A few years ago I was preparing to have our annual staff meeting for the gym where we talk about vision and goals for the next year. 

The meeting was going to be on a Tuesday at 2pm and a few days before I received an email from a pastor that was working out with me. Keep in mind I hadn't told him anything about the meeting.

He said " I had a dream last night that you are about to have a meeting on Tuesday at 2pm ( and he even named the place) and we have a woman in our church who is a business consultant and she is supposed to help you."

God can work in some amazing ways. When you seek him he will make sure you find the wisdom and people you need along your path.  One of those ways is dreams. God has course corrected me several times with my own dreams and the dreams of others. 

The business consultant that he referred me to is LeAnn Pearson Marrale and she is one of the best I have found for combining business with Biblical principles. 

Today in the Abundant...

It is a very freeing day when you realize that germs don't have to make you sick. You don't have to fear germs.

Can germs make you sick? Yes, but that is only half of the truth. The truth is germs can make you sick but only if your internal environment can't block them out. 

You can be surrounded by germs and sick people and not get sick. You can be in control. 

How do you do this? 

The Most Important Step is Faith and Belief that what Jesus put on the inside of you is stronger than the germs on the outside. If you are scared and fearful of germs then it lowers your walls and germs are allowed in.

Your Intake Matters

If you are taking in good food spiritually, mentally, and physically it helps ward off sickness. Proverbs 3 says God's word is like medicine. If you are full of toxic thoughts and food it makes you more prone to illness. 

Your Internal State Matters

The emotional state you are in is one of the biggest keys to health. Stress, fear, worry, etc zap...

Jesus said that we would have trouble in this world but to be of good cheer because he has overcome the world. 

I am constantly amazed that we are one simple prayer away from an answer to a problem. There is tremendous freedom when you realize you don't have to figure everything out yourself. You can ask God who knows how everything works.

If you have something that is troubling you or causing pain in your life pray in faith asking for help and wisdom. God will always answer if you take the time to listen, and the solutions are usually very simple, but effective. Never forget a simple faith that believes God wants to help. 

The other key to this is that you must be willing to make changes and adjustments in your life. If there is pain or trouble in your life it is usually a cue that something is out of balance or out of order. 

Here are some examples. These are small things, but the principle still applies to bigger problems as well. 

• Shoulder blade pain -...

If you ever find yourself getting hungry throughout the day it is usually a cue to increase both your water and your veggie intake. 

For your water make sure to get 50-70 ounces of water per day. And a tip I learned from a client who is a pilot is that if you swirl your water around your mouth before drinking rather than chugging it, the water is better absorbed. Pilots use this tip for staying hydrated in planes that don't have bathrooms. Aim for 15-20 ounces of water before every time you eat. 

For your veggies make sure to get 4+ overflowing cups of veggies per day and get as much variety as possible. If you are someone who doesn't like veggies try adding them to soup or roasting them with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper. 

The other huge benefit of improving your water and veggie intake is that you will usually see an increase in your workouts as well. 

P.S. If you need help with health, nutrition, or fitness you should check out the Abundant Life...

In the Bible second months were when the foundation of the temple was laid. 

In the Abundant Life Blueprint the foundation is God's word. His word is meant to be what you build your life upon because it is the only thing that can withstand the storms and pressures of life. 

Many of you have taken my challenge to start reading one chapter from Proverbs every day. But, February is a time to take your Bible reading to the next level. If you have never read the entire Bible front to back I want to encourage you to start. 

The Bible is one story and is meant to be read from front to back like any other book. There are some things in the Bible you can only understand by reading the whole book. Reading the whole Bible and seeing what it had to say for myself is one of the best decisions I ever made. In fact I got so much out of it the first time through that I now read it over and over again. 

You can read the whole Bible easily this year by reading just a few...

A few days ago I had the opportunity to have a discussion with my friend Todd Hallinan from the Christian Growth Center on a topic he calls Alignment With Your Assignment. 
Click Here for the Audio

Here is some of what we discussed...

You have an assignment from God that is unique to you and you find that assignment by spending time with him and in his Word. 

Once you find your assignment you must get into alignment by allowing God to place you into your proper place in the body. Then you must get to work but you also need some boundaries so that you stay on track and fight off distraction. 

To be in alignment means you must focus on your thing and let others do what they are assigned to do which requires a community built on trust. 

Purpose and community are a divine pair that are meant to work together.

Just as every individual has an assignment every church also has a unique assignment. They are not all called to do the same thing. 

How do you judge the success or quality of a workout? For many people they use things like how much they sweat, how many calories were burned, or how sore they became. 

What I have learned is that you can't judge the success of a workout in isolation. The biggest key to fitness is to think of it as a series of steps that you progress through over time. The goal of fitness is to increase flexibility, strength, endurance, and speed while improving your ratio of muscle to fat.

The key to judging the quality of a workout is to see if it caused you to make progress, and a good workout should set you up for continual progress. As a trainer it is really easy to make someone super sweaty, sore, and burn a bunch of calories but that doesn't mean that any progress is made. 

Recently I have put together a new workout system called the Expanding Workout. It is a series of workout phases that sets you up to make continual progress. When you join the Abundant Life Blueprint you will get...

The book of James tells us that if we are double minded we cannot expect to receive anything because we are unstable, meaning that we don't have a good foundation. If the foundation is unstable then we have nothing to stand on when the pressures and storms of life come. 

To truly get results in anything you must become single minded and make a firm decision. To decide means that you kill off other options.

As a practical example, the key to losing body fat is to make a firm decision to make it happen and not look back. If you haven't settled it in your mind then you will waver when busy or tempted with unhealthy stuff. If you are not getting any results you are probably wavering because you haven't settled it in your mind.  

Also, remember that you can make a firm commitment/decision and still use gentle approach. 

What's New

There is a new video up on How to Improve Your Health Today. 

You can watch it here.  

I think one of the best habits you can develop is going for walks with God. Literally go for a 10+ minute walk with God. You do this by walking and having a conversation with God.  I have found the more consistently I do this the better things go, but I often rationalize that I don't have time or have too many other things to do. But I have come to the conclusion that this needs to be a high priority.

Here are some scriptures to think about...

Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise

Galatians 5:16 Walk in the spirit and you will not satisfy the desires of the flesh

Genesis 5:25 + Hebrews 11:5 Enoch walked with God and it pleased God

Amos 3:3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet

Recently in the Abundant Life Blueprint we have been discussing leadership and insecurity. 

Something I have learned is that insecurity steals presence. Leaders often have self doubt and insecurities because they know their weaknesses and feel like they have to have all the answers. Insecurity can cause you to turn inward and hide rather than being externally focused. If you are a leader your team can feel this and they may even say that it seems like you are not present, even though you are trying to be. 

The key to overcoming this is to take your eyes off of yourself. Focus on what God can do through you and on making the people around you better. This will increase your security, presence, and vulnerability so that you better connect with the people you are leading. 

P.S. If you are interested in the Abundant Life Blueprint you can learn more here.