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Mo[u]rning After The Super Bowl

Monday, February 6th, 2012 By 5 Comments

Happy Monday!

The mo[u]rning after the Super Bowl.

Yes, it is the morning after and I am mourning… with thousands of New England Patriot fans all over America today.

The bad thing about a game like that is the humiliation you feel when you think back to the moments when you cheered your head off, when you thought you might have a chance at winning… you gave your all as a fan, your excitement went absolutely out of control, and you RAVED… only to be muffled to SILENCE during the final minutes of a game that raised your hopes, and then dashed you to pieces in front of all your friends.

I’m thankful that football isn’t a god in my life… but it still messes up my head for a few days when my team (of almost 30 years) keeps doing this to me!

Oh well, “Shake it off Chuck!” Yesterday’s DFC Vision Twenty12 Presentation, the worship, the passion, the unprecedented excitement… the entire service from beginning to end… was far more triumphant, far more meaningful, far more over the top than a Super Bowl victory could have been.

-My self talk this mo[u]rning. :)

At last nights party, I actually won the Chili Contest!

The names were undisclosed, the competition was fierce, and my own son even voted for another chili. The win was a real win!

It was fun winning that contest with my Uncle Tuff’s Tri-Umphant Chili recipe.

If it was my own recipe, I would have wanted someone else to win.

But my Uncle was so special to me, and he passed away at 41 years old (just a few years ago), just when we were getting so much closer (after being divided for a very many years).

It was a tragedy that still hurts often… and making that chili reminded me of the night he had my whole family over to his house to try his surprise recipe. He was so proud that night, not too long before his sudden and unexpected death. He would have loved that super bowl party.

He was a San Diego Chargers fan… but he would have cheered with me and been sad with me about the loss. Making his chili, made me think about him a hundred times yesterday and last night… if he was still alive, he would be one of my best friends today, a person I talk to every day… about his life and mine. He was a pillar in my fortress of support.

No real message today, just these few journal entries.

Destiny Family Center’s Vision Twenty12 is officially airborne! Thank you everyone for sharing our enthusiasm and making radical commitments to do this with us! More to come in the days, months, and years ahead!

I just prayed for all of my family and friends, as with every morning, that God will bless you with health and life and whatever miracle you need today.

With much love,

Chuck

Filed Under: Journal & Message

This Is Your Turning Point!

Saturday, February 4th, 2012 By 4 Comments

Happy Saturday!

Every few days, I like to scroll through my book and pick out a few paragraphs that really speak to me. Here’s what speaks to me this morning…

Make Me A Legend 

Chapter 6: Hurry Up and Find Rock Bottom

Hovering Over Rock Bottom In The Pigs Pen

Isn’t it sad and ironic to think about how much God loves us, and how we spend so much of our lives running and hiding from Him? Why do we muscle through our days in human strength, only turning to God when we have nowhere else to turn? Why do we make Him our last resort? Why?

We live in a time when anyone claiming a close relationship with God is shunned as a “religious fanatic.” This modern world makes it seem as if the only people who actually use the Bible as their guiding light are the Jesus freaks. It’s like we’re telling God to leave us alone so we can live as we see best, without having a responsibility to some heavenly Father. Take a look at the beautiful story Jesus used for describing this insanity:

To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now, instead of waiting until you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money on wild living.

About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him to feed his pigs. The boy became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. [Tough love] …When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant”’” (Luke 15:11-19).

Can you see why this message was, and still is, such an important message from Jesus? Millions of people who have never heard about Jesus have heard His story of the Prodigal Son. I think it’s so popular because everyone has served time in the pig pen, haven’t we?

Of course, not everyone in the mud is perceptibly trudging around in some extreme state of human deprivation. There is a vast sea of prodigals who seem to have their lives together—living in nice homes, driving nice cars, and having nice careers—while the real truth is that they’re torn to pieces on the inside. No matter how successful we become in this world, nothing ever truly satisfies when our connection with the Father is broken.

Almost every day, I see people who are worn down with hard life in the pig pen. Some of them have spent so much time in the mire they’ve started to oink, grunt, and squeal at their own reflection. Their weather-beaten hides are bone dry and callus-covered—coarse, like sandpaper. They look thirty years older than they are. In a haze of misery, herds of these history-maker hopefuls drift into the wastelands with very little chance of return. They stopped liking themselves a long time ago; their dignity is shredded, and they feel like they have nothing and nobody to live for.

