Constructive Thoughts

There is a really good discussion going on over at Tony's blog about 2 Peter 1:1-9. Even if you didn't sign up for the daily devotionals on growing stronger, I highly recommend that you check it out. The first devotional and discussion is right here.

Fusioneer of the Week

For the record, whoever thought of getting the enormous umbrellas and walking people to their cars after the service is a GENIUS! Thank you to Scott Stewart and Richard Campbell (the 2 that I saw) and whoever else braved the rain for the sake of all our members, attenders, and visitors. AWESOME! And whoever thought it up, you're the unofficial OFFICIAL FUSIONEER OF THE WEEK, with all the perks and benefits thereto ascribed. Enjoy your week!

Blueprints for the Waiting Room

Today's message was Part 2 of the Under Construction series, entitled Ready and Waiting:

Godly waiting is active, not just sitting and wishing. The steps that follow are What to Do When You're on Hold.

1. Trust God's Power
• Abraham believed God could
1. bring things back from the dead, and
2. create things which didn't exist before
• God's power covers everything.
• ACTION STEP: BELIEVE - At a bare minimum, say "God could do it."
2. Trust God's Promises
• Move from "God is able" to "God is willing."
• "I see I can't BUT God said he would."
• Get a promise from God's Word and cling to it.
• It's not "I don't have time to read the Bible." It is "Bible reading is not a priority for me."
• In these difficult days, Bible reading MUST become a priority, so that we'll know what promises there are for us.
• God's Word keeps you off the "flaky" side.
  
• Always free to be yourself in the "prayer closet," but go in there with a promise!
• ACTION STEP: CLAIM - claim a promise from God
3. Trust God's Plan
   
• God doesn't say to ignore the facts; he says to look at the facts, then look beyond them
• God's plan is bigger than your situation, e.g. God is bigger than the economy.
• You may not come out pretty, but you will come out
• Don't tell God what can't be done
• If you're not active, you're not waiting on God; he's waiting on you.
• Persist = keep trying, Exist = sitting around
• Keep planting the seed - act in faith
• if you have money issues - keep giving in faith, buy lunch for someone in need, help someone else
• don't give up, trust that God will take care of you
  
• ACTION STEP: PERSIST
  
4. Trust God's Process
   
• Thank God in advance for what's coming
• As you thank Him, your faith grows stronger.
• Thanking God in advance is often the key to a breakthrough
• Thank Him verbally, musically, any way you can
• Jesus said, "everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already." - Mark 11:24 (NJB)
• While waiting, the enemy will try to discourage you. The worse it comes, the more you praise God.
• "Thank you that you are going to..."
• ACTION STEP: THANK (in advance)
  

Where to begin claiming: Isaiah 41:10

Blue Notes

Sunday's message was on Bouncing Back from a Breakdown:

1. Build a Dream Team
• Surround yourself with people that you know are leaders
• When everyone in your life is a taker, it will wear you out. Having leaders in your life will lift you up.
• There's an epidemic of isolationism and loneliness, hand in hand with epidemic of depression
• The wrong crowd will corrupt a good person. Leaders will change the life of a teachable person.
  
• Standing with Leaders Helps Me...
A. Hear God

• Christians go through seasons of hearing and not hearing from God.
• Sometimes you need others to hear with you / for you and confirm
  
B. Remain Encouraged

• Being around people with similar calls, similar, goals, similar ambitions encourages your spirit
  
C. Bear Burdens

• Every great blessing of God comes with responsibility, many times greater than our ability to bear on our own.
• Marriage and parenting are hard so that we will seek God's help and others' help.
  
• How do we even make friends anymore? The Church was designed to foster relationships with God and with others.
• Growth groups
  
• Ministry teams - Serving together, working in the trenches builds bonds like nothing else in life.
2. Get Myself Ready
• Numbers 11:17c - "Tell the people to get ready for tomorrow." Sometimes, the big act of faith is just to get ready for another day.
• When you're jobless and depressed, that's when God says, "Let's work on your resume today."
• Listen for God. Be prepared when you enter your time with God (e.g., Bible, highlighter, pen, notebook). "God, I know you're going to talk to me. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but when you do, I'll be ready."
• "I really believe God's working on Tony 2.0 right now. He's had me make change after change. I almost went from PC to Mac; that's how bad things have gotten."
  
• Get dressed, shower, and shave. Get ready for the day.
  
• Set your sights on God. There is a tomorrow.
  
3. Speak Faithfully
• Speak in faith based on the promises God's given you.
• Say it to yourself and others.
• Psalm 6:9 - "The Lord has heard my cry for help; the Lord will answer my prayer."
  
4. Trust God's Ability
• Too often we overestimate our problem and underestimate God's ability.
• God is smarter than me.
• Just because you can't see a way out doesn't mean there isn't one.
• We seek solutions more than we seek God.
• The times when problems arise are when we need to seek God.
  
5. Trust God's Timing
• Numbers 11:23 - "God answered Moses, 'So, you you think I can't take care of you? You'll see soon enough whether what I say happens for you or not.'"
• "Soon enough" doesn't mean "when I want."
• Your whole life doesn't unfold the day you're born. You're whole life unfolds over your whole life.

• Numbers 11:31b - "The quail were about three feet deep on the ground, and there were quail a day's walk in any direction."
• God's plan is always bigger than we can possibly imagine.
  

