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Quick 2 Listen/ Slow 2 Speak/ Slow 2 Become Angry :)

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 By 11 Comments

Good Morning Friends,

Guess what?? We’re going to be adding a few video clips from my recent teaching “30+ Thoughts on Effective Evangelism.” Look for these clips on this blog site over the next few days!

Today’s thought deals with the subject of self control and learning to ENTRUST our lives into the loving hands of God in all life’s circumstances. Too often, we take matters into our own hands and really make a mess of things! Maybe this blog will help… 

James 1:19-20 “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

Quick to listen… Slow to speak

  • Because things are not usually as they first appear… don’t speak from misinformation.
  • Listening is an act of respecting others… and a sure sign of wisdom.
  • Wise people use less words and last words.
  • Being the last person to speak positions you to be the most informed speaker.
  • When possible, always talk to God before responding to people.
  • When speaking in your own defense, don’t speak unless prompted by the Holy Spirit.
  • Even perfect words can be misinterpreted… many times; silence is more powerful than a mighty argument.
  • Silence gives God a chance to do the impossible.

Slow to become angry

  • Anger is a manifestation of fear.
  • Fear is an antonym for faith.
  • Anger is mans way of responding to adverse circumstances in his humanity.
  • Anger is not a God approved method for handling adverse circumstances.
  • Victory obtained through anger is not really a victory.
  • Anger manipulates people and circumstances… and never brings the kind of lasting victory God has for his children.

A person who is quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry… is a person who has learned to trust that God is bigger than people… and that life works out best when left in God’s hands. God loves, God is merciful, God is just… and God is ABLE to work ALL THINGS OUT FOR OUR GOOD AND HIS GLORY! 

Today’s blog is written from a lifetime of painful experience… it’s comes from the chronicles of this bloggers decades at the school of hard knocks! I pray it adds tremendous value to your amazing lives! We love you and we thank God for you… tootaloo!

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Keep Looking Up! :):):)

Thursday, March 26th, 2009 By 3 Comments

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you had a beautiful day yesterday. If not, keep your chin up and your THOUGHTS riveted on heavenly things.

Often times, whatever is happening in this earth takes up far too much of our attention. And on stormy weeks… no matter how much we look up, we just can’t see the SUN through the cloudy skies.

Colossians 3:1-3 “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about the things down here on earth. For you died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Six thoughts for today…

  • Think a whole lot about your NEW LIFE in Christ!
  • Set your SIGHTS on SPIRITUAL REALITIES!
  • Know that your savior sits in a place of HONOR and POWER!
  • Let heaven FILL YOUR THOUGHTS!
  • Don’t spend too much time analyzing things going on here in this physical world.
  • Don’t forget that you are a dead man walking… with nothing to guard and nothing to prove.

The SUN is always shining… and the God that started a good work in our lives will never stop working on us until that GOOD WORK is completed to perfection! Even though you may not be able to see through the cloudy skies with your physical eyes… and even though you will face times when every beautiful thing is absolutely BLOCKED from your gaze… God is ALWAYS THERE and he is ALWAYS WORKING!

Remember this: What’s happening IN you is FAR MORE SIGNIFICANT than what’s happening TO you. Many times, beautiful things come out of ugly places! 

I pray that today’s blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives! We love you and we are praying for you like crazy animals! Have a super duper day…

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Fear is Still No Factor For Me Baby! :)

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 By 2 Comments

Good Morning Friends!

Thanks for writing all your amazing stories yesterday! It was my pleasure reading YOUR blogs for the day! It amazes me how each of you took your opportunity to thank God for all he has done! As each story came up… I was FILLED WITH JOY at all the HAPPY CONTENT flowing out of your hearts! This says so much about the real condition of your hearts! When given the floor to write about whatever you wanted… you guys spent your moment telling the world how good God is! I thank God for friends like you! Thank you for adding great value to my amazing life!

I woke up this morning thinking about some of the LARGE tasks on my schedule… thinking about a few LARGE hurdles I will have to jump over in the not too distant future… thinking about all the unrealistic expectations of some of my peers… and how impossible it will be to hold everyone in the fold as I lead FORWARD from here. These thoughts haunted me for about 10 minutes, until I remembered the blog from Monday! Then I was like, “Wait a minute… I’m not going to fail… it’s all going to work out… I am just a human… God is with me and I am under a DIVINE assignment… I have special angels surrounding me right now… SO DON’T SLIDE BACK INTO FEAR CHUCK BALSAMO!”

At that, I rolled over and gave my wife a kiss on the nose, told her I loved her, and I parachuted CONFIDENTLY from my bed! (our bed is way up in the air like an eagles nest) I walked through my living room to my family room… the place I meet with God in the mornings these days! Wow… what a difference one message can make! What if I had not remembered that blog… what if I had continued to think those kinds of destructive and disempowering thoughts for another ten or twenty minutes? This could have become a disastrous day! But instead… it will end up recorded as a MOST TRIUMPHANT one! 

Here are a few verses to TURN UP YOUR CONFIDENCE TODAY!

