Are you a Producer or a Consumer? Do the things that surround you in your life all about what can be done for you or you about what you can do for others. Are you a server or want to be served. Here are some question you can ask yourself , if your not quite sure.

Think about how often you serve or when you serve. Do you only serve when it convenient for you?

Are you a leader who leads others or do you reproduce leaders?

Do you drain the energy of others or help energize others?

Are you looking for a church that meets your needs or to be part of the church?

Will you do for others but only if…………..

I want to but what’s in it for me?

Look at all these different color bracelets I have to support my favorite causes.

Do the things you own define who you are?

Do you support a lot of causes till you get board and move on?

Are you a producer or a consumer?

Do you have some question you like to add, share your thoughts

Recently, I bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers and admittedly they are some very different looking shoes. Almost everywhere I go people stop me and ask questions about them.  “What are those?”, “WOW! Are those comfortable?”, “Where did you get those?” and more. As you can imagine the questions just keep coming – all because my shoes look different.

That got me thinking. As a Christ follower we are called to look different. If we look vastly different from everyone else, then people should be asking us questions. They should be asking us “Why do you that?”, “Why don’t you act like that?”, “What’s that all about?”, “Where do I get what you have”, and on and on.   As a believer we should be living lives that look so different from the world around us that people stop us and just have to know why.

Think about it. Every time you do something different, get something different, or see things differently, people always ask you questions. So, let me ask you this… Are you being asked questions about your life? Does your life look different like my Vibrams or does your life look as ordinary as a pair of regular white sneakers blending in with the sneaker world around them? Do you stand out?

Please share your thoughts today about how your life looks different.

How do you start your day, maybe with 3 cups of coffee, maybe a trip to the gym? Every one of us has a morning routine that we live by; a game plan to help us kick our day off. Is our game plan helping us to have a more productive day or less productive day?

Most of the time we don’t have a problem planning out for something big like a vacation or getting a college degree or even a big project at work. Yet, when it comes to our daily lives we seem to just let things happen and hope for the best.

We may make a list of what needs to be done for that day, but do we have a vision for that day? Do we know how we want the day to look if we were to look back on it and say that was a good day? Now don’t get me wrong, I think lists are great but the average person never finishes their list. Some never even start because a list isn’t a plan it’s just a list.

Taking the time to plan out your day will get you a lot farther than a list of things that need to be accomplished. Try it out and see if at the end of the day you don’t get a little more done.

May he grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your plans!  Psalm 20:4

It’s not the 2 hour movie, the 4 hour game or even the 1hr sermon. It’s the hours of work that it takes to make it happen.  Nothing just happens over night, but many times we assume it does. Everyone seems to want to find that magic bullet. We think the day we sign up on twitter we should have a 1000 followers, or the first blog post you write should have 200 readers. It just doesn’t happen that way, no matter how much we think it will. You would be amazed at the amount of people I know that give up on a project before it even starts. We can’t just try something once or twice and because it’s not a big success just walk away.

Whether you are an athlete, actor, blogger or pastor it is the work you don’t see that makes what you do see happen. Once you get there it doesn’t stop. Kobe Bryant didn’t stop practicing after he won his first championship. If God has called you to do something, just because it doesn’t happen on that day; doesn’t mean you stop doing it the next day. You have to stick it out and work at it. The work you put into something determines the results you will get out of it.

Recently I have been feeling different. Not bad…just different. Like most people I am sometimes on the mountain top. Other times I have been in the valley. The trek is often the most difficult part.

I spoke with a friend on a subject that I feel best summarized what the trek is truly all about. My friend’s name is Stephen Mclean and he was telling me about an upcoming appointment. He was going to meet with a gent who’s purpose and passion is to see companies and individuals go from “good” to “great”. I immediately wanted to desperately sit in on this meeting. I imagined most of us would!

I found myself thinking about greatness and the equivalents thereof. I imagined figures and their “great” contributions to the record and history books! People such as Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Babe Ruth, Leonardo Da Vinci, Serena Williams, Paul Rodriguez just to name a few. All these people found out what they were great at! This is the “marvel”. I know that to be true because that’s what we do with great people or great accomplishments we marvel at them. We sit and wonder and we hope and pray that we, too, will hit our stride on the trek and move into greatness as well.

We should all be seeking to be great. God speaks to Abraham in Genesis 12:2 and says to him how he will take an ordinary man, and change him into an extraordinary man…(I will make you a great nation, I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.)

See, even God desires to see that you become a man or woman who will be great. He wants to move you into a place of great influence. Just like the great men and women of the past that we marvel at…. we, too, should spark a little marvel and effectively embrace the greatness we are called to.

Be blessed and know God wants you to be GREAT at your passion. He designed you to fulfill your dreams !!!

By Paul Ellis

I don’t think anyone ever told Chuck Dennie you just can’t come in and just start all willy nilly changing things around.  He hasn’t even been on staff 90 days.  Everyone knows that you’re supposed to just chill the first 90. Check things out; make sure you get past that 90 day mark. Then you make slow subtle changes, you don’t want to shake things up to much. You don’t want to get on anybodies radar in the wrong way.

Now whether or not all that might be true Chuck doesn’t live by mans Standards, he lives by Gods. Not one change Chuck has made benefits him or points to him; they all point to God.  Whether it was him no longer standing in the middle of the stage or letting a 15 year old lead worship while he baptized his wife.(or any of the 5000 other changes he has made)

Chuck recognizes that God has called him to a place, to do Gods will not mans. That God is the final authority not man. God has blessed Chuck with many talents and abilities and he uses those to give our Great, Glorious and Holy God praise.

So I encourage you not to be like Chuck but to do what God has called you to do.  To live by Holy God standards not mans.

Disclaimer: I know Chuck Dennie he is a co-worker, friend and truly an inspiration of a God centered life. And No not in anyway to I think Chuck Dennie should be fired

Chuck Dennie is the Worship Pastor @ Lifechurch.tv Northwest Oklahoma City  campus.

So this morning I was driving on the highway on my way to work. Up ahead I noticed traffic was backed up so I decided to exit off and take a different route. Within 2 min of doing so I was rear ended now that just sucks. All I was trying to do was avoid the traffic and got in a wreck. See sometimes we are rolling along doing what God would have us to do and then things slow down or almost stop. That’s when we decide to exit of Gods plan for our life and take our own route. Then BAM! It hits you God’s got you. We may not always understand the slow down or the complete stops but God has a reason for everything. Just thought I would share with you what God shared with me this morning.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.