2 the wall was FINISHED-just fifty-two days after we had begun. When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done WITH THE HELP OF OUR GOD.

I’ve spent time at the ocean just after a Hurricane… the beach is never more beautiful than the days following a mighty storm! The sand is so CLEAN… the waters so purified… winds so gentle. So today, I’m going to lay my blanket on the smoothest sands of my life… and REST IN THE PEACE OF THIS GLORIOUS VICTORY!

The inroads are opening back up… evacuated citizens are now returning… these are HAPPY DAYS!

I hope todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives! If God is for you, who could EVER successfully stand against you! I’m believing for your success… so KEEP PRAYING to your God and KEEP WORKING towards your legendary dreams! Have a super day everyone!

Happy Sunday!

Yesterday was a very strange day for me. Had a few bizarre people attacks… laid down on my patio beside the pond to pray and worship God through the pain of that… and without a rain cloud in the sky it POURED down viciously… so fast I couldn’t get up before I was soaked!

Then, Emily became deathly ill from about 8pm till 1am. Even while I was praying for her… a voice kept telling me that she was going to die. At about 12am… a car pulled in our driveway a few times and sped off each time I went out to see who it was. This undoubtedly put a level of fear on the kids… especially since someone shot at our front dining room window a while back… and we’ve had a few late night stalkers doing these kinds of things periodically over the past few months.

Even though I prayed and trusted God to protect our home, I slept with one eye open… since I am the man of this house and Gods delegated covering to my family. Thank God for getting us all through that night safely. I believe that Emily is going to wake up healthy and happy… and today will be everything it is supposed to be.

Over the past 30 days at Destiny Family Center, on Wednesday nights I’ve been speaking more passionately about the great commission than EVER before. Today will be the first Sunday presenting this message to our Sunday morning crowd. We’re launching a fall outreach… GO: Going Out… with a smile, a prayer, and an invitation!

If all goes well… HUNDREDS will come into the light between now and the end of the year. I know the DARKNESS has been disturbed and something evil has been stirred to an oblivion! What happened yesterday was like a drive by shooting from intruders of another realm.

Even while I type this message, I just received a call from one of our KEY intercessors about how her husband was just carried off in an ambulance unconscious. When she woke up this morning… she found him outside the kitchen door laying on the ground bleeding from his nose… and has no idea what happened.

Obviously, I’m heading to the hospital… and then to church at 10am. Seriously… I have never experienced the furry of a SUDDEN SPIRITUAL TORNADO like this before. All will turn out well… and “GO” will be presented today… maybe not as professionally as it could have been… nevertheless, our friends at DFC will EXPERIENCE the AWESOMENESS of this BRILLIANT church initiative!

Have a super day everyone! Thanks for your continual prayer and support… you guys are super people!

Happy Saturday!

What a week this has been! Even though my tongue is dragging the ground and I will be spending most of the day finishing tomorrows message… I will be thanking God all day long for the best week in a very long time.

I noticed something in my short lifetime here on earth. That when things start to shift in our favor… and we have a week for the history books… not everyone will be happy about that. This week, more than ever before, I’ve felt that rip tide of resistance that pushes against a persons happiness.

People seem willing to rub your back all day long… just as long as you are wallowing in a puddle of misery. But, just as soon as you rise with a new attitude… just as soon as you square back your shoulders and crank up your cheese smile… just as soon as your mourning turns to DANCING… the gravity of your last catastrophe reaches for your ankles!

For various reasons, there will always be people in your world who do not want you to succeed… unless there is a HUGE personal advantage to them in your success. The devil is not rooting for you… he is not rooting for anyone. And in the quite moments of your finest victories… you will always hear that thundering racket from your BOOING section.

But you’ve gotta fight… for your right… to PAAARRRRTTYYYYY! Yes, I am quoting lyrics from a not so Christian 1980s song… the PHRASE APPLIES to my week so perfectly! We can’t let people BOO us off the field! When have to keep playing the game… the very BEST we can… because what we are doing REALLY MATTERS!

