Happy Monday!

A few unedited clips from Chapter 17 of my coming book. Each clip is taken from various sections of the chapter. Hopefully they will merge to form a complete thought and inspire you to break the chains!

Make Me A Legend

Chapter 17 Untame Yourself

Just like ancient Israel, we have become less and less responsive to the moral and spiritual deterioration in our nation and world. For more than 50 years, we have hidden behind the timid banner of passive resistance—and instead of influencing our government, and educational system, and economy, and entertainment industry, and all the other national arenas—instead of fighting hard to save our cities, instead of holding up a flag of enduring standard, instead of facing a little persecution along the way—we’ve forfeited our influence to louder evil voices!

We’ve abandoned our cities—run away from politics—fled from the blistering battlefront of every godless agenda! Our cities have been taken over and so goes the city, inevitably—same goes the country! There is nowhere else for the godly people in our land to move. We’ve been running scared to the remotest country places, and this seemed to be working out for a while. Until today, we find ourselves cornered with nowhere else to run!

Please don’t label me an America basher—and please, please don’t call me as a gloom and doomer. That would really hurt my feelings! (smiling) I’ve tried so hard to write the greatest message of HOPE you’ve read in a very long time! I love my country, and I know we can be so much better than we have become in recent years. That’s why I’m writing so passionately right now! That’s why I have to say some of these difficult things with so much unrestrained courage. How are we ever going to build tomorrows better world—how are we ever going to be the legends of tomorrows better world, unless we take a few more big gulps and face the reality of where we are right now?

This country and has become a modern Sodom and Gomorrah—and you and I have become the “Lot” figures in our beloved land—tormented in our righteous souls, wondering how much longer we have! We have been tolerating a gigantic deviation from the standards of our faith, and through repeated exposure, we have become less responsive—until in recent years, we have been unresponsive! The moral and spiritual voices in America were first lulled into complacency, and then beaten into submission—until the entire nation is breaking apart from harshness, severity, and cruelty.

…

This is our nation—this is our world. Our youngest generations have never seen a better way. They are born into the earth during a time of unprecedented Christian repression; oblivious to the fact that this is not how their forefathers wanted things to turn out. They hear us talk of yesterday’s awakenings like we’ve crafted the fairy tale of something that can never really be. Today’s kids can hardly understand why it is not natural for a man to marry another man. Or what is wrong with sex before marriage. Or what’s the big deal with using drugs and still claiming a heartfelt relationship with God. They live in a world without boundaries, a world lacking a moral compass and a spiritual conviction—a world when self is god, and anything that feels right is perfect.

Up until now, you and I have reasoned: that to rise would be far too costly. So we’ve chained our passions and toned our standards down—we’ve silenced the John the Baptist voices among us. We’ve chosen rather, to coexist in unevangelistic compromise with Islam and the other false religions of our era. If Jesus had lived like this generation, he would have never been nailed to a cross.

Political correctness is killing us! Cowardice has neutralized our creativity! Our message is no longer a message. Unlike Jesus, we want our world to like us, enjoy us, approve us, and celebrate us. We’re cowering in the face of so many disgusting liberal agendas. We’re tolerating the gross immoralities of our day, increasingly agitated in our righteous souls as we switch through the channels on our televisions and move about in public places—somehow, we just know that tomorrows better world is a very real possibility, but we just don’t see how—because we have become the only sect in today’s culture without a voice!

…

While the entire nation of Israel was breaking apart from harshness, severity, and cruelty—under the tyranny of a demonic Pharaoh, Moses suffered under another less obvious form of slavery. God’s mightiest would be prophet of all time was growing up the royal palace, where he slurped up his days in untold pleasures—a wild prophetic animal by birth—tamed and fattened on the beguiling delicacies of his royal upraising. A prophet, not yet aware of his destiny—chained up tight, in the warm embrace of a very wrong default alliance. And it would have been so personally beneficial for Moses to cover his ears to the crying slaves. Some historians even assume that Moses was the likely candidate for the next Pharaoh in his stepfather’s legacy. How would he ever walk away from this?

Just like Moses, today’s prophets have also been thoroughly domesticated! The Christian church of this modern world has forfeited her instinctive prophetic nature. We preach what this world tells us to preach. We give them the message we think they want to hear instead of the message we know they need to hear. We do everything just as this world tells us to do it. And if were good little doggies, they will fill our bowls with water and throw us a nice little treat every once in a while. We’ve swallowed down the pill of political correctness.

Today’s Christian will do almost anything for secular approval. We’ve become well groomed and soft skinned. We’ve lost the edge that founded and fueled our movement throughout history. We’re just like that infamous movie boxer, Rocky Balboa—we’ve lost that “eye of the tiger” and we’re fighting scared! This godless world owns us right now. We’ve been chained up for so many years—we no longer bark.

Here is the perfect song for this moment! Jason Upton, Feedom

That’s all for today… please let me know what you think. As with every morning, I just finished praying for you! Make this 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!