Promotions

Tony posted some great news for the Fusioneers. The amazing Greg Troxell will be heading up the student ministries for Fusion Church starting this August, and the incomparable Scott Stewart will be heading up all of our guest services! These guys are some great men, and if you've seen them in action around the church, you know the joyful service they always give. Excellent choices, Fusion staff!

Growing Up

Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church and author of "The Purpose-Driven Life") shares some very cool insights on renewal and growth in our relationships with God, with others, as well as in our ministry. They are reported by Perry Noble of NewSpring Church in his blog posts here and here.

Coming Into Focus

Today's talk was about Vision:

Main Verse - Hebrews 2:1

We all need to get our vision checked periodically.
To fulfill God's vision for my life, I need to:

1. Dream a God Dream
• Adage that "whatever the mind can believe, it can achieve" isn't always the case
• My dreams are inherently "me-focused"
• God's dream is bigger and better than any dream of mine
  
• God's dream may involve pain, challenges, and waiting (may be best for me, but not something I'd choose for myself, which is why it has to be God's dream instead of mine)
2. Expect God to Act
• Matthew 9:29b (NIV) - "According to your faith it will be done to you."
• Build faith by hearing God's word (preaching), reading God's word, and being around people of faith
• I can't please God without depending on Him
• God's dream should scare me because I can't do it on my own
3. Refuse to Give Up
   
• Sometimes, I just have to wait patiently
• The enemy tries to distract me and discourage me so that I will give up
4. Always Love People
   
• God has a plan: I need to seek it out
• Trust Him
• Love other people
  

Showing What You're Made Of

I was reading chapter 2 of the book of James this morning, and it struck me that, really, this is what volunteering to help out at church is all about. The chapter talks about your faith in God enabling you to show His love to others. This is exactly what's going on, whether you're greeting people when they first arrive at church, teaching their children about God in Kingdom Safari, or running the sound board to make sure everyone can hear what's being said without being overpowered. You're showing your faith in Jesus by loving the people he loves (all of us) and providing a service to them. We show God's love in our hearts when we treat everyone equally, treat them well, and give of our time and/or talents to serve them.

By the way, for another church's thoughts on volunteering, the chapter also reminded me of this post by pastor Perry Noble of NewSpring Church.

Trouble Listening

A couple of weeks ago I posted the following as the "Refrigerator Verse of the Day" on my personal blog:

Hebrews 5:11 (NLT) - "There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen."

Obviously (I hope), I meant it to be funny that one might put that on their refrigerator as an inspirational verse, but I really posted it because that morning, I felt like God was speaking to me in a gentle reprimand about how long I've known Him versus how spiritually mature I am. I'm a world-class procrastinator, late to bed, and late to rise (aside: consequently, I'm not always healthy, and I'm still working on the wealthy, and I guess I'll leave the "wise" to be determined by the reader). Therefore, it has taken me a relatively long time to develop a daily habit of spending time alone with God (reading the Bible, praying, and listening). Now that I've finally gotten to the point where I've made this a daily commitment, I can't believe how long I did without it. I can't believe HOW I did without it. I crave this time, and if I don't get it, it's so much harder to get motivated about anything else. On the other hand, when I do get this time, I feel much more peaceful when I head out the door for work.

All that to say, if you've committed your life to Christ, and especially if you're serving in the church in any capacity, I would really encourage you to spend time alone with God every morning. The more time I spend with him, the more passion I feel about serving him and serving the folks that go to our church.

Notes of the Living Debt

Today's talk was on dealing with the Attack of the Uncontrollable Wallet:

1. Pay Attention (keep records)
   
• "Riches can disappear fast..." Proverbs 27:23 - As it turns out, the Bible is true.
• "You can't win a battle when you don't know what's going on"
  
• Know
  
• what you own
• what you owe
• what you earn
• where it goes
2. Tell My Money Where to Go (budget)
   
• Money talks: it says, "Goodbye."
• A spending plan is you deciding where your money's going to go
• Financial Freedom is not about earning more and more money, it's about learning how to control what you spend
• Joe Sangl is passionate about setting people free
• "Winning the lottery is not a good financial plan."
3. Plan of Future Surprises (save)
   
• Debt is saying, "I can't afford this now, but I'm sure I'll be able to afford it later."
• Debt is taking the future's resources and pulling them into today, it is borrowing against the future.
• "The wise man saves for the future." Proverbs 21:20a
• Last year
• the average Japanese family saved 25%
• the average European family saved 18%
• the average American family saved -1% (spent 1% more than they earned).
4. Put God First (tithe)
   
• Tithing is putting God first with your money.
• In any area of life where you want God to move, you must put Him first
• His ultimate goal is to set you free: one area of freedom is financial.
• Everything belongs to God; let him take care of it.
• Plan should be 10-10-80
  
• 10% Give to God
• 10% Save for the future
  
• 80% Live on the rest
5. Enjoy What I Have (contentment)
• Need to appreciate what God has given me
• Our work doesn't equal a living; Our work + God's blessing = a living.
• If you borrow from Visa, you have to do what Visa says.
• "I wish someone like that would follow me around and keep me in line. He's like a huge Jabba-the-Hutt version of Jimmy the Cricket!" (sic)
  
• "Why work hard for something that doesn't satisfy?" - Isaiah 55:2b
  
• If you'll walk with God and do what he says, he'll take care of you and bring you out of financial struggles.