Happy Friday!

Prayer meeting at DFC was very powerful last night. It feels like a new spiritual fire is sparking in our church. It’s always amazing to me how God lets His people live as close or far away from Him as we chose. Just like the church sign we’ve all read, “Feeling Far Away From God? Guess Who Moved?”

One time while I was praying out loud last night, I said to God, “We are keepers of the flame… and we are commanded to keep the fire burning at all times! Just like you commanded the Israelite priests saying, ‘And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.’” (Leviticus 6:12-13 NKJV)

And I continued, “God, you commanded Timothy through the Apostle Paul, ‘This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.’ (2 Timothy 1:6-7 NLT) And tonight, we must fan into flames, the spiritual gift You gave US… the spiritual gifts You gave to our church! We are keepers of the flame!”

I never want to live a nominal Christian life. I never want to slide off into complacency. As a keeper of the flame, it’s my responsibility to keep the fire on the alter burning all the time… and I must never let that fire go out. Not in my own life or in the lives of the people God has called me to lead!

In the Old Testament, the fire represented Gods Holy Spirit. Fire throughout the Bible, represents things like worship, sacrifice, passion, purity, and Gods living presence!

John Wesley, the great American Evangelist from the 1700′s and founder of the Methodist Church… he once said, “Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.”

It’s amazing to me, how fanatical we’re allowed to be about so many things… and yet, if we should catch on fire for God, we are shunned. I’m well aware of the spiritual deadness in our world… and still, I want to burn for God all the days of my life! I never want to let my fire dim for very long… not even for one day.

Where would you rate your spiritual fervor today?

• Mild
• Medium
• Hot
• Blazin’

Dream Big, Live Bold, and Make the Difference!

Chuck

The Donate Link, Facebook, Twitter, Make me a Legend, Destiny Family Center, You Tube

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Last night was so much fun @ Destiny Family Center! We finished the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership… powerful moment for everyone! God bless John Maxwell and his family. They’ve given so much to so many people around the world! God also bless all of the people who committed to this teaching group for the last 90 days. May this be their year of metamorphosis! Please answer the prayers of their heart, that you would do whatever it takes to turn each one of them into a level 5 core competent leader!

Tomorrow night, the Balsamo’s (that would be us) will be hosting 20 high school & college graduates and their families at our home! The celebration begins @ 8pm: we’re serving a delicious array of light hors d’oeuvre and desserts. We’ve been looking forward to this event for several weeks… and now it’s here! The weather is going to be beautiful, our patio is almost perfect… the fish, frogs and birds are all getting hyper about the company! Oh, and we have a very nice special gift for each of the graduates!

On Sunday @ Destiny Family Center, we’re doing two exciting things! One, we’re baptizing a pile of people at the end of our 10am service! Second, we’re having a birthday party for MUAH (me) at the Waynesboro park after church! Mix this with a phenomenal worship time and a transformational message… and what a day that will be! I’m looking forward to this weekend!

My Sunday Message: From the Favored Series: Leverage Your Influence!

Whether you know it or not, you are somebody’s hero! No matter how low you might feel right now, there is somebody out there worse off than you are. There is somebody in your circle of family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers who will do just about anything you suggest for them to do! You have influence! Somebody wants to be like you when they grow up! Did you know this? Now that you do know this, how are you planning to leverage that influence to lead in your realm.

Stop playing it safe. Stop ducking your opportunities to shine! Stop abdicating your throne!

Abdicate:To relinquish (power or responsibility) formally.

1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”

That’s it for now! Come Sunday for the rest of the message!

I just finished praying for you guys, wishing you all a most triumphant day! With much love…

Dream Big, Live Bold, and Make the Difference!

Chuck

The Donate Link, Facebook, Twitter, Make me a Legend, Destiny Family Center, You Tube

Happy Wednesday!

Thank you Jonathan Woodard for upgrading my blog site to the latest wordpress version. Over the next few weeks we’re going to upgrade our blog theme and add some new features! Isn’t this exciting? I think so too!

Yesterday, I explained the writers block we we’re experiencing with the edit of my book. I asked for prayer… and you guys must have prayed, because I feel 100% better today!

The breakthrough came yesterday late morning & afternoon… and I finally completed my work on the chapter 7 edit! Now on to the rest of the book. My goal is to finish through chapter 10 before leaving for vacation. Then I’ll finish two more chapters on vacation and wrap up the final five chapters by the third week of July! Then off to the publisher! And still reach my goal of a fall distribution! Please pray that we will achieve these goals and finally send this message around the earth!