Just like a good sound technician locates antagonistic sounds and then mutes those sounds… we must be able to do this inside our heads. We have to arrest every sound and word coming in through our eyes and ears… and screen the messages, only permitting residence to the ones God wants us to KEEP IN OUR HEARTS.

For every booer, there are at least one hundred CHEERERS in our stands! Yet, sometimes the booers are so much louder. Sometimes, even in our finest moments, there will remain that stench of death and defeat… and real champions keep on winning until the sweet smell of LIFE and VICTORY fills their epic stadiums!

Really, this is a spiritual thing… and the best way to BEAT IT, is to execute the desires of our COACH no matter what kind of sound comes from the bleachers. We must remain focused on the amazingness of our dreams… not on the people who misunderstand or misrepresent our dreams… but on the people who ARE and WILL BE benefiting from them!

So go ahead… BREAK THE GRAVITY OF YOUR LAST CATASTROPHE my dear friends! When AFTER those very long seasons of laying on your bathroom floor in fetal position, weeping and groaning in a pool of your own vomit… and in those times when it would seem that all hope is gone and there is no longer any chance of coming back… and WHEN the momentum begins to shift in your direction again…  YOU GOTTA FIGHT… FOR YOUR RIGHT… to PARRRRTYYYYY! God is rooting for you… he still believes in you… he loves you all!

I have been a booer before… we’ve all been booers before. Today, let us resolve to never be the stumbling block in someone else’s path. Let us not be the sound that others have to mute in order to keep on going! How sad it would be to get to the end of our lives and realize, others gave up on their dreams because of our booing… how painful to find that others had to weep their ways to victory and succeed in spite of our GREAT OPPOSITION.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-2 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.

Hebrews 12:2-3 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.

Maybe we will see you at Destiny Family Center tomorrow? I hope so! Have a most outstanding weekend everyone!

Happy Friday!

I’m blogging from a Richmond Starbucks this morning… came here to help Emily’s Mom prepare for Emily’s Dad to come home from the hospital after SIX WEEKS. Thank God, Merle is miraculously improving… we are so happy about this!

This morning, I had a most outstanding conversation with a very good friend… on that call, he coined the phrase “How Would Jesus Be?”… HWJB. What a super thought! Of course this is a spin off from WWJD… “What Would Jesus Do?”

Here’s what my friend was getting at… whereas, we should be ever mindful of our ACTIONS, we should also seek to BE as Jesus is… to think like him, have inner compassion like him, have a heart of mercy like he did… we should aspire to FEEL like Jesus did when he encountered various life scenarios!

To BE like Jesus is far more challenging than to DO like Jesus. Anyone can demonstrate outward love while harboring inward hate. HWJB challenges us to examine our condition of HEART! And having a right HEART is far more valuable than demonstrating an outward APPEARANCE of righteousness.

So here’s how I plan to respond to my friends brilliant invention, HWJB… I’m gonna put on my ear phones right here in this Midlothian Turnpike Starbucks, play some really good worship music and talk to God about the condition of my heart. I’m going to ask God to show me the ISSUES OF MY HEART today. I’m going to pray beyond my FEELINGS and climb into a new position of FAITH. I’m asking for the HEART OF JESUS! I want an unoffendable HEART… a loving HEART… a merciful HEART… a compassionate HEART… a forgiving HEART… a CLEAN heart!

Then, I plan to go through this day, meaning what I say and DOING what I believe… BEING how Jesus is… DOING what Jesus does! And that makes for a most outstanding Friday!

Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new HEART and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the HEART of stone from your flesh and give you a HEART of flesh”

Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.

Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

I pray that todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives! You guys are great friends… thanks for all your encouragement and for all the amazing contributions you make to this historical ministry! The best is just ahead… maybe its RIGHT NOW or tomorrow… closer than EVER, thats for SURE! God bless you all!

Happy Thursday!

