Includes...
I used to do a lot of longer-term planning, but for the last 2 years I feel like God has been teaching me to trust that he has the plan, so I have been more focused on doing what I know to do each day. Over the last 2 years I wasn't doing much long-term planning. During that time I grew a lot in my ability to follow God's lead each day. But, lately I feel like he is prompting me to do some longer term planning again. Planning with God can be a great expression of faith.
I really feel like he has been showing me that the most important part of what we are doing with the Abundant Life Blueprint is building a community of people who are doing it together. And part of building this community is tightening up the systems and calendar to keep everyone coordinated together which means looking out further.
Something new we are going to start doing is having a monthly challenge each month where we pick a topic that we are all focused on together and then we will break...
All throughout the Old Testament there is a pattern that kings became established and then they became strong. In a similar way I believe we must become established in the New Covenant and then grow strong. This is a progression God takes us through. But in 2 Chronicles 12:1 it says that after Solomon's son Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord.
After Rehoboam was established and strong, he abandoned God and forgot about him, which led to battles he had to face. But he eventually humbled himself and turned back to God. It seems that there is a tendency for people to become complacent and forget about God when things are going well, and they are strong. But Jesus tells us in Luke 10:27 to “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
God wants to take us through a...
Isaiah chapter 53 gives us many insights into what Jesus has done for us. Verse 2 says he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Something I feel like God has been showing me is that just like Jesus became sin so that we could become righteous, and he became poor so that we might be rich, he set aside his beauty and majesty so that he could make us beautiful.
Today's communion is a time of gratitude for all Jesus has done for us. And we are asking God for wisdom and understanding of these scriptures and what they mean for us.
Here is Isaiah 53:1-3:
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
...In Colossians 1:9-14 is a prayer that the apostle Paul says he keeps praying. This prayer must be important if he keeps praying it, and part of the prayer is that the people would be strengthened with power so that they would have great endurance. Notice it is being strengthened with power that leads to having great endurance and patience.
Here is the prayer...
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingd...
Lately I have been thinking about how our bodies grow healthier through resistance training. Through resistance training we teach our body to stay in position and overcome higher levels resistance. And I think we not only need to do resistance training physically but also spiritually. James 4:7 tells us... Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Today's communion is a time of gratitude that if we submit to God, we can resist the devil and he will flee from us. And we are asking God to help us resistance train and increase our ability to resist the devil.
Today's Health/Fitness Tip
The goal of resistance training is to be able to maintain body position and overcome increasing levels of resistance over the course of time. Thinking of it this way simplifies resistance training.
I am praying for you.
Daniel
The other day I was thinking about what is often called the point of contact. While thinking about this my kids had left a book on the floor by Oral Roberts called How to Find your Point of Contact with God.
Points of contact are physical things that we do or say that help us release all that God put within us out into the world. As an example, there was a time when I was piling up debt on a credit card because I was fearful of running out of money. I began to turn every transaction into a point of trust by paying with a debit card or cash, trusting that God would supply in the future as I needed it. By doing this his grace began to turn my finances around.
Points of contact also create a memory, because they create a physical marker that we can remember and look back to if our faith is ever wavering. One of the biggest keys to creating a successful point of contact is becoming more present, because presence is the grace table turner that helps all that God p...
Here is this week's Yearly Cycle Update.
About a year ago I started something new.
My wife and I had discussed getting into real estate, but I told her I wasn't that interested unless it was for buying real estate for Abundant Life Training Centers. After this conversation I felt a nudge from God to reach out to a former client of mine in the gym who was a good friend and had done well in real estate.
The next day I was sitting at his house, and he told me about how his business had increased, and he was having a hard time keeping up with everything. He had been praying for God to send him someone to help. And a few days later I started working for him. This wasn't in my plans at all, but God had opened an unexpected door to start learning about real estate from someone who is also a believer and an expert in developing land and building, which is what I was interested in for the Abundant Life Training Center.
But, when I got started it was extremely chal...
Something I have been doing for several months is writing filters at the top of my journal every night. These filters are short phrases or sentences that help me keep important things top of mind and to navigate or make decisions by on a daily basis.
At the top of my journal I use 4 layers of filters to help me stay in rhythm with God. Here are the 4 layers I use...
1) The big picture vision I feel God has given me.
2) Yearly Reminder - Of the direction I feel God gave me for the year
3) Monthly Reminder - This usually comes from our Monthly Message.
4) Weekly Reminder - This comes from our Weekly Yearly Cycle updates.
As an example, here are the filters I wrote yesterday...
I also use a 5th filter at the end of my journal that h...
The other day I was thinking about the concept of being a fiduciary. A fiduciary is a person that acts on behalf of another person or persons, putting their clients' interests ahead of their own, with a duty to preserve good faith and trust.
A fiduciary needs to be obedient by following the instructions and will of the person they are representing. They must also be faithful, trustworthy, transparent, accountable, and execute their work with skill.
This reminds me of how Jesus said he only did what his father said to do.
It also reminds me of some of the following scriptures...
Hebrews 3:6 Now Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be spoken later. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.
Hebrews 9:15 -Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal ...
Lately I have been thinking about Hebrews 4 which tells us to labor or make every effort to enter God's rest. Laboring to enter His rest seems like a contradiction, but I have learned that in areas where we struggle it definitely takes labor to enter into His rest.
It can often seem like we pray about something, but then it takes some serious effort to learn how to completely turn it over to God and rest in that area. When I played baseball in college we would train and practice the same things over and over and over again so that when it was game time, and the pressure was on we could do things automatically without having to think about them. Through training, our responses became automatic. In a similar way I think we have to train ourselves to stay at rest, because we all have buttons in our life that can get pushed that make us want to get out of that rest.
Here is Hebrews 4:9-11 to meditate on today...
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people ...
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