Here’s something I worked on yesterday: It’s the opening segment from chapter 7: Earn Your Keep

Ever Heard About The Deadbeat Epidemic?

It’s a front-page story and it’s fast becoming a large-scale, countrywide crisis! Deadbeat dads, moms, and kids, deadbeat workers and bosses, deadbeat politicians, deadbeat Americans and Europeans—deadbeat people! Every one of us has a few friends with DB. Some of us may even have it ourselves and not know it yet. Hurry up, cover your mouth and disinfect your hands! Put on a yellow mask and a pair of rubber gloves. It’s spreading!

Certain mutant strains of this virus have already become resistant to all known forms of vaccination; nothing seems to effectively knock it out. Initial symptoms include: an exaggerated longing for rest, a lost desire for work, an inability to get off the couch, and a decreasing concern for the well being of one’s family, community, church, and country. This merciless malady doesn’t always trigger a premature fatality. Even worse, DB massacres ambition, rendering its victims useless! People infected with a full-blown case of DB face the ultimate danger of mutating into zombified carcasses of liability to our society!

As for me and my family, we would prefer to die a bloody death at the front lines of the hottest battles of our day, than to live in the false comforts of self-preservation! God forbid that any one of us should even slightly deviate from our dreams! God forbid that we should drag out our days knowing that our lives matter for no cause beyond our own survival. I cannot bear the thought of scrounging off of anyone else’s hard work for even a single day, without putting back something far more valuable in the days that follow. No, instead I pray in earnest that God will expend every last ounce of us Balsamos—that He will feed a hundred nations and many generations with the great quantity of plunder acquired at our calloused hands.

Naturally, there are times when we all need to live on the efforts of others—while recovering from a serious injury, just after the sudden loss of a job, or during some other category-five catastrophe. During these hard times, we should never feel guilty for accepting a few handouts. Instead we should thank God for the blessing of friends, families, and charities, and pay special attention to the way it feels to be loved by others. Then, right after recovery, we should emerge with newfound compassion to make a bigger and more lasting difference in our world!

Tonight, I’m teaching @ Destiny Family Center about the final two laws from John Maxwells book: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

• The Law of Explosive Growth!
• The Law of Legacy!

We start at 7pm, it’s gonna be FUN! Hope to see you here!

I just finished praying for you all… hoping you really feel the difference all day long! With much love…

Dream Big, Live Bold, and Make the Difference!

Chuck

The Donate Link, Facebook, Twitter, Make me a Legend, Destiny Family Center, You Tube

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

As you know, we’ve been editing Make Me A Legend for the past 5-6 weeks. I’m exhausted, Marcus is exhausted, Megan seems to be ok at the moment… this has been a very difficult process. It reminds me of so many other long and grueling tasks and situations we all face at various moments in time.

So, I thought to write on the subject of endurance today. Then I thought, why create something entirely new when I already wrote an amazing blog on this topic:

October 13, 2009: Push Through the Wall & Race to The Finish!

On that morning, I was suffering from exhaustion. I was overworked, my creativity was gone, and I couldn’t find joy in anything I was doing at that time. I also had a severe case of writers block. I felt as if I would never be able to type another word for the rest of my life. And then I wrote (with added revisions)…

This is how Emily and I felt around mile 17 at the Outer Banks Marathon! I remember one of us said to the other, “Oh God, we still have nine miles to go and we’re already spent!”

Ask any runner about preparing for the 26.2-mile marathon, and sooner or later you will hear about THE WALL!

The wall is a legendary thing. Usually encountered around mile 20, it’s the point where the flesh weakens, the spirit sags and the will drains away into a little puddle on the ground. Legs turn to melting Jell-O and breath comes in short, gasping gulps. In all of sports, there is probably nothing as feared, or misunderstood, as this inner barrier where the unprepared run out of steam and can go no further.

People face walls in many areas of life:

• Marriage: Staying faithful to one person for life> resisting the temptation to divorce during times of numbness.
• Education: Making it to a graduation and a degree> resisting the temptation to settle at a lower level than originally projected.
• Career: Handling the pressures of working with impossible people> resisting the temptation to bail in times of conflict, or neglect, or injustice, or initial failure.
• Church: Being able to stay where God plants us> resisting the temptation to church hop because of problems we’ve recognized.
• Spiritual: Sometimes, we even face walls in our relationship with God>  and we must resist the temptation to drop out of the race… the temptation to go back to that old miserable way of life we once longed to be delivered from.

Here is the great message behind the marathon wall: Just when you think you cannot go any farther, you most certainly can!

