Happy Wednesday!

Today should be another FUN and EXCITING day in the life of Chucky Balsamo…

• first, I need to finish writing this blog,
• then pray and read for another 30 minutes,
• handle a few minor issues over the phone on the way to a jail visit in Harrisonburg and another one in Verona,
• arrive at my office and have a productive meeting with my assistant Kristin Via,
• do some strategic planning for our “Love Stuarts Draft” fall outreach,
• work on tonight’s and Sundays messages,
• drink a SlimFast on the go for lunch,
• write the rest of my book query and send it to a few agents and publishers,
• chat with Nathan Bain about the October youth outreach: “You’re Not Alone”,
• go home for a delicious dinner with my loving family,
• speak tonight at Destiny Family Center- 7pm,
• come home around 9pm,
• watch CSI while I do some more writing,
• and HOPEFULLY visit the land of dreams around 11pm.
• Of course, this doesn’t include tweeting on twitter or responding to emails, blog comments, facebook comments, and emails throughout the day.

Maybe you can come to DFC or catch the LIVE internet broadcast tonight. I hope so!

What is life like for a day in the world of YOU? Really, I’d love to hear your story and I bet everyone else would too! List your entire schedule… if you don’t mind. Come on, scroll down and do it NOW. I bet the accountability will TRIPLE your productivity for the day! And if it helps… you can start leaving your schedule everyday!

That’s it for today… make your life count… have FUN all day long… when you work, work with all your heart… when you rest, rest with all your heart! Be ON when you’re supposed to be ON… and OFF when you’re supposed to be OFF. Like this, you will experience a well balanced, well rested, and highly productive life!

Titus 3:14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

Happy Tuesday!

MOMENTUM is a force to be reckoned with! Since starting this blog site last fall… we’ve posted 287 INSPIRATIONAL messages… only 78 days away from ONE FULL YEAR of blogging. With Gods help, we’ve been able to post some kind of message or announcement for EVERY DAY.

You guys have posted 1466 comments on these 287 messages… thats an average of 5 comments per post… THANK YOU, for adding such VALUE to this tribe with your inspirational additions! Interacting with you guys, is one of my favorite things to do!

I was just checking our stats for the past few hours and noticed a guest from the United Arab Emirates, the city of Dubai… it looks like you have read through a hundred pages or more! Welcome my new friend… I pray we are a blessing to you this day!

Welcome also guests from: Beijing, China (a daily guest); Bota, Indonesia; Unknown City, Ecuador; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Macon, Georgia; Cary, North Carolina (a daily guest); Vallejo, California (a daily guest); Unknown City, Canada; San Diego, California (a daily guest)… and several guests from unknown locations. These of course, are in addition to the spammers… these are real people throughout the world actually READING our messages!

Just since midnight, we’ve hosted 1333 pageviews from 137 unique visitors… meaning that todays average visitor is reading 10 posts each!

What’s even more exciting is that this year we’ve hosted 102,258 real pageviews from 8295 unique guests! Just to think that so many people are benefiting from the blogs and the interactions with each other created around these blogs… it’s REALLY EXHILARATING! Who can FATHOM how much this amazing tribe will multiply over the next few months as the power of MOMENTUM continues to COMPOUND our efforts!

On days like today, I feel like a tiny atom approaching my CRITICAL MASS… or a pot of water at 211 degrees: up to this point, each additional degree has seemingly had very little effect on my substance… and any day now… ONE MORE DEGREE or two, and I will be transformed into another substance and freed from the confines of my container!

This is what happens when any person defies his obstacles and KEEPS ON DOING WHAT HE OR SHE KNOWS TO DO… DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY… NO MATTER THE SEEMINGLY NON-EXISTENT DEGREES OF PROGRESS… DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY… until BANG, and everything CHANGES!

Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in DUE SEASON we SHALL REAP, if we FAINT NOT.

There is a DUE SEASON, for every breakthrough… that MOMENT at which WELL DOING & FAINT NOT meet up with SHALL REAP! So don’t get distracted my dear friends! Keep doing amazing things day after day after day… until something beautiful happens in your life! Your dream SHALL come to pass… even though it takes a whole lot longer than you may have originally projected… though the vision tarries, WAIT FOR IT… every vision is for an APPOINTED TIME! (Habakkuk 2:3)

My one big aim in this lifetime is to LEVERAGE all I am so as to INFLUENCE millions, bring them to salvation, and help create tomorrows better world! I want to pour out my entire substance each and every day… so that when this life is over, I can know that I gave EVERYTHING I HAD TO GIVE. I will succeed at this worthwhile aim… and every day I stay in the race, I am one step closer to having EVERYTHING I need to get the job done! People are joining this tribe… resources are ON THEIR WAY… one or two more degrees and we will be having the time of our lives!

I hope todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives! Today, I would like to invite first time comments from any of you guys or gals who have never said hello. Please, let us know a little about yourself… so we can pray and encourage your success! Have a most outstanding day everyone!

Happy Monday!

I hope your weekend was SUPER… mine was unprecedented! A thousand prayers answered in ONE DAY!