  • Psalm 27:3 “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.”
  • Joshua 10:8 “The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”
  • Psalm 118:6 “The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
  • Isaiah 12:2 “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”
  • Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
  • Romans 8:31 “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

Did you wake up in fear this morning? Scared to face the obstacles in YOUR path today! Shake this off RIGHT NOW… be confident, and bold! Move forward as if you CANNOT FAIL… because if the Lord is with you, WHO can ever stand against you? Who or WHAT will ever be able to curse what God has already blessed? Walk with the Lord and TRUST him… and he will NEVER let you down!

I hope today’s blog adds great value to your amazing lives! I love you guys and I have already prayed that your day would be AMAZING! Chat later… don’t forget church at Destiny Family Center TONIGHT at 7pm!

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A Heightening of Two Emotional Sensations…

Sunday, March 1st, 2009 By 2 Comments

Walking on Water…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yX_uVQ9OKA&feature=PlayList&p=DC096646338B81CD&playnext=1&index=24

Good Sunday Morning Friends!

I pray you woke up with great hope for this day and for this current season of your lives! For me… I have way too many butterflies in my stomach… I’m not able to put this feeling into words. Is this what Peter must have felt in his heart as he climbed over the edge of the boat to walk on the water with Jesus?

And the further we walk away from the safety of the boat, the more we heighten two emotional sensations! On the one hand we feel so much EXCITEMENT and on the other we feel AFRAID of the UNKNOWN! If fear is not suppressed, its heaviness will cause us to be swallowed alive in the raging waves.

So if we wish to stay atop the stormy waters… if we want to keep on living that crazy amazing abundant life with our savior… if we want to finish as strong as we started… then we must uncage the EXCITEMENT! Let it fly! Let it tickle us into the wildest belly laugh ever! 

Stay in faith… keep walking forward… don’t look back, even for one second… you’re supposed to be right here… out on the waters with Jesus… one step of faith after another… going where no person has ever gone before… doing what no person has ever done before… unless FEAR brings you back to the boat!  

Even though this thought seems incomplete, I’m going to let it stand just like it is written. It’s a glimpse into Chuck Balsamo’s heart this morning… perhaps it will resonate with some of you!

Yes, we are having church today… Destiny Family Center 10am. If you can’t make it in person, watch it LIVE on the webcast! God bless you all!

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We’re Just Growing Up… That’s All!

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 By 10 Comments

Don’t forget the contest… deadline is THIS friday at 5pm!

growing-tallHappy Tuesday Everyone!

When Jesus was physically in the earth… he asked his disciples, “Where is YOUR faith?” He spent so much time mentoring them and utilizing every coachable moment to help prepare them for his physical departure. Jesus didn’t plan to stay in the earth hand feeding these guys forever… he wanted his disciples to learn how to CALM their own storms… he wanted them to use their own faith and MOVE their own mountains… he wanted them to HEAL the sick people in their own world long after he would return to heaven!

Let’s face the truth… it’s never easy keeping our eyes on Jesus, especially when we’re walking on water with the adventurous tasks he’s called us to embark upon. I believe this is one of the tests of spiritual maturity… for each of us to master the art of KEEPING OUR EYES ON JESUS, even in the stormiest of circumstances.  

Only in recent years, has this been an issue for me. When I was young in the Lord, everything was fine. In fact, when I look back to those early days, I seemed so much stronger than I am today!

Even with a beautiful prayer life, and a DAILY commitment to consume the pages of my bible… even with that, I am left with a LESS than manifest awareness of Jesus than his 12 disciples had. Believe me, I know VERY well the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit and I am not under estimating the awesomeness of the way he COMFORTS us. I’m just stating the reality of this challenge we all face… STAYING IN THE AWARENESS OF GODS COVERING over us as we mature.

When I was a little kid in the Lord, I had a child-like faith that carried me through to victory after victory. Maybe my trials were much smaller back then, even though they were GIGANTIC at the moment. Maybe those kindergarten trials, mixed with my toddler depiction of Daddy God made me feel like NOTHING COULD EVER TAKE ME DOWN… so it never did! 

What if my trials weren’t really all that tiny back then? What if God works with us is the same way he worked with his 12 disciples. What if… in our early days, he calms the storms FOR us. And what if, eventually we are supposed to LEARN how to take our delegated authority and CALM OUR OWN STORMS! This is where we stumble isn’t it? We want to be kids forever… and we want Jesus to do everything FOR us. And all along, he is trying to RAISE UP MEN and WOMEN OF GOD.

The goal of a maturing Christian is the same goal that Jesus had for his 12 disciples.

  • As babies, Jesus does everything FOR us.
  • As toddlers, Jesus does everything WITH us.
  • As mature adults, we do what Jesus has trained us to do, the way he has trained us to do, with the power and authority he has given us to do it with…everything under his direction, everything for his glory!

So, you see… God is not abandoning us these days as it may seem. He is teaching us to spread our wings and fly like the eagles! Maybe this trial you’re facing today is just not going away until YOU rise and DO WHAT JESUS HAS BEEN TRAINING YOU TO DO! You’re not alone… you are well covered… and well able to do this… so rise and be mighty, for the LORD IS WITH YOU and he has promised that he will NEVER LEAVE YOU or forsake you! We’re just growing up… that’s all!!!   

Hope this adds great value to your lives… have a super day! Chat with everyone later…

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