It seems like we all are waiting on something to happen before we start doing what we know we are supposed to do. Let’s think about it: Do you need to start working out? Do you wait ‘til the New Years day to try to stop smoking or say “I’ll just wait till I finish this pack”?  How about you need to study harder in school but decide to just wait tell next semester? This is one I hear a lot “when I get married I will start doing this or stop doing that”.

Why is it when we know what we need to do we choose to make excuses to start it later?  I image the conversation in our head goes something like this. “I know I need to get better, but, I’ll do what I need to do in a month or so”. What sense does that make?  That makes about as much sense as saying, “Look! A stop light!  I’ll stop when I get on the other side of it”.

When it comes to doing what we know we need to do, procrastination is not our friend, but our enemy. Let’s not continue to make excuse about what needs to be done and just do it!

This week we’ve been talking about getting better. So, today let’s talk about failing. Now you are probably saying, “I thought we were getting better not getting worse” and “how does that work”? Let’s ask ourselves a question, why don’t we try to get better? Is it because we are fine where we are or is it because we are scared we will fail?

Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” See, we can look at getting better as an opportunity to fail or we can look at it as an opportunity to know what doesn’t work so we can find out what does work.  Don’t be afraid to take risk just because you might not succeed but look at risk as steps in the learning process and as a chance to get better.

you’ve decide that maybe there are some areas in your life where you can get better. But where do you start?  Do you take a class or go to a seminar?  I would like to think one of the best places to start getting better is in our relationships with others. It could be with your spouse, your children, your coworkers, or your friends. We are all in some kind of relationship.

Now you might be saying all my relationships are fine, people like me and I like people so that’s that. Is it really that good or could you get more out of your relationship? See, a good relationship is not how well you get along with people when all is well; it’s how well you get along with people when times are rough. So now look at your relationships – are they still fine?

There is a saying, “smooth seas don’t make great sailors”. Even the most inexperienced person can sail a boat in perfect conditions but that’s not so when it gets stormy. We can’t live our lives avoiding rough water just because we are inexperienced at sailing. We have to be willing to get better so that we can have deeper, more meaning full relationships.

What will you do today to get better? Now that’s a pretty vague question.  “Get better at what?” is probably what you’re thinking. See most of the time we think of getting better as something athletes do. Like, I won the bronze medal last Olympics so for the next Olympics I’m going for gold. See most of our lives we live to get to a certain place or goal and once we get there we stop trying to improve upon ourselves. When we get that job we wanted or when you get your PHD or now you are married.  Once the goal is reached we feel like we can stop striving to get better.

But what would happen if we were to look at every part of our live as a chance to get better?  Maybe you need to be a better husband or wife, perhaps a better parent or child, maybe a better leader or follower. How does one even know if they need to get better?  I’ll start by saying no one is perfect so that leaves the door wide open for us all to get better.  So let’s stop and examine our lives and see what we can do to get better.

All this week we will look at different ways that we can get better on a daily basis.

Today I celebrate my 34^th birthday, now if you ask my wife I’m not one of those big birthday type people. I’m not looking for a party or anything special; I do enjoy my free race from Pole Position Raceway. Yet other than that I’m good.

Over the summer I read a blog where @iChilly made a simple but profound statement about The Purpose of a Birthday and I wanted to share it with you.  He stated: “It’s NOT just another day – It’s the day God chose to begin your earthly mission!”

Now if you ask me that’s one cool way to look at the day God choose for you to enter the earth. So please share your thoughts on this or just leave a suggestion or two of how you like to spend your birthday.

What has God called you to do that no one else can do? The Book of Eli was an amazing movie after watching it the first time (I saw it twice within 36 hrs). I tweeted it was one of the best movies I had seen in my 34 years of living. Now you wonder what would make me say something like that. Was it the special effects, the acting, the story line or even the directing? While all those things where great for me, it was the truth of Gods word that came pouring out of this movie.

Now if you have not seen the movie STOP reading now, there are SPOILERS in this next part.

For those of you who have seen it, let’s begin. It’s a pretty simple movie; a guy is carrying a book from the east coast to the west coast on foot after a future post-apocalyptic  war. Yet this is no ordinary book, it’s the word of God, the Bible and not only is the man carrying the Bible across the country on foot, he’s blind. Blind can’t see jack and he’s doing this all on faith. Now if you’re a believer and that doesn’t motivate and convict you about the missions and plans God has for your life I don’t know what will.

In this movie, we get a glimpse into about a week of this 30 year journey Eli is on. We see him encounter things that would make most of us stop and rethink what we are doing. Let’s take the first action scene where Eli, even knowing it’s a trap stops and addresses the woman who claims to be in need (sound familiar? read Luke 10:29-37) Now this didn’t turn out the same way, and Eli had to get a little gangsta on them to say the least, but he kept on.

