I’m in my office, drinking some H2O, hydrating my vocal cords for todays church @ Destiny Family Center! Stoked as usual… getting ready to crank some really good new worship music and leap around my office thanking God for this beautiful day! Gonna pray for all my Destiny peeps! (gansta) lol
Today, I’m doing a panel discussion… picking 5 people out of the congregation to discuss the PRACTICAL side of my current message series!
Then, I’m going to ILLUSTRATE living and thriving by FAITH (vs.) existing and toiling through physical and emotional energy!
It’s going to be poWERFUL! Hope to see you here… 10am! Watch it live if you can’t be here in person! Donate if you want to! (smile)
Good morning, it’s 4am EST… yawn, yawn (even for mr early bird here)! I have to get ready for todays Washington DC Homeless Outreach… therefore, todays blog is just an announcement.
You guys can follow the outreach on my twitter and facebook. I’ll try to post photos and maybe a video from my iphone!
Don’t forget about tomorrows 10am church service at Destiny Family Center! If you’re nearby, I hope you make it!
Hey, this is a great opportunity for catching up on missed episodes! Here at chuckbalsamo.com, there are 460 blogs and a great abundance of video content! Please leave a comment! Have a most triumphant day!! God bless you all…
What a schedule I have today! Really, this could be the busiest day, and then the busiest weekend of my life… the busiest of 2010 FO SHO! I woke feeling very stressed this morning… hmmmm, I better pray until this emotional slump recedes…
Did I tell you guys, tomorrow is our annual Washington DC Feed the Homeless Outreach? We’ve done this EVERY YEAR for something like the past 17 years… one of my favorite things to do in this life! Here’s a photo of some of the packages we’re taking on the tomorrows outreach!
gerald & phyllis mayhan
I thank God for Evangelists Gerald & Phyllis Mayhan… that they keep on leading our teams every year. There is not another man in all the earth more adequately equipped for such an outreach!
Gerald was a point man in Vietnam, two purple hearts… lived 18 years addicted to heroin and cocaine, living on the streets of Washington DC… and his wife waited for him and PRAYED for him until GOD reached down and pulled Gerald out of the lowest gutter.
Gerald is one of my very best friends and the greatest evangelist I have EVER MET! Check out his ministry website when you get a chance!
If you would like to make a donation to Gerald Mayhan’s Ministry, you can give today, here on this website by clicking the donate button… and we will bring Gerald a check tomorrow! There is no greater cause I can think of!
inspirational stories from last year!
Here’s a clip from last years homeless outreach blog… you can check out the entire blog and all the comments with photos by following this link: From the Streets of Washington DC
This year (2009), even more than previous years… I really experienced the enormity of what took place! There are so many hurting, lonely people in our earth. And while so many well to do humans point the finger down at these bleeding ones, God compels us to come to their aid!
God cares about each one of them… not desiring to lecture them about the series of wrong turns they made that led them down into the gutter… He possesses us with his compassion and sends us to kneel down beside them… He gives us a message to speak… He asks us to read them a love letter… And we go with his love and his tears. He embraces them with MY ARMS… and I can feel HIM IN ME making his appeal through MY HEART.
This year, we took a team of 35+ into the frigid streets of our nation’s capitol. All day long, we gave HOPE to the HOPELESS. Even more than the message we gave them was the message we asked them to tell us. We gave them our ears… we listened to them like they mattered… and they FELT OUR LOVE FOR THEM! Their tears and ours flowed like rivers all day long.
One man, “Alfrado”, explained how he came to America from Elsalvador… it took him 3 months to get here, dreaming that this would be a place of new life for him. And there he was sleeping on park benches and eating food from the trash containers. Alfrado said that some nights, it’s so cold he is scared to fall asleep… that he may freeze to death and not wake up.
Another lady, “Pricilla”, said that she just got released from prison a year ago after being stabbed in her spine during a prison brawl. She grabbed me and made a puddle on my shoulder as she wept about how scary it is living on the streets at night! She talked about being raped and beaten over and over… and told me that she is not built for this kind of life!
Then there was “HANK”… the happiest homeless man on the face of the earth. We all left Hank wondering if we had met an angel! Just like Hank, so many of these destitute men and women gave us back so much more that we gave to them!
Throughout this day, we distributed hundreds of sandwiches, care packages, sweaters, sweatshirts, blankets, and everything else we could get into their hands. More than these… we gave them Jesus… and they took him happily into their hearts!
Every single person on our team stepped out with a fearless kind of faith… they shared their personal life stories, prayed like seasoned ministers, and gave LOVE as if God himself was right there in physical manifestation!
