What You Can Do With Your Time?

A lot of our lives are consumed with our wants, desires and our world to TAKE UP OUR TIME AND ATTENTION.  You agree? We are thrown a lot of things our way that make us lazy/self-centered creatures. Take TV for example. They go out of their way to make a good show that will make us turn on the TV every Thursday night at 8 just to watch "the show of our week". Facebook takes our minds and thoughts (at least for me) and captures my attention enough to tune into it a few times a day.

What can we do in life to make more of it? Not sure if you are a Christ follower or not, but if you are, we should focus our lives on what we can do with our time. In 1Peter chapter 1, Peter talks a lot about time and the coming of Jesus. We are not promised tomorrow here in this world, so what can we do tomorrow? What will you do with your tomorrow? More TV and Facebook? Maybe, but what about more serving the poor, loving our wives, taking out the trash, inviting a neighbor over for dinner, spending reserved time with just God, encouraging someone, showing love, hope and patience to others. Tomorrow is yours, you can use your time wisely or waste it. What Can You Do? What Will You Do? 

If tomorrow is given to you make the most of it. What Can You DO?

$2 a Day Results

This last week I ate off of $2 a day. I did it for a few reasons. 1. To be thankful for what I have. 2. To save money. 

Well, I did it. It was encouraging to have a goal like that and complete it. I am more aware of saving money and living life more simple. People even gave me free food and coupons during the week. Not sure if you have taken a challenge like that, but I recommend it.

What You Want is Not What You Always Get

Do you ever think that you have everything figured out about a goal or a dream and then not all the things that you put together turned out the way you thought? Maybe you had goal to workout and you bought all of your workout clothes, got your food list and set off on your journey, but you got busy and life crowded out your goal. Maybe you had a dream for a job or going to school and what seemed like a good idea seemed to fade away because time and life crowded it out.

I worked my tail off studying church planting and networking to launch Awaken Community Church. Not much has worked out the way that I had planned. It is for better and for worse. Worse - because I had all of my goals put into place, but other things changed the direction in where we went. Maybe it just hurt my pride and plans. For better because our team, our church, is loving one another and we are developing who we are; our DNA and identity. Because we are coming together, we have different thoughts and opinions that are making who we are. "I" launched the church, but when people came, "WE" became the church and now "GOD" is growing His church. It was all about God in the first place and we just had to play our roles to get where we are.

Now that we are 5-6 weeks in as a church, I can't believe where God has brought us. We have 60-70 people interested and coming off and on to Awaken, over 120 people attend since we launched and out of that group we have about 30 strong that are committed to grow in their faith and reach their community. I think 30 people excited about the things of God and people can change a city. 

Sometimes when things don't work out the way you want, you find in the end that although it worked out differently, it worked out better.

How to Eat Off of $10 in a Week

On Monday October 19th I will embark on a one week challenge to eat off of just $10 for a work week. Below is the breakdown. By the way, shop at Aldi's; great prices. The goal is for me to be more grateful for what I have. Over half of the world lives off of $2 a day. Come join the challenge.

$10 budget

2.49 - Turkey

1.89 - Ramen Noodles

1.39 - Bagels

.99 - baby carrots

.89 - Cheese

.79 - white bread

.40 - eggs

.15 - 1 bowl of cereal

.8 - 1 apple

= 9.16+ tax

-----------

$ 9.98

Monday

Breakfast: Bagel and  2 eggs

Lunch: Ham, cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Tuesday

Breakfast: 3 eggs

Lunch: Ham, Cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Wednesday

Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch: Ramen Noodles

Dinner: Ham, cheese and apple

Thursday

Breakfast: Bagel, egg and cheese

Lunch: Ham, cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen Noodles

Friday

Breakfast: Bagel ham, egg and cheese

Lunch: Ham, Cheese and carrots

Dinner: Ramen and carrots.

A Challenge That I Bet You Wont Take.

Did you know that over half over the world lives off of $2 a day? $2 a day!!! That is it! That is nuts! I cannot even eat off of $2 a day.... wait, I cant even eat off of $2 a meal or can I?

