Plan Now to Make a Difference

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Today’s Message to me….

Community is God's answer to defeat by Rick Warren

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.Philippians 2:4 (NIV) "You need a community of people who are saying to you: 'We'll be with you when you're going through the tough times. We're not going to let you get discouraged or depressed.'" Each one of us needs other people to watch out for us - to defend us, protect us, and help us stay on track. In the book of Philippians, the apostle Paul tells us that we should look out for each other's interests, not just our own.What a counterculture verse! In America today, it's all about me - my needs, my interests, my wants, and my ambitions. But Paul teaches us to look out for others too. Did you know you have an enemy far more destructive than any terrorists? You have a personal enemy who wants to defeat you. His name is Satan. He wants to bring problems into your life, to ruin your relationships, and to hurt you as badly as he can. Why does he want to hurt you? Because he wants to hurt God, but he can't - so he goes after God's children. On your own, you will never win against Satan. But when you have other people to watch out for you and help you, you can be victorious. Here's good advice from Ecclesiastes 4:12: "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves" (NIV). Does anyone have your back? Is anyone defending you - watching out for your spiritual welfare? You need a community of people who are saying to you: "We'll be with you when you're going through the tough times. We're not going to let you get discouraged or depressed." Community is God's answer to defeat. Ecclesiastes 4:10 says, "If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him" (NIV). Remember: You can try, but you can't live life well on your own. We all need other people - to walk with us, to work with us, and to watch out for us.

A Great Reminder Today….

Friday, June 11, 2010

You cannot grow without a teachable attitude by Rick Warren

Practice these things. Devote your life to them so that everyone can see your progress. 1 Timothy 4:15 (GW) "There is only one way to develop the habits of Christlike character: You must practice them—and that takes time. " While you were given a brand new nature at the moment of conversion, you still have old habits, patterns, and practices that need to be removed and replaced. We are afraid to humbly face the truth about ourselves. I have already pointed out that the truth will set us free but it often makes us miserable first. The fear of what we might discover if we honestly faced our character defects keeps us living in the prison of denial. Yet, we often build our identities around our defects. We say, "It's just like me to be ..." and "It's just the way I am." The unconscious worry is that if I let go of my habit, my hurt, or my hang-up, who will I be? This fear can definitely slow down your growth. Only as God is allowed to shine the light of his truth on our faults, failures, and hang-ups can we begin to work on them. This is why you cannot grow without a humble, teachable attitude. Godly habits take time to develop. Remember that your character is the sum total of your habits. You can't claim to be kind unless you are habitually kind—you show kindness without even thinking about it. You can't claim to have integrity unless it is your habit to always be honest. A husband who is faithful to his wife most of the time is not faithful at all! Your habits define your character. There is only one way to develop the habits of Christlike character: You must practice them—and that takes time! There are no instant habits. Paul urged Timothy, "Practice these things. Devote your life to them so that everyone can see your progress." (1 Timothy 4:15, GW) If you practice something overtime, you get good at it. Repetition is the mother of character and skill. These character-building habits are often called "spiritual disciplines," and they include such things as meditation, prayer, fasting, Bible study, simplicity, stewardship, solitude, submission, service and evangelism.

Dream Big!

God builds your faith by giving you a dream by Rick Warren

"Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes." Ephesians 3:20 (LB) "If a dream comes from God, it will be so big in your life that you can't do it on your own. If you could do it on your own, you wouldn't need faith." Faith is like a muscle: it can be strengthened. It can be weak or it can be strong, depending on how much you use it. How does God build your faith? He uses a very predictable pattern that we will look at this week; and, if you understand it, you can cooperate with him in developing greater faith. It's like when the father, seeking help from Jesus for his son, said, "Have pity on us and help us, if you possibly can!" (Mark 9:22 TEV) Jesus replied, "What do you mean, 'If I can'? . . . Anything is possible if a person believes." (Mark 9:23 NLT) The first thing God does to build your faith is give you a dream. When God wants to work in your life, he'll always gives you a dream—about yourself, about what he wants you to do, about how he's going to use your life to impact the world.  There are many examples in the Bible of this. God gave Noah the dream of building an ark. God gave Abraham the dream of being the father of a great nation. God gave Joseph the dream of being a leader that would save his people. God gave Nehemiah the dream of building the wall around Jerusalem. How do you know when a dream is from God or when it's just something you've thought up yourself? The Bible tells us that God, "by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes." (Ephesians 3:20 LB) In other words, if a dream comes from God, it will be so big in your life that you can't do it on your own. If you could do it on your own, you wouldn't need faith. And if you don't have faith you're not pleasing God, because the Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin. (Roman 14:23) God starts to build your faith by giving you a dream. He may be speaking to you now, but you just don't recognize it for what it is. That dream you have—the idea, the concept —that thing you've been thinking about doing that would be of real benefit to other people, where do you think that idea came from? God will never tell you to do something that contradicts his truth. In other words, he won't give you a dream of leaving your family and kids and moving to Hollywood to be a movie star. If you've got that dream, then you can know it is not from God. God starts with a dream as he works within your life to build faith.