Please pray for this same level of success at tomorrows outreach! That it’ll be like Jesus himself is walking through the blistery winter streets of Washington DC. God bless you all with a most triumphant Friday… thanks for being here… please leave a comment and help us expand this tribe in every creative way you can dream up! Love you all…
A great week, horrible Friday… gonna be a super weekend! I wrote more than 20 pages in my book since Monday, while leading DFC and having a very productive week in my office. It was almost the perfect week until yesterday.
Too much to mention… had a terrible Friday morning (please don’t make me remember)… prayed through that, and by 10am I was back in the game, back on the mountains pinnacle!
Later, Heaven wrecked our suburban into a new toyota in the subway parking lot. Everyone was fine, but plenty of vehicle damage and insurance claims! We handled that very well… had another very productive hour, went to go home and my vehicle would not start. Maybe the battery… it’s still sitting outside my office. Should I whine anymore? lol
I’m happy to report, that Fridays freakish events did not steal my JOY!
You know why? I went to THIS blog site and re-watched yesterdays video!!! Really, I was SHOCKED at how much that video LIFTED me right back up! It was like I had recorded that video blog for MYSELF, and then sent it into my future with the power to save a day!
And how glad I am for blogging EARLY yesterday morning, before the storm hit!
Today is Emily’s birthday… HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!! So I’m going to sign off early and go cook her a breakfast in bed! Then we both work till 5pm… and who knows what for the birthday girls evening!
I hope your Saturday is amazing… tomorrow is church, after three weeks of not seeing some of my church friends! I’ve never been this excited about going to church before!
I can’t do video this morning, because I’m not going to able to shower before the birthday breakfast… and you DONT want to see little Chuckys MORNING FRO!
Since this has been my very first week of video blogging and it’s a bit of a historical moment for us… I’m reposting each of the videos, from the earliest to the most recent. Maybe you missed one… or you need to do what I did yesterday! God bless you all… SEE YOU TOMORROW!
Looks like the party’s over for Heaven and me! (lol) The other half of our family is coming home today… just in time for the next big snow storm! Yaye, I ‘ve really missed them!
Just a little more laundry to do… and I have to dust, and vacuum, and clean the bathrooms, and take out the trash, and clean the refrigerator, and fluff the couch pillows, and wash the bed sheets, and make the bed, and put a few chocolates on the pillows, and clean up the mess Lucy made when she CHEWED her way out of the bathroom yesterday (grrr Lucy, no water for you today… ha ha haaaaa!)… and then I’ll be ready for the big reunion!
The weather man says we will be getting between 12 and 20 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday. I’m trying to figure out how we can still have church @ Destiny Family Center this Sunday! If snow plow man gets everything cleared off, maybe we can pull something off!
the Super Bowl party
And I really want to have the annual DFC super bowl party! This year I will be rooting HARD for the Indianapolis Colts. Who would have EVER imagined this… being that I’ve been a die hard New England Patriots fan since 1984!
No offense to all of my New Orleans Saints friends, I’ve just had a very bad experience with a few Louisianian’s this past year, and it left a raunchy taste in my mouth. lol
my book: Make me a Legend
This has been a profound week of writing for me! Right now, I am 100% finished with 13 chapters and about 30% finished with my final 3 chapters… right on schedule for the March 15th deadline-for-completion goal!
Instead of mailing a pile of query letters and manuscripts all over the place, crossing my fingers for a publishing contract… I think I’m gonna drive to the Thomas Nelson Publishers headquarters and stalk Michael Hyatt until I’m able to make my pitch LIVE AND IN PERSON… with HIGH ENERGY and ENTHUSIASM… and a GREAT BIG CHEESE SMILE! Wish me well!! lol
Yesterday, I was reworking chapter 2: My Greatest Spiritual Fantasy. I had just wrapped up a very passionate summary of the first and second great awakenings and the great prayer awakening of 1857-1858… and I wrote:
from the brink of annihilation
Once again… in a dark moral and spiritual hour, everything changed in a day! Prayer meetings started up that spread all over the country. One million Americans came into the church during those two years. Another one million nominal churchgoers reclaimed their first love with Christ!
If we were to have an awakening like this today, it would translate into 20,000,000 Americans set ablaze for Christ in two years time! Churches that reported 121 members in 1858 had 1,400 members in 1860! The social and ethical affects of this awakening rippled forward for almost half a century! Can you image this kind of spiritual fire breaking out in today’s Christian church?
I could go on and on with such stories until tears are streaming down your faces for several hours or more! Revival-Principles to Change The World, by Winkie Pratney is the best book I’ve ever read on this subject! Get it and read it once a year for the next 20 years, just as I have! And watch what happens to your passion for such things!