God forbid that you’re up to your neck in the slop right now, reduced to a fraction of the amazing person you once were or could be, gasping for your life under the unbearable consequences of a big series of wrong moves. I’ve seen this happen so many times to so many people. Nobody ever plans a trip to rock bottom. Everyone gets there while trying to go somewhere else.

The Turning Point

Once you’ve really been there, you will always remember rock bottom as the Eden of your re-creation! Even though right now you may be gasping for air, only a few seconds from flat lining your way into eternity, rock bottom is a wormhole in the core of hell that transports the dead back into the land of the living.

While rock bottom will always be the low mark of your life, it is so much more—rock bottom is the starting location for your next exciting journey. So no matter how bad things might be going in your life right now, go ahead and free your heart to hope again! This moment is the end of your life as it has been to this point, but it need not be the end of you. Change your perspective! Be optimistic about all the suffering you’re going through, for this can be the start of something wonderful—it can be all upward from here, if you just do the right thing at rock bottom.

In my own life, I’ve been shocked with how fast God can shift the momentum back in my favor. It’s nothing for God to work a 24-hour miracle! It doesn’t matter how far down you’ve fallen; if you’re serious about returning home, this is the moment when God steps in like a superhero to the rescue. He’s been waiting for this moment all your life, and here it is! Father is livid with your enemies! He’s been anticipating the rock-bottom prayers you’re now praying. He’s never forced Himself on you before today, but if you’ll open your heart, He’ll rush in like a gale-force wind! Open the doors and windows as wide as possible—let the fresh, spring air in! This is a new season in your life!

Swooping down out of nowhere, it would seem, with His bare hands He will tear apart everything that has been making you cry. Stop trembling in fear! You’re safe now. You’ve come under the omnipotent protection of God. Just reach out and take your Father’s hand. Be still for a moment and let Him have a look at you. God specializes in fixing broken people and shattered circumstances. God is the restorer of broken dreams and the giver of new ones! No broken person is broken beyond repair. Every person is fixable! Yes, God can fix you!

I’m listing to the following video and praying specially for all those who are nearing rock bottom… for the first time or the hundredth time. I’m praying for your miracle, for your sudden rise from the ashes, and for your happily ever after.

With so much love,

Chuck

Ps: click here to order your signed copy of Make Me A Legend!

Filed Under: The Book

Everyone Needs Mercy

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 By 8 Comments

Make Me A Legend

Chapter 15: Bow Lower As You Climb Higher

Beware, The Angry Mobs 

Every time a high-profile person collapses, I feel their pain like it is happening to my family and me. I am not one to churn out the jokes, or shove the strugglers down to hell. While the newscasters, talk show hosts, and self-righteous church folks mock and jeer and hiss and boo for months to years, I fall down on my face in intercession for these humiliated people and their suffering families. I pray for fallen people, no matter how hideously they have transgressed, oftentimes with a river of tears, that God will bend down in His great mercy and nurse them back to life. In what is thought to be the oldest book of the New Testament, James recorded:

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:12-13 NIV).

Merciless people outrage me, when they so arrogantly sidestep their own failures to “expose” a broken person. One self-righteous person gets a taste of blood, then another, and a few more—and in a matter of seconds, a mob is formed. It is one of my highest life goals: to never lead an angry mob or join one. I never want there to be any mistake about my position. I will never endorse a mob with my spineless neutrality. If you’re a bully, you’ll be no friend of mine.

I never want to point my finger in judgment when someone is failing. I never want to kick a knocked down person. If I can’t help, then I will pray. I will search the depths of my own heart. In the fear of God, I will keep on telling myself, Chuck, you have no idea what kind of pressure that person was under that led to such a failure. And Chuck, if you even think for a minute this could never happen to you, then think again; you have never known that degree of satanic solicitation, the kind of pressure and erosion that person has faced these past years. Someday, soon enough, you will have your shot. Someday, you will stand on their mountain. In that day, you will see how much more violently the wind blows up there. So, don’t brag because you are doing so well these days. You are just facing a few diaper demons, and look at how easily they still slap you around at times.

God told Jeremiah, “If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?” (Jer. 12:5). This is why I hope you will read and re-read Make Me a Legend Chapters 9 and 10 and build your extravagant foundation. This is why you need to grow slowly. You have to master the footmen before graduating to the horses. You have to crawl to each next level on your knees, knowing that it’s violent at the top. If you do not ascend in grace and humility, then you will be crushed with what lies ahead.