Here’s a large EDITED clip from Make Me A Legend, chapter 6: Hurry Up And Find Rock Bottom. We still have a final edit to go, so be kind! I’m listing the other subtitles for this chapter, so you can get a feel for the flow. I hope you love it!

My Crazy Little Theory

The Struggle is Part Of The Trap

Hovering Over Rock Bottom In The Pig 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? Aren’t we out of our minds for making Him our last resort? Why are we like this?

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. We want God to leave us alone so we can live as we see best, without having 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 man.” (Luke 15:11-19 NLT 1996, Emphasis added.)

Can you see why this message was, and still is, such a big hit for Jesus? Millions of people, who have never heard about Jesus, have still heard His story of the Prodigal Son. I think it’s so popular because every one of us 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 run into 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 30 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 very long time ago, their dignity is shredded; 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 so happen so many times to so many people. Nobody ever plans a trip to rock bottom. Everyone gets there trying to go somewhere else.

The Worse Thing About Deception

I remember not too long ago, I was praying and even crying about several of the off course people scattered throughout my wide circle of acquaintances. Just as I once lived prior to 1991, these people had thrown up a five second thought about God and then they went on living dangerously with their fingers crossed! They didn’t know it yet, but they were racing straight into Hell without any doubt over their chosen course of direction. They needed to be rescued–and I really wanted to rescue them!

During this time, I was meditating almost daily on 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” (NLT) (Emphasis added.)

Look at the key phrases from that verse: blinded the minds, unable to see, and don’t understand. Isn’t it scary to admit how often we’ve confidently devised idiotic plans, only to find out later how far we were off? Over and over again, we drive ourselves to dead ends because we’re too prideful to stop and ask for directions. Even worse is the frustration of trusting an inaccurate source of information-the wrongness of being hoodwinked! At first glance, the wrong path usually feels perfectly natural. After all, everyone’s doing it, right? But how can we know for sure that everyone’s going in the right direction?

This prodigal son Jesus talked about was also confident in his plan! There was no doubt about it; he just knew his life could be so much better if he didn’t have to suffocate under his father’s rules. He felt that his father was somehow holding him back from the better things in life, that if he could just break his father’s restricting grip, he would be a free man with limitless opportunities!

That is when the journey to destruction begins: an unpatrolled false impression grows into a faulty belief that inevitably steers us in fatal directions. We become stubbornly emboldened in our feeble stances and we refuse to talk about options because we’re 100% convinced that we are right. (Blind minds, unable to see, and don’t understand.) The worst thing about deception is not knowing when you are deceived.

“There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” Proverbs 14:12 NLT, Emphasis added.) The Contemporary English Versions says it like this, “You may think you are on the right road and still end up dead.” (Emphasis added)

Thresholds Of Pain

Where Is God When We Need Him?

The Turning Point

Humpty Dumpty

Writing Your Happily Ever After

That’s it for today… I just finished praying for you all! Have a most triumphant day!

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!

Had a board of directors meeting last night… love those guys! We’re all so happy with the continued forward momentum of our lives and ministry… every week, this becomes more and more apparent! We are growing like crazy right now, the stories of transformation are almost too many for us to hear them all! And this is just the beginning…

Spring is coming soon… I can SMELL it in the air! The birds are starting to chirp in the mornings! Our koi fish are up from their wintery abyss… before long our FROGS will RIBBITING from their rocks again!

Soon, I’ll write a few SPRING blogs… about LEVERAGING the ENEGRY OF THIS SEASON to BREAKTHROUGH in different areas of your lives. I’m not quite feeling it all the way yet… but it’s building up!

Here’s a clip from Make Me a Legend chapter 15: Bow Lower as You Climb Higher! (unedited) I’m about 9 pages from finishing the entire book… having to climb over a million demons to write these final pages! From the resistance, it’s very obvious: I’m sitting on the next shot heard around the world! And that makes me tingly!

sometimes, I fear success…

Even though this is not the final chapter in our great journey together, it is the chapter I’ve chosen to write last. I saved it for last, because I felt like God needed to do so much more in my heart before I could say this like it needs to be said. I never want to be a hypocrite on purpose, or in ignorance… so I have to be honest with you, my dear readers: I’m still working so hard to walk out so many of the things I’m writing about in this chapter! Please pray for me, that I will become everything I’m asking you to be. Just like you, I want to be so much more like Jesus… and sometimes I still fall way short of that.

