5:00am Thursday, April 6, 2012

Dear Journal: God loved us before we loved Him. He loves us far more than we can ever love Him. At best, all we really give him is our weak affection. He is the magnetic force that keeps us in His hand. We give him ONE SECOND, and He gives us ETERNITY. This amazing God draws us to Himself and keeps us to Himself forever and ever with His furious love for us! I’m blown away with the thought of this.

To watch this video on the RSS feed, click this link.

Your thoughts?

I just prayed for you all. Have a beautiful day.

Make A Difference,

Chuck

Here is a comment from Steffanie (about yesterday’s blog)…

Chuck,

I was compelled to come “visit” your blog this a.m. I am in one of the MOST difficult seasons of my life. I know we have yet to meet (other than on Twitter and by association through my sister Kim E.) but you have been an encouragement and inspiration to my life and walk. (Imagine what your book might do for me!) This season of life is requiring a level of faithfulness, of which I failed many times, and endurance that is unparalleled.

You wrote: “Just when I feel like my most intense battles are behind me, I wander onto a battleground so fiery, it punches the life from my lungs.” This articulates clearly where I am – even though some of this battle I entered because of my own sinful choices and human frailty.

I could sit and write my own blog here (yes, I do actually have one) but I simply wanted to say “thank you”. Thank you for your authenticity, your compassion, your encouragement, and your unwavering faithfulness. Lord shine His face upon you… oh, wait… He does!

Here is my reply to Steffanie and my thoughts for each of you today…

Steffanie, You’re a natural writer! Wow, your words are moving. Even though you’re going through so much, you are still hanging on by a thread… and more than that, God is holding you up. He will never let you go.

Thank you for encouraging me. I wake up a few hours before the sun every morning, with TWO strong desires:

1. To love God with more and more of myself, because “He who is forgiven much, loves [God] MUCH”… and I have been forgiven much! It makes me truly and eternally grateful… oh how I love Him!
2. I want to make that once in a lifetime difference in someone else’s life. Whether it is on the social network, or on the phone or text, or it’s in person… or even through my prayers… I ask God to grant me this ONE wish (every day), to spend me up for the sake of helping others.

It’s sounds so honorable, but still, just like every other person, I’m only as good as the God who gives me these desires. When we say, to God be the glory… some people mean it more than others. I can’t say it enough, because I believe it to be true on the highest level. He is the LOVE that lights my heart and yours.

These are the two keys to (daily) peace and happiness! Don’t you agree?

Let’s do this more today than we did it yesterday! Let’s LOVE God and LOVE others (Matthew 22:37-40)… on a JESUS level. Let’s live like MOTHER TERESA and help the poor, the sick, and the unfortunate people in our world. There is always someone out there who has it worse than us. Let’s bring them light and hope today… and every day.

Your thoughts?

I must post this video again, because it’s changing my life this week.

To watch this video on the RSS feed, click this link.

I just prayed for all of you, called out many names and also prayed a blanket prayer over everyone in this tribe. I hope you feel the difference…

Dream Big,

Chuck

Note: Today’s image from Liz Hicks

Dear Journal: I’m thankful for all of the love I have in my life. Just starting to realize how truly rich I am.

Happy Wednesday!

All the ancient prophets promised us a great Prince. One by one, they stretched out their surrendered arms and pointed their daring fingers deep into their paled horizons to a day they described as “the fullness of time,” when God would come to us as a Prince. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, the prophets meticulously depicted how the mightiest One of all would kneel before us, and in one unsurpassable act of humility—with the greatest kiss of all time—He would bring us back to life!

Just as predicted, that moment opened like the blossoming of a rare flower. Every living thing from first creation to last infinity pulsed in chorus with that central act of Love! It was 2,000 years ago when the Prince made His move. He walked away from all the splendors of His highest Heaven. He braved His way down into the decrepit regions of this dying earth, cloaked Himself with perfect humility, and lived the necessary sinless life. The Prince suffered for His princess, paying her ransom—His life for hers. All by Himself, He absorbed the curse of her fallen nature. He gave a love without bounds—it transcended time. He is the Prince who rescued His princess and every (willing) hopeless person before Him, with Him, and after Him—with a first true love’s kiss!

-Make Me A Legend, Chapter 1, Beauty Is Sleeping

I’ve been thinking about God’s love this morning. So thankful that my heart opened to this love 21 years ago. Where would I be in this world without Him?

Your thoughts?

Dream Big,

Chuck Balsamo

PS: Get your (second edition) signed copy of Make Me A Legend!

Happy Friday!

Make Me A Legend, Chapter 3

People go crazy over championship contests. Extremely large hordes of obsessive followers stampede their way into the world’s largest venues every time a little guy demonstrates the guts to face a giant. We root loudly for the little guy. We worship the underdog who, against insurmountable odds, brings the giant down. The bigger the challenge, the more we are intrigued. Show us a plot set in epic impossibility, and we are all ears. We relate so well because real life is heaving with challenges—many of them far beyond any easy conquest.

Challenge is defined as “a stimulating task or problem,” “a calling to account or into question,” “an order to halt and prove identity.”ut a real challenge, we lack the opportunity to halt and outwardly exhibit our innermost greatness. Challenge pinpoints our very worst and stirs up our very best. I believe there is something legendary lying dormant inside of every person, and unless we are challenged, we will never know just how amazing we could have been.

Whatever fails to kill us makes us better and stronger. Adversity isn’t supposed to be the end of us; it is merely the backdrop of our defining moments. When we face challenges, our smoldering greatness has a chance to flash out for all to see. So guess what, my friend? Those excruciating challenges you’ve been protesting all this time are not going to kill you! In fact, they have been sent to showcase your greatness! Just hold on and you’ll see. Everything is really working out to your advantage, and after God gets finished turning the current hellish trial into your next big win, the devil will wish he had never laid eyes on you. If he had only known how you would come through this fiery furnace with a promotion, he would have never thrown you down into the flames! This is exactly what the apostle Paul was trying to say in the following verses:

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Now, let’s think about your life and mine for a moment.

How strange that we desire lives without challenge?

We want everything to always run smoothly, don’t we?

When bad things happen, we protest, “Life is not fair!”

But, in our most challenging circumstances, God is proving us…

Isn’t He?

Challenges are not supposed to kill us?

Challenges tell the world who we are, and what we have to offer!

Challenges reveal to us, inner strengths we never knew we had.

So…

Look at your current challenges from another angle.

Wipe off your tears, and smile even if it’s just a little smile.

Plan your comeback, defeat these odds… win this contest!

Because…

On the other side of this, there is a PROMOTION!

I’m praying for you this morning.

Here is the perfect video for today’s message, Elevation Worship: Give Me Faith

Dream Big,

Chuck Balsamo

PS: Update March 2012: We just received 5000 copies of Make Me A Legend second edition! 65% Improvements to the manuscript, it’s unbelievable. Order here.