I remember so clearly what I was thinking when I wrote these paragraphs. I actually teared up several times, thinking about all of the broken people in our world who in their life’s darkest moments, were kicked down instead of helped up.

Let us decide today, that we will always show mercy. Let’s love the fallen, and be God’s agent of healing several times each week.

Look around, there are broken people in every direction. The modern world has become colder, far more heartless, and judgmental.

This just means that you and I are more needed than ever in our lifetime. We can save lives with God’s love. I’ve done it before, and I bet you have to. People need us to nurse them back to life.

Maybe, you’ve been kicked on the ground for a strand of big mistakes. God wants to bring you back to life. No matter what you’ve done, He wants to show you the depths of His mercy.

This Sunday, at our DFC Vision Twenty12/17 presentation, I will be revealing our 14 Core Values. Here is one of them:

Don’t forget where you came from, everyone needs MERCY.
-Reference: Luke 10:37

Your thoughts?

Here is a great video for this moment. Elevation Worship, All Things New

I just prayed for you, like I do every morning. Have a beautiful day.

With much love,

Chuck

Ps: click here to order your signed copy of Make Me A Legend!

Filed Under: Journal & Message, The Book

Everyone Starts Alone

Friday, January 20th, 2012 By 8 Comments

Happy Friday,

Today, I wanted to share with you a tremendous thought from my book…

Make Me A Legend

Chapter 11 :: Celebrate Your Progress

Becoming Your Own Best Fan

In the fourth chapter of Philippians, Paul wrote about his early years of ministry when only one fan church financially supported him. Paul (who was named Saul at the time) said:

As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I first brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this (Philippians 4:15).

Can you imagine, a man who influenced the world as much as Apostle Paul, started out with an empty stadium? He most certainly did. In the Book of Acts, we see how a man named Barnabas stuck his neck out to vouch for Saul—before anybody else trusted him. (Saul was Paul’s name, prior to his God encounter.) Barnabas, whose name means son of encouragement, was Saul’s first fan!

Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him. They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him, but Saul was told about their plot. So during the night, some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall. When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a believer! Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus (Acts 9:22-27).

Before the world loves you, it may loathe you for a decade or two. Before people understand you, they may misinterpret even your purest intentions. Some people may even devote the major portion of their lives to bringing you down, thinking they are doing a great service to God for shutting you up. Jesus spoke of this in John 16:2 when He said, “For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.”

I speak from experience when I tell you that the more deeply you care about these people, the more it will hurt. Dealing with this degree of rejection will shatter your heart to tiny pieces, sending you to bed many nights feeling worthless and alone.

As soon as you start to advertise your vision, most everyone will think you have lost your mind. Even if they don’t say it out loud, they may think it. Familiarity breeds contempt. Prophets are usually without honor in their hometowns (see Luke 4:24). Even some of your closest pals will not be able to wait out your long season of small beginnings. This is not brought up as a condemning verdict over your family and friends; it is just a universal glitch of humanity.

No matter how hard we try, most people have to see tangible success before they can cheer. Think about this on a personal level. I bet you didn’t select your favorite sports team during a ten-year slump. No, you purchased your season tickets during the build-up of a huge winning streak. Sometimes, one good year is all it takes to get us in the stands and keep us there for life; sometimes it’s not. Little by little, enduring teams inevitably recruit and retain more fans than they turn away and their stadiums get fuller and louder until there is not a single empty seat.

Anyone can succeed when all they have to do is show up and ride to glory on the dynamism of a sold-out stadium. Since it does take time to recruit frenzied fans, you will need to master the art of becoming your own best fan. This is where legends seem to have an edge over others. They can feel positively about what they are doing long before anyone else appreciates it. Legends look far beyond their early days of unpopularity to the time when they have blessed the earth and people have benefited from their generous bequest.

I titled this blog, “Everyone Starts Alone,” because it’s true. If you’re in the early phases of your development, or even well advanced in years and experience… and you cannot figure out why it’s taking so long to get the wrong people off the bus, the right people on the bus, and the right people on the bus in the right seats… just know that if you really want to make a lasting difference in the world, then you will walk alone sometimes… usually longer than you want to.

In those moments, draw near to God. He is near to the lonely and brokenhearted. He has promised to never leave you nor forsake you. He is near.

I just finished praying for you this morning.