Sometimes, it seems as if God is on a long vacation in another universe… it feels as if he’s not answering a single prayer… as if we are drifting far away from our dreams, until we even consider giving up on our dreams. Then out of NOWHERE it would seem, God swoops down out of the sky like a super hero to the rescue… and in ONE SWIFT SERIES OF ACTIONS, He changes EVERYTHING!

I’m a few years older than my handsome baby brother, Jason Paul Balsamo. When we were kids, we went through a checkers fad. Since I was older, there was a period of time when I would whip him pretty bad. He might whip me today… but back then when I was eight and I was five… I would toy with him… setting him up for multi-jump moves! And just when he thought he was going to take me down… I would jump jump jump jump… and then jump jump jump jump… and take the WIN!

Just like a masterful checker player… God is a master strategist! Whenever it appears like he is making stupid moves… don’t be so quick to tell him that. Wait, watch, and TRUST. God plays the board the BEST it can be played… he sets us up for MULTI-JUMP scores and BREATHTAKING WINS!

It is in these moments of profound breakthrough, that we are able see just how SMART GOD IS! When he comes through… we taste his brilliance! Once our lives start multi-jumping to victory… we see the MASTERY in his wild and crazy methods! Don’t we?

1 Peter 5:6 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s MIGHTY HAND, that he may lift you up in DUE TIME.”

This is exactly what I am talking about! Life kicks us in the face… we run in to our bedroom and cry on our pillow… and God WATCHES! He feels our pain… he’s moved with compassion… he places his MIGHTY HAND on our head… and in DUE TIME, we jump jump jump jump… and jump jump jump jump… and we move from the bottom STRAIGHT TO THE TOP in an INSTANT!

John “Hannibal” Smith… from one of my favorite tv shows of all time, The A-Team… he’s remembered for saying, “I love it when a plan comes together!” Me too Hannibal!

That’s my blog for today… I pray it adds tremendous value to your amazing lives! Have a most outstanding day everyone!

Happy Saturday!

Last night, Emily and I went to the family night for our very dear old friend, Mary Hamilton.

I was “Touched By An Angel!” Gosh, I would give anything to have ONE MORE conversation with my VERY dear friend Mary Hamilton!

As you can imagine the disappointments that come with being in full time ministry… every MINISTER needs a person like Mary to COME AND BREATHE LIFE over their dry bones from time to time!

For several years… after EVERY service, Mary would walk up to the alter and WRAP HER ARMS AROUND ME! She would preach my message back to me… and tell me I was the most special person in the universe!

I remember on one very discouraging day, Mary came to me with the speech of her lifetime (at least as her lifetime intersected with mine). With a heart filled with love and passion, Mary said to me, “I can see the discouragement in your eyes Pastor Chuck… you shake that, man of God, because this earth is not good enough for you… you hear me! (Hebrews 11:38) Don’t you let anyone reduce your value! You were born to write history… and NOTHING will stop you from doing that!”

Mary’s hugs and smiles… and the way she would hold my hands for 15 minutes at a time… oh God, how will I survive the days to come without Mary Hamilton?

Even though Mary had moved on to other ASSIGNMENTS throughout the years, she was back at Destiny Family Center a few months ago… and just as surely as the sun rises… she walked up front after my message… and she grabbed my hands… and she asked me to look into her eyes… and she said, “I love you Pastor Chuck! You know Sister Mary loves ya! Don’t you ever forget what I told you years ago! You were born to write history, man of God… don’t you let ANYONE reduce your value! Shake it off… don’t get down in the mud with people who are going nowhere… keep your eyes on the prize… keep running… don’t you EVER look back… I see you in the future and it makes me LAUGH WITH JOY!”

Oh God, I will miss that amazing woman! I don’t believe I have EVER known another person to IMPACT so many lives as MARY did without a pulpit! Every minister on earth should be so PRIVILEGED to have a LEGACY like hers!

Last night at the family night, they opened up a microphone for comments… I was too MOVED by everyone else’s comments to say anything… I was speechless and dammed up with many tears… as I sat on HOLY GROUND in the presence of a HOLY WOMAN!

If I could have talked, I would have mentioned how MOVED I AM to be a better person as I consider the life of Mary Hamilton! I would mention that I NEVER saw her frown… not ONE time. I would mention that she was the greatest ENCOURAGER… always joyful, always ENTHUSIASTIC about EVERY sermon (even the stinkers), always standning in a posture of FAITH, always living out the words of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8…

“LOVE is patient, LOVE is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. LOVE does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. LOVE never fails…”

I pray for God to make me more like Mary. I pray for her amazing children and grandchildren… that they too would follow in Mary’s footsteps… there is no better path! I also pray for Pastor Jeff Ferguson as he ministers the funeral today… 2pm at First Assembly of God- Harrisonburg VA. Pastor Jeff is speaking from this very same theme, “Touched By An Angel”… what a celebration of LIFE this shall be!

If you guys get a chance… head over to the Kyger Funeral Home website and BE INSPIRED with the comments written about Mary Hamilton! Have a most outstanding Saturday… and don’t forget church tomorrow… Destiny Family Center meets at 10am… 7 year anniversary picnic following the celebration service!