I think often, of all the men and women who once stood where I am standing at this moment… all the beautiful Christian people who started out with a similar degree of humility towards others… and a perfect dependence on God. I think of all the men who once loved their wives, and cherished their families, and desired nothing in life except to run a faithful race. I think about how many times they must have prayed, “Please God, don’t let anything in this whole world ever drag me away from you. Please, don’t let me ever forget where I came from. God please, don’t let me fall down and make a fool of you in front of everyone!” And then, after five or ten years of being worn down and worked over, they wake up to an entirely different eviler version of themselves. In total perplexity, they have to wonder, “What happened to my heart? Oh dear God, how I’ve lost myself!” This is why I fear success, sometimes!

the angry mobs

Every time another high profile leader collapses, I pray so hard for God to bend down in mercy to help them up! I get outraged with all of the merciless people in our world, who so arrogantly sidestep their own failures… to expose a broken person! And while many of the newscasters, talk show hosts, and self righteous church folks mock them for months, I fall down on my face in real tears for these humiliated people, and their suffering families!

I never join with the angry mobs… never ever point my arrogant finger in judgment! I never want to be the person who knocks a strong man down, or kicks a knocked down man. Instead, when a mighty person falls, I shake all over with the fear of God! I always spend those horrifying moments digging far into the depths of my own heart. I keep telling myself, “Chuck, you have no idea what kind of pressure that leader 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… because you have never known that colossal degree of internal erosion… the kind of pressure that person has faced these past so many years. Someday, soon enough, you’re gonna have your shot! Someday, you will stand on their mountain! And in that day, you will see how much more violently, the wind blows up there! So, don’t brag because you’re doing so well these days. You’re only facing a few diaper demons, and look at how easily they still slap you around at times!”

Remember what God said to 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?” I guess this is why we need to read and re-read chapters 9 & 10-and dedicate plenty of years to our extravagant foundation. This is why we need to grow slowly! We have to master the footmen before graduating up to the horses! We have to crawl at each next level on our knees, knowing that it’s violent up there… and if we do not graduate in humility, if we do not graduate with a bigger faith… if we don’t learn to trust in God in a much bigger way, then we will be crushed with what lies ahead.

Even with a perfect foundation, even if we should memorize all the great principles gushing from the pages of this book, even with a sold out stadium of frenzied fans and all the best mentors, peers, and apprentices… even then, we must dedicate especially to the preservation of our lowly hearts… because, if we ever lose our heart, we lose everything!

what if I fall?

Sometimes, I think that my dreams may actually happen, and in a single day… I will rocket into the public eye as the next high profile Christian leader! The thought of bringing hope to millions and leading so many of them to my savior… it’s too wonderful for words! And then I think about how fast money, and fame, and the exaggerated praise of fellow humans could get so out of control.

What if I can’t handle success? What if I can’t assemble the correct team for properly managing the millions of dollars laid at our disposal? What if I can’t handle the seductiveness of those celebrity crazed women who prey on powerful men? What if I become arrogant, impatient, and mean spirited? What if I burn out and lose my willingness to sacrifice? I would rather turn back now, than to gain this whole world and lose my soul!

so much to risk

1Timothy 1:15-16 “This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”-and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life!”

God has done so much for me. Right now, I’m still so obsessed about him! When I pray, several times each day, I still pray like I did when he first saved me! I still cry during a good worship song, and I’m not ashamed to bow on my knees in front of any audience! I feel like my heart is in the right place. Even though there is still so much more I want to change about myself, I love the person I have become! Please, don’t mistake my gratitude for conceit. I am a very thankful man… and I never want to forget how I feel right now!

God has given me the very best wife in the entire world. We’ve been married for 20 years this summer. Emily is my best friend! I can’t even describe to you guys how much I love her! And my kids, dear God I love them too… and now, while they are young adults; I think they still look up to me! God has given me so many loyal friends… and every one of them knows how much they mean to me! God has given me a Christ like compassion for all the destitute people in my world… I actually cry real tears when I walk up on a suffering person… it eats me alive! Anyone that really knows me… they will tell you that as of today, there is nothing more important than preserving the condition of my heart! There is nothing more important to me than my relationship with God, my witness of him to this world… and the way I love my wife and kids!

saving my future–and yours

Of all the chapters in this book, this is the one I’m sending ahead of us… to save our future! It’s the chapter I plan to read every year for the rest of my life! I can’t explain to you how much of a pressing obligation I feel about hurrying to write this! I don’t even want to walk out of my office one more time… I don’t want to lay my head down one more night, before this message is penned! It’s the message I’m afraid I may forget as I succeed… the one I’m writing before my heart has a chance to harden!

I always want to be the beautiful person I am today. I don’t want success to corrupt me. I always want to value the message I am above the messages I preach. I want the open book I’m living each day, to be far greater than any of the books I write. When I talk about fearing success… I’m protesting the very real threat of me being a better person today, than I may be five years from now! Does this make sense?

So many people stop being great once they succeed! They forfeit the inner beauty that caused their rise to prominence. I think this is why so many people are going to love my book. Because it’s written from this regular guy, while he’s still depending on God for his next breath… a guy who’s living wholly in the arms grace. People identify with this!

The chapter is all about PRESERVING your HEART! I’d love to know how you feel about this clip… so leave a few comments (if you can) and have another most triumphant day! Love you all…

Dream Big, Live Bold, and Make the Difference!