Over and over again, in Biblical and secular history, God has been able to move society from the very brink of spiritual annihilation to the decades we now refer to as the Great Awakenings! Every time it seems like the world is too far-gone, like evil has taken our civilization… good rose to challenge evil one more time!
That’s it for this morning… gonna get back to CLEANING, then writing, then a few afternoon meetings, then evening prayer at DFC, then chill time with my loving family!! Have a most triumphant day everyone! Love you all!
As you may have noticed… our site was all the way down for the past 24 hours. Apparently, some freak hardware crises occurred with our hosting company in Canada. Sadly, it looks like we lost Saturdays post, and we were not able to post yesterday or today.
Everything should be fully restored throughout the day. I do plan to repost: 6 Messages From The Amazing Life of Royse Merle Wall. And I will resume daily blogging tomorrow morning.
We have 433 blogs in the archive… all waiting to INSPIRE YOU! Hope your day is great!
I’ve been up since 3:41am preparing the greatest funeral message ever spoken! This is not because I am the best funeral preacher to ever speak… it’s because todays HIGHLY INSPIRATIONAL message is based on a TRUE STORY… and EVERYBODY LOVES A GOOD TRUE STORY!
Check back this afternoon… I will be posting the entire message HERE, sometime after the service. Prepare to be INSPIRED!
Here is my father in laws favorite song one more time: Nothing But the Blood!
I’m not going to be able to write today… doing a funeral for some very kind folks back home and then driving back here to be with my family tonight.
Update on my father in law: Merle continues to baffle the doctors! The miraculous turn around which began two nights ago has continued to this moment. He ate his first meal in something like a week last night… then a full breakfast this morning. He and my mother in law had the best sleep they’ve had in a very long time!
As long as everything goes well today, Merle is coming home from the hospital tomorrow, where the family plans to take care of him. Don’t count merle out yet! This comeback is nothing short of miraculous! We’re all amazed… and thankful to have him another day!
Thank you again for the prayers and for all your messages of faith! I’m thanking God for you all today!
Seven days till Christmas! And guess what’s happening here in Stuarts Draft this weekend! The weather service is calling for 5-8 inches tonight and another 6-10 inches tomorrow! It’s going to be a winter wonderland everyone! Maybe we can build IGLOOS and whip out the DOG SLEDS! Definitely making snow ice cream and snow creatures… and definitely going sledding… and definitely having snow ball fights!
Oh, and HOT CHOCOLATE with a full INCH of marshmallows… YES!
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Sometimes LESS Really is So Much MORE: All You Need is Love!
My only sadness in all of this winter cheer is the fact that Emily has to work her second job today AND tomorrow… and nobody in ALL THE earth lives for snow days like Emily Elizabeth Wall Balsamo! Thanks to all the backstabbers who made this possible… may God also bless your wives with second and third jobs and give you empty Christmas trees this Christmas morning! lol haha! jkk
Sometimes LESS really is so much MORE!
Really, it’s been kind of fun suffering through this TEMPORARY moment of excruciating sacrifice. Especially just recently, when my daughter said to me, “You know Dad, I kind of appreciate what we’ve been going through… so much more than I thought I would! Really, this has been MY FAVORITE Christmas EVER… I’m having the time of my LIFE! It makes me appreciate the LITTLEST parts of Christmas that I don’t usually notice!”
Sometimes LESS really is so much MORE!
So true Heaven Ashlee Balsamo! This Christmas, I also appreciate all the littlest parts of Christmas that I don’t usually notice! Like the kind handwritten words on a heartfelt Christmas Card or the value of living in REAL PEACE with HAPPY and LOVING and LOYAL friends!
Sometimes LESS really is so much MORE!
Even though I feel the poorest I’ve ever felt in all my life… this has ALREADY been the best Christmas EVER! Our Christmas parties and church services have been too perfect for ANYONE to believe!
Sometimes LESS really is so much MORE!
Every year, we host Christmas parties @ our house for all the leaders of our ministry. This year, we’re having 3 parties with something like 35 leaders each. And after the first party last Tuesday night, I actually balled my eyes out over the LOVE we all shared!
Sometimes LESS really is so much MORE!
I think people WOULD PAY FOR THIS KIND OF LOVE! Dear God, you are overwhelming us with your love right now! This Christmas, we’re RICH with LOVE! I mean the people in my life today appreciate my LITTLEST gestures of kindness. I don’t feel the slightest need to perform great tricks in order to keep them INTERESTED. I’m not SCARED to stumble in front of these friends! They’re all so CHEERFUL and CREATIVE and PEACEFUL and MERCIFUL and HUMBLE and so PASSIONATELY IN LOVE WITH JESUS!
Sometimes LESS really is so much MORE!