I want to throw out a challenge to you but let me tell you why first. I have been thinking about life and what's important to me. I have been thinking about everything; my wife, kids, bible study, work, food, time, money, friends, prayer, cleaning, free time, hobbies and more. I started to think about all of these and how I approach them in my life. Am I more concerned about games and free time than my family? A lot of times I would say yes. Am I selfish? Yes. Am I spoiled? Yes. Am I rich? Yes. Starting next Monday I am attempting to strip away many things that are not as important to focus on the things that are for one week. I hope the results will make me more grateful for what I have.

One of the things that I am doing  and that I would like to challenge you to is is I am going to try to eat off $2 a day. Thats kind of crazy when you think about it. But then again, think of the rest of the world; $2 a day is what they make to cover everything. You up for the challenge? Let me know if you are by leaving a comment below. Click "post a comment". For me it will be tough, but the goal is that I need to be thankful for what I have.

By the way, I am asking Faith if we can have our whole family eat off of $2 a day. I will let you know what she says. Leave a comment below so we can see how many people are up for the challenge. Let's do it.

People are always searching...

http://bit.ly/bMoWJ

What if I Could Change My CIty?

Not sure if you ever dream, but I would encourage you to start dreaming about something. Some people reading this may have a dream to just get a girlfriend. Others may have a dream that their kids would grow up an be successful, while others just have a dream to get a job.

Here's my dream.... "I want to change my city". I know its kind of big, but I believe it can happen. I do admit I cannot do it myself, I will need help, but I believe it can be done. I am confident in that. So, what does it take? Networking. First of all, networking with God and being led by Him is my first and foremost goal. Without Christ I am on my own. My life is His, so I will remain in Him. Second of all I need Christians. I need followers of Christ to join me to change my city. What are we changing it for? To help people. Feed the poor, help the drunkard find life without alcohol, encourage men to be faithful to their spouses and vice-versa, help porn addicts keep their eyes on their wife or future wife. All of this is to bring God glory and help change lives in my city. People are desperate without God

So why does all of this matter? I believe because God has hope for all humanity, but humanity does not see hope in God. I am a follower of Christ, so I am on the team to bring people back to God and back to a life worth living.

Here is my plan: 1. Pray, 2. Live what I say,  and 3. start a church and get family and friends on board to buy into a dream that will change lives and change a city. What are your dreams? Do you have a plan to fulfill it? Want to join in and help me with my dream to change a city? Let me know. Lets do it.

Easily Forgetful

I hate it when I lose the remote or my car keys. Its so inconvenient. I have to stop and retrace my steps. Sometimes I find what I was looking for, but sometimes it can take a few days or even a few weeks. Take the remote for example, we lost it 3 days ago and just found it tonight. Where? Right behind the cushion, where else? Go figure. 

Not sure if you have heard of the children of Israel. They were God's chosen people in the Old Testament. They followed God and many times rebelled and went against God. God would bless them at times and also discipline them at times, just as earthly fathers have to do sometimes with their kids. But the real kicker is the Red Sea.... God parted a sea. Are you kidding me? For me it takes faith to believe that, but for the children of Israel they actually walked through it. They experienced one of the coolest miracles of all times and yet they still forgot Gods promises and set their eyes back on themselves. They easily forgot about God.

As I think through that I wonder, "Wow, how could you turn your back on God after a miracle like that" and then I think of my life and the miracles God has done for me. It's easy for me to forget as well.

As I have been doing this church plant, Awaken, I have been doing a lot of ministry on my own strength. Today I was talking to a fellow church planter, Ryan, and I was amazed to see what he doesn't do with his time. He is more laid back and does a few things well and he lets the details work themselves out. I learned a lot today because I have been anal and stressing about all of the details that "need" to get done as we have launched our church. Today I feel like I have been set free from "doing ministry" and have peace, freedom and trust to let Christ build His church and I can be faithful with doing a few things well and let the rest work itself out. Not sure if you are a perfectionist or are anal about getting many things done, but I encourage you to let a lot of it go and just breathe and relax.... it feels good.