The key to blasting through a wall is to keep moving forward! Whatever you do, don’t quit here! You’ve come way too far to drop out now. Don’t ever stop moving forward in life! Don’t ever quit on a good mission!

Todays blog is a message about endurance! It’s an admonition to remain faithful in the long races of life! While so many others drop out over every little taste of complication, you can become one of the few people in your world to finish the races you start!

Recent statistics show that only one percent (1%) of the worlds population ever finish a marathon! Consider this the next time you feel like a failure just because you’re exhausted at mile seventeen. Marathons are not supposed to be easy. If they were, everybody would be doing them!

Most marathons have a reasonable time limit for completion, leaving plenty of time to push through the wall and race to the finish! Even though performance may lag for a few miles, successful finishes are the blessed reward of the faithful! I have found this also to be true in life! It’s never too late to get on with the race!

Happy Monday!

Dear Journal… I’m in my office this morning, praying for a wide range of people and situations. My main prayer is that God will give me great wisdom to make the right decisions on all matters pertinent to his kingdom… specifically in the areas where He has delegated His authority to me. I want my words and actions to come from a correct interpretation of Biblical truth and not just from my feelings… definitely not from my feelings dressed up as His Holy Spirit.

When I make moves… big moves and little moves… I want to make the right moves as often as possible.

Being a Pastor gives me tremendous responsibility. Today, I chose to take this responsibility more serious than ever before. I believe that God wants to raise up our church family, all church families, and all Christians… as bright lights shining in this gross dark world. God has always accomplished His purposes through many different kinds of people and methods. I cherish our diversity.

Change is always happening inside the church. We are a living organism. When new ideas are presented, we have to pray about them and take the necessary time to process everything through scripture. I’ve found that in every new idea (good and bad), there is an opportunity for the church to locate gaps and repair them.

Despite our many needs for renewal, I believe that God wants His children to hold the standard flag we’ve been handed down from our forefathers… and not give up any more ground that we’ve already given up. In an hour when more and more people are doing what they feel the Holy Spirit is leading them to do even when this violates foundational truth… I want God to protect me (and everyone I know) from dangerous fads.

Whenever I become fearful that evil might prevail in matters of eternal significance, I’ll keep on running to God for peace and answers. I pray that God will use every situation, good and bad, to show me what I ought to be doing. When I feel threatened, I will always use the pressure to search my motives and methods… and I will demonstrate great resolve or make great adjustments depending on which is necessary.

I want our church family to become more unified than we’ve ever been before. I pray for this community of believers, that we will value commitment and loyalty to Gods Word, to our beautiful vision and to this loving church family at any cost.

I want our church to evangelize lost people… more than we’ve ever done before. I want us to bring thousands of lost people into a living relationship with Jesus Christ. I want us to disciple these new followers of Christ much more effectively that we’ve ever been able to do this in the past.

For me, the end goal is not to fill up my church building or fund the church budget. My highest goal is to influence the truest followers of Jesus… so many of them, that we light up the earth with the beauty of our Lord.

I want to see Christ fully deliver the people in our world, from every destructive thing. I want us to be far more effective at helping enslaved people break from drugs and alcohol. I want us to be far more effective at helping people break from the control of perverted spirits. I want us to bring health and vitality to every marriage and household. I want us to rescue the prodigal people of our community and world.

To do these things, I don’t feel like I need to depart from the traditional concept of church. I still believe in the high value of church government. I still believe in the high value of theological accountability. I still believe in the high value of Pastors and local congregations. I love the Church! I bless the Church! I bless the Pastors and Church Leaders throughout the world! I pray earnestly, that this 21st Century Church will stay clear of dangerous fads with modern spins on early church history. I pray also, that this 21st Century Church will also evaluate our many flaws and have the courage to refocus and rededicate to the Great Commission… to every single part of it!

Today, lets pray for Gods Church throughout the world. Look around your local community. Think about the Pastors and church leaders you know personally. Think about all of the Christian people in your circle from various church families. Think about the struggling churches and thriving churches, the big churches and little churches… from every denomination and non-denomination. Pray for them! Pray earnestly for Gods blessing on their lives and missions! Pray that they will have new courage, new faith, new peace, new strategies, and new passion! Pray for a new commitment to biblical doctrine, evangelizing the lost, discipling new believers, and influencing the entire world for Christ! Pray for unity, pray for awakening, pray and believe for the Churches finest hour!

Thats it for today. I just finished praying… wishing you all a most triumphant day! With much love…

Dream Big, Live Bold, and Make the Difference!

Chuck

The Donate Link, Facebook, Twitter, Make me a Legend, Destiny Family Center, You Tube