I don’t know how much longer this will last. I hope and pray it lasts forever! All I know is that I will never forget the Christmas of 2009! I will never forget this PURE SAMPLE of HEAVEN we all tasted together! I will never forget what it felt like to live in a time when LOVES WIND BLEW like the very breath of God!
Start up a Fire of Love
Even though its 63 degrees in this Balsamo house most of time (emily conserving electricity)… there’s a fire of LOVE burning in our hearts for each other. I’ve never felt so close to my family… never! I feel my kids REACHING TO ME WITH THEIR LOVE and they FEEL MY LOVE FOR THEM! Emily’s love for me has never felt more GENUINE… and I have never been more IN LOVE with her! I cant wait to see my Dad and my brother Jason and my sister Helen and my Grandmother and all my aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces and cousins!
I’m so JOLLY RIGHT NOW! Lala lala laaaaaaaa!!!! For the very first time in many years, every single person in my entire circle LOVES me like crazy! And that is worth a MILLION DOLLARS!
Proverbs 15:16-17
Better a little with the fear of the LORD
than great wealth with turmoil.
Better a meal of vegetables where there is love
than a fattened calf with hatred.
Proverbs 17:1
Better a dry crust eaten in peace
than a house filled with feasting-and conflict.
Sometimes LESS really is so much MORE!
So this morning, I pray for all my blog friends… that you will be rich with love for every SECOND of these next seven days! I am praying LIKE CRAZY for you all right now! Feel the difference and share the difference all day long! Happy Friday, happy snow day, and happy seven days to Christmas! I sincerely love you all!
That’s daily consecutive blog # 399! Looked like a cool number so I posted it! Make sure you wish some kind person a Happy 399 before bed tonight! And when they ask WHY, introduce them to the CRAZY TRIBE!
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I Put on One of Those Happy Red & White Santa Hats! (hahahaaaaa!)
Went to Richmond yesterday with the fam. Had a VERY FUN time! Laughed so much, my chin cramped up! Haha! You ever had this happen? Maybe not a chin cramp, but one of those days when you laughed so much, you FELT LIKE YOU WERE JUMPED by a CHRISTMAS ELF SPIRIT? lol
We are just 8 days away from Christmas morning ladies and gentlemen!! (moving in for a face to face stare down!)
There’s no more time for any of your Grinchy, Scroogey shenanigans! This must be the day! (hyper grin!)
You’re gonna have to trust me (wink)… and act on my ludicrous suggestions! Oh, come on!! Turn off your NORMAL button for just EIGHT DAYS… and venture beyond the FENCE… to the far out fringes of ABSOLUTE CRAZINESS! (hyper grin again!)
TODAY, right now if you can… get in your car and drive to some HAPPY department store… one that sells those HAPPY RED and WHITE SANTA HATS… and BUY ONE FOR YOURSELF… and rip off the tag before you even get out of the store… and put it on that beautiful big fat head of yours! lol
And why am asking you to do this?
Because, yesterday morning as I was getting ready for the Richmond trip… I walked into my family room and THERE IT WAS! One of those HAPPY RED and WHITE SANTA HATS sitting in my family room WAITING TO CHANGE MY LIFE! lol
I had no idea what was going to happen when I put on that HAPPY RED and WHITE SANTA HAT! Really, I don’t know if it was the result of some kind persons very powerful prayer for me, or something special about that BEAUTIFUL HAPPY RED and WHITE SANTA HAT… or a combination of the two… or if my wife drugged me with a super sonic Elf potion!
I was HIGH ALL DAY LONG! And I’m still high this morning! It’s the craziest trip I’ve been on in a very long time… and I don’t want it to ever stop! My creativity is off the charts right now! I feel like I could almost invent the Cancer Vaccine if I concentrated long enough!!
So WHAT THE HECK are you waiting for? Go get that hat RIGHT NOW… and PUT IT ON YOUR HEAD, ALL MY FELLOW CHRISTMAS LOVERS!
Yes, Jesus is still the reason for the season… the greatest reason for the HIGHEST JOLLYNESS! So don’t give me any of that “grinchy religion”… if you resist me, I will PRAY FOR YOU… until the JOY of this HIGH HOLY SEASON breaks in like a flood of tickling fingers! lol
May this JOLLY blog make your heart GROW FIVE SIZES today! I love you all and I’m praying JOY on you RIGHT NOW! You wait!! Joy is coming today… hahahaaaaaa!
Please send me your stories… and to all the locals: bring your HAPPY RED and WHITE SANTA HATS with you to Destiny Family Center this Sunday!
Snow or shine… we are having a Christmas Revival this Sunday… start spreading the news, find someone with a four wheel drive and PLAN TO BE HERE!
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