measure

Every believer has a measure of the Holy Spirit in their life. That depends on how much of ourselves we have surrendered and how much we have filled up. This measure effects every area of our lives. What measure of the Holy Spirit do you have in your life?

wrecking me

This morning in my prayer time, God is wrecking me. I feel personally that I'm hitting a spiritual headwind. I know that we must be doing something right to get this kind of attention from the enemy. This morning God is beginning to do something new in my heart. I feel a renewed sense of vision and passion to lead others to LifeChange. I also, feel that God is going to lead our church into another level with Him. I'm praying and believing for incredible things to come as we learn to walk in our God given authority.

stuff

Sunday we had our last Ecuador meeting before the trip, getting everything packed up and ready. I then headed to Sandusky Faith Memorial to play with my family Bluegrass band, Roadkill! We had a blast. This morning, Gary and I headed to the Church Life Cohort with Dr. Wayne Lee. It is incredible material that we are going through. It is cool to be able to walk through this stuff with my Dad and Gary.

We move into our new house this Friday and then I leave for Ecuador on Saturday. It is crazy times!

nothing

Today, me and the family are doing absolutely NOTHING. Next week starts the softball/baseball madness for 2 months where 3-4 nights every week will be taken up by mine, Keri's, Kaden's or Kross's games. Also, we are officially homeless and staying with some friends until Thursday when we close on our new house and officially move-in. I'm really starting to miss having a desk and an office at the church. The last renovations should start in 2 weeks and finished in 5-6 weeks. Also, I and 16 other C3'ers leave for Ecuador to do some missions work in a week. But besides that, there is nothing going on.....at least for today!

instrument

We are servants of God and an instrument that He works through. It's amazing to me that God chose to accomplish His diving purpose in the the world through us. I personally want to live everyday knowing and living out loud the fact that I am an instrument of the most High God. The more I am submitted to Him, the more my life plays out His Will on the Earth. Everyday I come into contact with people that need to experience Christ's love and power through me. If we are all instruments, what kind of music do you play?

lost

Yesterday, my computer hard drive crashed. I thought I was backing everything up on our server, but it looks now as if it wasn't. So everything I did for the past 3-4 years is now gone....forever. The people at the Apple store gave me a new hard drive and software and had great customer service. And so is life! I guess I'll need to come up with new ideas and can't rely on anything from the past. I choose to look at this....as a new chapter in my life, but you can bet, I will backup everything from now on.

painfully incredible

Wow! What an incredible experience to run in the Boston Marathon. With well over 27,000 runners, I placed 4,232, in a time of 3hr 18min. I hit the wall with 4 miles to go and slowed down considerably, but gutted it out regardless to finish. As I crossed the line, I could barley stand up but after eating and drinking something, I soon regained my composure.
The fan base there is mind blowing! The Boston Athletic Association puts on an incredible race. I will have these memories for a lifetime. It was a life goal to qualify for and then run the Boston Marathon. I now have the medal and have conquered the course, although right now I feel like it has conquered me...ha. I have a hard time walking and will move a little slower for the next few days...but the pride, lasts longer than the pain.

ready

Yesterday, we went into Boston for the Marathon Expo to get my race number and shirt. It was "wicked" packed. (Boston terminology) This morning I spoke at a Methodist Church in Rhode Island. What an incredible group of people. I had a great time. I am staying with some good friends in Heath and Kim McCoy at the Zion Bible College. Tonight I will load up on spaghetti and sip on some water while watching TV. Tomorrow I have to be at the train station at 5am to get me to Boston by 6am and on a bus full of runners to head 26 miles out of the City. They make a big deal out of this race here and I can't wait to take part in the race tomorrow. I bought a Boston Marathon jacket, but WILL NOT wear it, until I cross the line!

Boston here I come

As I sit in the airport about to board a plane for Boston, I am starting to get excited! I will pick up my registration today, preach at a church tomorrow, run the Boston Marathon on Monday, speak at Zion Bible College on Tuesday and then fly back. OK, back to the race. One thing I love about racing, is that it is a battle within myself, especially with marathon. The key is pace and knowing yourself. If you spend too much too early, you will not recover and the crazy thing is, you won't know how you've done managing that till around mile 20. The same is true for life. As far as pastoring C3 Church, I am in it for the long haul. The question for all of us is; How much longer can we continue to run this pace?

working toward

What are you currently working toward? This path week we talked about how our direction not intention determines our destination (Andy Stanley). We are all moving down paths in every area of our lives whether physically, spiritually, socially, professionally, the list could go on and on. Why not become intentional and set some goals and then begin to work toward it? This weekend I leave to run the Boston Marathon. It has been a lifelong dream. This has been 2 years in the making to train, hit the qualifying time in another race, train again and now run it. In every area of our lives we need goals and then a path, something to work toward. If not, we will always take the path of least resistance. But it's the path less traveled that produces the rarest treasures of life!

pull your weight

I love competition and over the years have played on a lot of sports teams. I have been the best player on the team and also the worst player on teams. My goal though, was to be a key contributor to the team. Making the team better has always been my goal. Wherever we work we are on a team. On every team there are those who are out front pulling the team and then there are those in the back being dragged, but most are in the middle. Where do you see yourself? Better yet, where do others see you? Are you someone who not only pulls your own weight but also picks up others slack as well? Or are you the one who everyone has to drag?