Forward momentum at destiny family center… epic! Last night: the best wednesday night in a VERY long time! Wow! Attendance was off the carts… worship was heavenly… during the message, I felt like the Virgin Mary giving birth to the Son of God. Please don’t take me as sacrilegious… seriously you guys, I think God possessed me a few weeks ago… and this current MESSAGE is not the ordinary next sermon series… it’s more like a PROPHETIC MANIFESTO! These are CLASSIC days for sure…

This year has been a challenging one to say the least… and even though we are today WAY ON THE OTHER SIDE of a very difficult experience, some of us will never forget March of 2009. It’s interesting to hear how many of our members run into a few old DFC’ers… and they are asked, “Are you STILL going to DFC?” I’m told their response has been something like, “Are you kidding me? YES I am still going to DFC… that place is on fire right now!”

Thanks to God who carefully guards his ASSIGNMENT, we not only survived our 7 years of tribulation… we’re RICOCHETED BACK FROM EVERY GRAVE WITH A GREATER BLESSING! This most recent set of challenges seems to have blessed us more than all the rest! New people are FLOODING into our doors… new salvation’s, new talents, new zeal, new creativity, and new resources… all making far more possible, the successful progressive realization of our worthwhile DREAM!

In addition to this LOCAL WAVE OF BLESSING on the Destiny Family Center campus… we have seen an unprecedented gathering of people from all over the world into our internet social network! As mentioned on tuesday, our blog stats are skyrocketing!

Just two days ago, I was asked by a Universal Records Executive to pull one of my blogs because it shot to NUMBER ONE on a google search for one of their bands… and my post was getting ahead of their long term initiatives. Just to think about the INFLUENCE of this tribe… that we can be positioned at the NUMBER ONE spot for a national topic in less than a week… it brings tears to my eyes!

Thanks to the internet, there are no geographical boundaries… the entire world is well within our reach! People are watching our LIVE and ARCHIVED internet broadcasts EVERY week, some every SERVICE… from all over the USA and in several countries. At this moment in time, we are impacting more people DAILY than we ever did on a Sunday morning… something to be celebrated!

Sadly, many local folks saw my commitment to writing a book, blogging, twittering, internet broadcasting, and social networking as a threat to the local congregation. Small town thinking caused some to unconsciously sabotage the bigness of this DREAM. The word on the streets at times has been, “That guy is building his own kingdom.” Others have been even more consciously aggressive, with a far more carefully executed demand for retreat. We’ve seen it all (well, most of it all)… and somehow, by the GRACE and MERCY of God, we are survivors.

Some actually thought we would lay on the floor wallowing in our misery forever, that we would fade away into nothingness. I even wondered at times myself… and yet, here we are today up from the ashes of humility, THRIVING like a TREE PLANTED BY THE WATERS!

Psalm 40:1-3 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

What does all of this seemingly braggadocios rambling have to do with your lives today? I have 5 statements I wish to make concerning this blog:

1. To God: You said you would NEVER leave us, nor forsake us… you KEPT YOUR PROMISE… thank you so much!
2. To local DFC’ers: Appreciate the vision… that mobilizes a local community… to impact the uttermost parts of their WORLD!
3. To previous DFC’ers: Thanks for contributing to a portion of this journey! Without you, we might not be where we are today! The doors are always open, should you ever decide to give it another shot! If not, God BLESS you wherever your feet are planted!
4. To bloggers, twitterers, Make Me a Legend Enthusiasts, & facebookers: There are no geographical boundaries! ANYONE can become a VITAL part of this dream. Please consider how you might lend your time, talents, and resources… and how you might become a far more INTENTIONAL part of this team… and help us do something EPIC in the eyes of eternity!
5. To everyone: Never stop PRAYING… never stop WORSHIPING… never stop BELIEVING… never stop SERVING… never stop LOVING… never STOP DREAMING… never ever SIGN A TREATY when you KNOW THAT YOU KNOW that what you are doing something that really matters in the face of eternity!

I pray that todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives! Look for the Sunday August 23 and Wednesday August 27th DFC services on the video archive…. have a super duper day!