“You Cannot Out Dream God”

 

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Venturing Forth It's better to stay in the safety of the camp than venture forth on a wing and a prayer. Who knows what dangers lie ahead? This was the counsel of the ten faithless spies sent in to have a look at the Promised Land when the Jews came out of Egypt. Only two of the twelve, Joshua and Caleb, saw things differently. Their hearts were captured by a vision of what might be and they urged the people to press on. But their voices were drowned by the fears of the other ten spies and Israel wandered for another forty years. Without the anticipation of better things ahead, we will have no heart for the journey. One of the most poisonous of all Satan's whispers is simply, "Things will never change." That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to "make all things new." Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean "we have no clue so don't even try to imagine," but rather, you cannot out dream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation. We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope. Julia Gatta describes impatience, discouragement, and despair as the "noonday demons" most apt to beset the seasoned traveler. As the road grows long we grow weary; impatience and discouragement tempt us to forsake the way for some easier path. These shortcuts never work, and the guilt we feel for having chosen them only compounds our feelings of despair. (The Sacred Romance , 156-57)

He is not here…He has Risen as He said!

Project One Forty Three

Most everyone reading this is familiar with how our world was rocked over the past year through our adoption of Aleks. If you have followed our story you also know that Aleks Tuttle is the result of our good friends Chris and Jamie Crutchley being faithful to Gods leading and hosting Aleks during Christmas of 2008. Through this journey Chris has launched Project One Forty Three which has become his mission in life.

Please take a few minutes to visit www.ProjectOneFortyThree.com

Around the world, there are an overwhelming 143 million children in orphanages and foster care waiting for the love of a forever family. Amazingly, this is more than the population of Russia. It is a staggering number and an issue that few people realize, or could even begin to comprehend.  Most of these children have never had loving parents with which to share a warm embrace, a game of catch or even a family vacation.  Most importantly, these children never realize the feeling of belonging and self worth that come with being part of a nurturing family.

Unfortunately, many of the children are older than six years old, and with each passing year, they are less likely to be adopted. Thus, they will eventually “age out” of the system and never experience the life giving, life changing love that family provides.

It is our belief that there are millions of families around the world who would welcome these children into their homes if given the opportunity to meet and spend time with them.  Further limiting the opportunities for older orphans, many families are not able to pursue adoption because of financial limitations or lack of know how.

Together we can change that!

Project One Forty Three endeavors to show you how ONE person, ONE idea, ONE donation, etc., can create CHAIN REACTIONS that ultimately saves the life of a child.

Having experienced firsthand the awesome power of CHAIN REACTIONS, we are guided by the knowledge that when any one of these children are given their voice, when they are no longer just a statistic, but become a face with a name…miracles happen! 

We exist to shine a light on these kids, to bring them out of the shadows, bring them to life, to give them names and help unite them with forever families. 

(From the heart of Chris Crutchley) If you are reading this, I consider you to be someone who has impacted my life. With that being said, I would like to share with you what God has been doing the past year of my life and how you can be apart of it.  You may or may not know; 14 months ago Jamie (my wife) and I had the privilege of hosting an 11-year-old orphan from Latvia named Aleks.  Throughout Aleks’ time here in America God began to open my eyes to a world that I never knew.  He began to change my heart for orphaned children around the world.
When Jamie and I decided to host Aleks we knew that it was going to take the help of others to make it possible.  The cost to host Aleks was $2,500; money we did not have just lying around.  So we reached out to a few close family and friends asking for help.  Looking back, we continue to be amazed at the remarkable Chain Reaction that occurred--as if each person that contributed became ONE domino in Aleks life.  When all the dominos were lined up in exactly the right order, the chain reaction led to Aleks finding his forever family.  This was only possible because a few people decided to play a part in changing his life.
Now I am asking you to play a part as well and help change the life of an orphan.  Except this time it’s not just one life.  It’s 143,000,000 lives!  That’s right; 143 million orphans still exist in the world today.  The time has come to save more lives.  And, we need your help!
  It’s called Project One Forty Three (Project 143).  Project 143 strives to raise global awareness of older orphans and the many ways people can help these children find forever families.  It is our belief that there is a loving family for every child on Earth.  This belief can only become a reality if we join together and focus our efforts on saving these children.
How? You might ask...
Together, with you, Project 143 will focus on two objectives.   First, raising awareness of the orphan crisis. This means telling everyone you know (your friends, family, co-workers, church family etc).   Spreading the word about how others can help save the lives of orphans around the world.  Second, breaking down the financial barriers so that more people can experience the joy of hosting or adopting one of these amazing children.  By placing grants in the hands of those who wish to host or adopt, but can’t due to financial constraints, we remove the number one reason people say ‘No”, and unite an orphan with his/her forever family.
For Project 143 to be effective, we need financial contributions. Lets face it; without financial resources to help others, Project 143 is helpless.  I am asking you to help us save more of these children by supporting Project 143 in the following ways:

• Provide financial support to Project One Forty Three through a personal donation
• Forward this information to everyone you know, encouraging them to help save more kids like Aleks. °
• If you are a blogger…take a day and feature Project One Forty Three on your blog.

We all have a part to play.  Please help us start more chain reactions that change the lives of these forgotten children by visiting us at www.projectonefortythree.org. 

We can do it...One child at a time!