Let’s jump to the town seen where Eli first encounters the main bad guy, Carnegie. This is where temptation jumps in the picture. Carnegie (who at this point doesn’t know Eli has the Bible he’s been searching for) offers Eli what ever he wants if he will just work for him.  He even locks him in a room and sends the daughter of the woman he supposedly loves to temp him more. As soon as he finds out Eli has a bible he goes running for him to get it. But, Eli is not in the room and everyone seems to wonder how he got out, I like to think of 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Carnegie wanting to use the Bilbe for his will and not Gods is straight out of the word of God in 2 Peter 2:1-3. Eli recognizes this and keeps on moving even while being shot at. If you remember when Carnegie said the book can help the people Eli didn’t listen to man, he listened to God and knew what God had for him to do.

Now at one point all looks hopeless; Carnegie has Eli and his traviling partner Solara who he picked up along the way. Now Eli is faced with the choice to give up the book or Solara being killed. Eli chose to give up the book but it’s later when Solara ask why that Eli says “I’ve been reading this book and protecting it for 30 years, I thought I would do what it says”. Wow what an impactful line. It takes you back to the scence where the couple gets killed by the motorcycle gang and Eli hides and says “stick to the path”. It’s like he knows now that God has him on a mission, but that while on that mission he needs to put others first.

Now it’s at the end when Eli says you’re going to need a lot of paper that everything comes together. You find out that he memorized the Bible; you’re not sure if it was on purpose or if somewhere along the way of reading the Bible night and day for 30 years he placed it his heart. I know that convicted and motivated me even more.

I know this was a long post but one I felt like I was supposed to share. I could go own for days but I want. That’s just my take on the Book of Eli.  I would love to hear yours.

Have you ever driven a car with no brakes? I don’t mean brakes that aren’t working well, but one that has no brakes! Well I have and let me tell you it sucks. Let me tell you how it went down. About 9 years ago I had an 81 Grand Prix and it needed a brake job in every way – about 700 dollars worth of work. Yet I still needed to get to work which was on the other side of town like 14 miles.

I got to work that day just fine, yet, on my way home as I was  going  to slow down to get on the highway the brakes didn’t work! Not at all! Now, if you’re thinking I was freaking out you’d be right. I’m now on the highway doing 70 mph and have no brakes. I was thinking what do I do? How am I going to stop this car? We’ve all seen how this ends in the movies. I figured, I’m either going to run into something or drive off a cliff. Either way I wasn’t looking forward to it.

At this point I thinking I needed an exit that had a long ramp and drive off time. I remembered one  that was a few miles up. I was so blessed that traffic never slowed down and kept flowing. When I reached the exit I ran in to a problem – there where cars in the way! Somehow I managed to avoid them and find the field that I knew was right of that exit. I drove through the field and swerved back and forth until the car slowed down enough that I could just throw it in park.

In my entire life I’ve never met anyone who has driven without any brakes. Nor have I met anyone who did it and managed not to hit anything and from what I see in the movies it’s not possible. I would like to think it was the fact I’m a NASCAR fan and have great driving skills that help me out but I know it was God who protected me.

See, sometimes as leaders we are so busy going and going that the brakes of our lives give out on us. We don’t take the time to service our brakes. I could have spent that $700 and had working brakes, but instead I chose to keep driving until I had no choice but to get them fixed.  It’s the same in life, we NEED to take the time to rest in Him so that He can strengthen us and so we minister out of the overflow of our time with Him instead of just swerving in a field trying not to crash.

I am reading a book by Charles F. Stanley. While reading I came across a section where he says “Each of us faces a four-fold challenge about any task we undertake”

It was very impactful to me so I thought I would share them with you.

1. Productivity  -  doing as much as we can
2. Quality  -  doing things as well as we can
3. Time management  -  doing things as efficiently as we can
4. Maximum impact  –  doing things as effectively as we can

That’s great insight to think about when we are taking on any task whether it’s at work or at home. So I challenge each of you as you start your week off to weigh what you do against these 4 things.

The name of the book is “How to Reach Your Full Potential for God”. It’s a great read and I will be doing a full review as soon I finish.

Looking back to move look forward; what does that even mean? Most of us go through the week and can’t wait for the weekend to get here so we can either forget what happened during the week, or maybe celebrate a major victory.

What if we took the time to examine the events that occurred this week?  What things were successful, what things where failures? We can look back, learn from these things and use them to have more successful and productive time the next week.

I came across this the other day, it made laugh a little and think all at the same time.  I enjoyed it  so  I  thought I would share it with you

Terrorist Groups Operating in Churches

Latest news reports are that five terrorist cell groups have been operating in many of our churches. They have been identified as: Bin Sleepin, Bin Arguin, Bin Fightin, Bin Complainin, and Bin Missin. Their leader, Osama Bin Lucifer, trained these groups to destroy the Body of Christ. The plan is to come into the church disguised as Christians and to work within the church to discourage, disrupt, and destroy.

However, there have been reports of a sixth group. A tiny cell, known by the name Bin Prayin, is actually the only effective counter terrorism force in the church. Unlike other terrorist cells, the Bin Prayin team does not blend in with whomever and whatever comes along.  Bin Prayin does whatever is needed to uplift and encourage the Body of Christ. We have noticed that the Bin Prayin cell group has different characteristics than the others. They have Bin Watchin, Bin Waitin, Bin Fastin, and Bin Longin for their Master, Jesus Christ to return.

To which cell group do you belong?