Control

Faith is the opposite of Control. This is why we wrestle many times when trying to follow Jesus. If I am truly living a life of faith, then I am not in control, but rather put my trust in the one who is. I have faith that God sees more than I see and farther than I see. I have to trust that His main concern is not where I am, but where HE is leading me. I relinquish control of my life in order to live a life of faith and obedience.
What area of your life do you struggle releasing control of to God?

1 week

I'm pumped! In one week I will run the 26.2 mile Boston Marathon. I have been training for the past 18 weeks just for this race. All those long runs in the single digits temperatures will now be paying off. This may only be for my mom, but I wanted to throw this out; The Boston Athletic Association has a way to follow individual runners through texting or email. They do this with a chip on each runners foot. Anyone wanting to follow me can do so by going to this website: http://registration.baa.org/2010/cf/RegAthleteAlert/pg_AthleteAlert.cfm?mode=preentry&snap=96427233& OR go through their main website at baa.org. Then you can just type in my race number which is 6410.
My goal is to run all my miles between 7min - 7min 15 sec. That is 8.5mph on the treadmill. My goal is to run a 3hr 10min marathon. Please pray...I'll need it! lol

The key to our freedom is found in one 2 letter word. The reason we are enslaved to something is because of our inability to say NO. It could be a habit, an insecurity, allowing someone else to hurt us, whatever it is all boils down to our inability of using this word. What an incredibly powerful little word, that if used correctly could be the key to our freedom. This is where God's power helps us carry it through. God has given us everything we need to live in freedom through Jesus Christ. He is waiting for us to put action to His Word and walk in His power. Go ahead....try it out...NO!

OCMN

Thursday, I get the opportunity to travel to Cleveland to speak at an Ohio Church Multiplication Network church planters gathering. I love getting together with other church planters for the fact that the vast majority are out of the box entrepreneurial thinkers. People like this sharpen and challenge me. I can't wait to meet some new friends. My prayer is that I will have something to share that they will see as valuable that will help them further spread the name of JESUS! May our lives be all about making HIM famous!

daily readings

I came across a great quote by John Lake which said," A man's life will be of the character of his thought." Just thinking about how every sin starts in the mind and that our lives will end up following our thoughts. Many times someone will make a major unwise decision that totally changes their lives. What must be realized is, that this action was already committed multiple times in their thoughts. Where we allow our thoughts to wander, is eventually where our actions will follow. The Bible says. "to take captive every thought." I want to let God continue to purify every thought I have.....and that is a process.

obstacles

We were back again in the library conference room today for another 6 hour meeting with our executive staff. Today, we were looking at what obstacles we would be facing in order to grow to the next level as a church. We went through an exercise that creates the dialog to answer the question of what obstacles need to be addressed. Walking away, we defined reality in a couple of areas of need and a plan of what to do next. Now we only have to make it happen.

Easter

We had 2 great Easter Services at C3 this Sunday! Several guests showed up and out teams did amazing. We broke a new attendance record with 620 and still had some room in our new sanctuary. I love our church!

droid

Today, I got set up with a new "droid" phone. It is seriously unbelievable what all this phone can do. I'm actually a little scared to make sure that I control it and not let it control me. The amount of information now at my fingertips is ridiculous. There is a fine line between staying connected and wearing an electronic leash.

proud dad

We did do one more egg hunt today. It was mass hysteria! Having organized and run big events in the past, I knew what was about to happen when they said GO! Sure enough, it happened. I literally lost my 6 year old for 10 minutes, but my kids had a blast. I grabbed my 4yr old Kali and we sprinted out of bounds to come in the other way and she filled her basket to overflowing! Afterward, I was a proud dad to see her looking in other kids baskets and then giving her eggs away to at least 3-4 other little kids who had gotten nothing. She gave away half of her eggs. Other parents couldn't believe it. I told her that she made Jesus smile!
Also, I placed 3rd in the 5k in a time of 17:19. I am encouraged though that I am faster at the beginning of this race season, then I was at the end of last years.

day off

I took my day off today rather than my normal Mondays. It was sunny and 80 degrees and I even got sunburned I played with my kids all day in the yard and had a blast. Tonight we went to a pastor friend of mines egg hunt for his church. They did a great job with it and they even had a helicopter drop some eggs on the field. My kids had a blast.
Tomorrow morning we are heading to another egg hunt that also has a 5k run for me and a fun run which my kids are dying to run. Fun for the whole family!

Easter Sunday

I love Easter! I love Easter because of not only what we celebrate, but WHO we celebrate! Jesus Christ, His death and His Resurrection. On a church level, I get excited because of the large amount of people who normally don't attend church, who will this Sunday. This is the superbowl of Sunday mornings. This may be one of the only times they hear about who Jesus Christ is. I'm praying for God to show Himself powerful and draw people to Himself.