With much love,

Chuck Balsamo

Ps: click here to order your signed copy of Make Me A Legend!

Filed Under: The Book

Get Up! Restart Your Faith! Live Again!

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 By 23 Comments

Happy Wednesday!

Everything Hinges On Faith

I remember a time when I never got sick. Others got sick all around me, but not me. I felt like I was indestructible, and in a way, I was indestructible. I trusted God with everything in my life: my provision, health, mental soundness, my peace, happiness, and potential. I saw my past through His eyes, lived in the present moment, anticipating the future He was creating for me (and creating me for). Whenever I read the Bible, I paid special attention to the promises of God. I believed that those promises were for me, just as much as they were for the people they were spoken through. I used to tell people, “I never get sick, because sickness cannot live on my body!”

Call it coincidence, but I know better. To believe is better than not to believe.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Therefore, hope is a (mental/spiritual) picture of things (our God intended future) not yet seen (with our physical eyes).

Without hope, faith has nothing to pursue.

Faith creates the substance of our hopes. Faith is God’s way of transferring miracles from the heavenly world to the physical world.

Call it mystical, but it’s true. Call me fanatical, or disillusioned, but I believe in miracles.

Faith Requires Corresponding Actions

I believe my faith worked so well back then, because I lived according to my beliefs. My actions usually matched my confession. I ate healthy, exercised daily, and stayed balanced… on purpose.

Over the past decade, I’ve drifted out of balance. I’ve grossly underestimated the deadliness of chaos. Still, I felt that I could simply pray harder that my shield of faith would hold up in such conditions.

Faith can move the biggest mountains, faith can heal the sickest people, faith is the substance of things hoped for. With faith anything is possible.

But faith without works (or corresponding actions) is dead (or worthless).

Therefore, all the faith in the universe is no substitute for a lack of corresponding action.

If we pray for health, we have to live and act like healthy people!

For example: It’s ludicrous to pray for an accident free life, while we exceed the speed limits, run red lights, and text while driving. It’s also ludicrous to pray for a cancer free life, while we smoke cigarettes each day. Do you get the picture?

Faith Can Be Choked & Killed

A few days ago, a friend asked me on Facebook how I was doing, because I had been very sick for the previous 7 days. Here was my reply to him…

It’s been like I’ve been asleep for 7 days. [I'm physically broken down.] The emotional battle has been just as numbing.

I think this was more than a bad flu, it was a pre-crash warning from God: to get control of my personal space, organize the chaos, delegate more effectively, say “no” to some things, and REBALANCE.

I mastered balance when I was in business, but so far, I haven’t been able to do that in ministry. I wake up every day like a mouse on a wheel, burning energy without the progress I’m capable of achieving.

Sure, I’ve made a difference, but nothing like the difference I can make if I can find take charge of my schedule… and unapologetically do what GOD is calling me to do with my life and ministry.

It’s not easy, because there are so many voices. Some of them loud, demanding, and intimidating!

Hopefully, this last week has brought me to a new reality about the shortness of life… and how fast it is moving forward… and how easy it is to miss the mark when we fail to take charge with our God-given authority.

Faith Is Restart-able

So many people start out in faith (at some point in their lives) and (through the relentlessness of time and tribulation) they end up pinned under the control of people and circumstances.

But, life doesn’t have to end this way.

Faith is restart-able!

It begins with a prayer,

“Dear God, I don’t know how I ended up here… broken down, bullied around with the trials of life. I’ve become bitter with people, even confused about You and why You would “let” these things happen to me. I’m sorry for becoming like this. Today, I want to restart my faith! I want to believe again, just like I did when I first believed. This is the first day of the rest of my life. Because I refuse to live as a victim of my circumstances any longer. The mountain’s before me are large and daunting. But there is nothing in this universe powerful enough to keep me out of Your will for my life. Nothing except my own inability to believe and keep on believing. Right now, I decide to believe AGAIN! Dear Heavenly Father, I commit again to serve you for the rest of my life… no matter what! When trouble comes my way, I will not fall over and play dead like I have been doing lately, but I will stand on your promises… I will calm the storms, move the mountains, walk on water, and fulfill my destiny! In Jesus name I pray, amen!”

Here is a great video for this message: NeedToBreathe, These Hard Times

Your thoughts?

I just finished praying for you, as I prayed for myself, my family, and my church.

With much love,

Chuck Balsamo

Filed Under: Journal & Message
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