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Do you know what the problem is with resolutions? It’s the fact that most people don’t have the drive to keep them all year long, or they don’t make the goal achievable. I’m all for creating goals, but starting small is key. Instead of setting a goal for the whole year, set one for the month, or even the week. It builds your confidence and will get you a step closer to that overall goal you have in mind.

Also, make your goal attainable. Saying I want to lose weight, or I want to read the bible more does not set an end point. Start with I want to lose 5 lbs. this month, or I want to read a chapter a day of the book of Matthew. And after you have met your goal, go on to the next one.
You can do anything you put your mind too, and with God’s help of course. I hope you a terrific 2014.

~ Prez

From time to time I have to walk a few blocks for my job, from one office to the other. Normally it’s a simple 10 minute walk, nothing typically happens. Sometimes you get to see people ask for change, j-walk, or trip walking, but nothing special. Today, however, a young woman was carrying a plastic bin on a hand truck. And as usual I saw it but paid no real attention, until the bin fell off the hand truck and the contents spilled over the sidewalk.

Right when I saw the bin crash to the ground, I walked right over to help this woman pick up her belongings. And as I helped her, someone else came and picked up the rest of the items that came out of the bin. When I was done I just got up from the ground and walked away, like what I did was no big deal. And the truth is: it’s not. Doing something nice for someone does not need to be made into a big deal, it’s just love. And as Christians, love is supposed to be the one thing that we do. Loving God, loving ourselves and others is what Jesus titled as the greatest commandments. Why? Because love summarizes the entire law; the law that is filled with action words. That means when Jesus walked around for his three year ministry, it was all to teach us how to love God, ourselves and others.

The interesting thing about the idea of love is that most of us have the wrong idea or a skewed idea of what love is. Some of us think that love is a feeling, others think love means let people do what they want, there are a few of us that think it gives us the right to tell people what to do, and another group of people think love means getting walked all over, but none of these are true. Love is an action. Basically love means doing what is best for this person as it relates to eternity. And love for people will never violate the love for God (just something to think about). So all the Bible teaching that we have been getting all of our lives is for us to love better.

Not to say that I’m perfect at this, but the reason that we need to flood our ears with the word of God is because the more we hear the more we build our faith. Faith is what our words and actions follow. So simply to say that the more we believe God’s word, the more we will act out God’s word, and the more we act out God’s word, the more we love God’s way. God’s love in our hearts should drive us to action.

~Jerod

A player diving on the floor after a loose ball, scraping he’s skin.
A gymnast sticking the last vault even after breaking her ankle.
A guy giving up his coat to a girl even tho he is freezing.

What do they all have in common? Well the title says it all. Those three examples all gave up something or themselves for a greater reward. They believed that their sacrifice would not be in vain. The Lord also ask us the sacrifice things for the greater good of his kingdom. The Lord may be asking you to give up your time, your money, your energy to help His kingdom grow. We all have the duty of letting the world know about our living God, and we can’t be slacking on our jobs. If it’s through music, dancing, talking with friends, etc. let God use you. The baller may lose, the gymnast may get 2nd, the guy may not get the girl, but our God will pour out His blessings on those who listen and do His will. Did He call you to make a sacrifice?

Ezra 7:23
~Prez

In life we have many challenges. Some of us even have trouble looking at ourselves in the mirror. All we do is look and see our flaws. I’m not pretty enough, I have no talent, I can’t stop my sin, my family says I’m a nobody. We find excuses to have hate in our hearts towards other or towards ourselves. This feeds into Satan’s kingdom. He loves to see you have a cold heart and to have pain, and suffering. This is not of the will of God. Love is the will of God. We have to tackle whatever it is that causes such feelings in order to move forward in God’s will. As Christians, we have to help each other out. If it’s giving a tip to overcome an addiction, lending an ear, or just something simple as a word of encouragement, we all have the duty of helping our brother and our sister to that next step. You never know how something as small as sharing ur testimony can change lives.

My tip for anyone who feels like anything I said above is to read Psalm 89 (talks about our covenant with God) and 90 (God’s awesomeness), then praise God throughout all situations. Randomly sing sings of worship, talk with him and praise his name, get in his face. God loves you. ~Prez

Jesus was not and never will be passive. A lot of us have gotten a misconception of who Jesus is. People have told us that Jesus was quiet and soft and kind and nice and passive. Although the picture that the world paints is not completely false Jesus was never soft nor was he passive. Remember Jesus walked straight up to grown man and told them to follow Him. No man does that if he’s passive. As a matter of fact Jesus purposefully and aggressively created the group of 12 people that were soon to be known as his disciples and later the apostles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And when Jesus was challenged by the leaders of the day, He stood His ground, and held His stance firm, without wavering or shaking to the side or people pleasing. Jesus was not looking to save peoples feelings, think of the rich young ruler, Jesus told them the truth regardless of what His response was going to be. Jesus knowing the future, knew the response of every person before He even spoke with He was going to say. Yet He still spoke those things knowing that it will hurt their feelings initially, but at the end, would affect the great change in the world. As for us, it is the same thing. When we aggressively take a stance and hold to it, we begin to affect a change in the world that we live in. Sometimes it’s just actions and other times we need to speak up for it. Regardless of the method, we become just like Jesus was in the world. When we are effectively and aggressively standing for the principles of God, with the intent of love, we will see the world that Christ had dreamt of from the beginning. ~ Jerod

I was out at lunch complaining to a coworker about someone of the tasks that I had been doing. I was really frustrated because this it seemed like I was doing things that were outside my job description. Then, a man with one leg crossed the street right in front of me. A man with one leg using crutches.
Hours later it hits me. I am and have been complaining about things that don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. No so much that I could be missing a leg but more these momentary troubles I have are momentary. Over my years I have waited to get married and have my own family. In waiting for that I now see that my time waiting as a single man will be only a memory after I get married, nothing more. I complain too much about the present without keeping the future and eternity in mind. ~Jerod

It has been brought to my attention that we lose confidence in yourselves. At some point we believe that who we are is not good enough for where we are. It has happened to me, I believed that even though God placed me in a certain situation that I did not measure up to the standard that he called for me to be. I don’t mean in the relationship to sin but in the relationship to the quality of fruit I was putting out. For example, if I was leading Bible study the word that I believe God gave to me seemed like it  was not good enough for the people that I was giving it to. But truthfully it was the devil trying to make me lose confidence in the God that gave me the gift to give to someone else. That is doubt, and doubt is sin. In Romans 14 the last statement says that anything that is not faith is sin. So to resolve this problem we need to believe God that he knew what he was doing when he gave us the mission that he has given us. He knew who we were when he placed us where we are. Therefore let us have confiedence that the creator of the universe that can accomplish in our situations through us. God loves us too much to set us up to fail. ~Jerod

Some of the worst decisions in my life involved me not allowing God to be in control. God is all knowing, seeing, and powerful. Not allowing God to be in control of your life is like having the ultimate study guide to a test you did not study for and not using it. Step aside and let God be God in your life.~Prez

Knowing someone is different from having a relationship with someone. We know a lot of people; actors, singers, that cashier that works in Giant on Tuesday nights. But having a relationship with someone is much deeper than saying hi and bye. Many believe that they have a relationship with God and will go to heaven because they know His name. This is like saying I get to gain Bill Gate’s money when he passes on because I know his name. The way to heaven is by believing in the Son. This is evident in your life style. This relationship produces fruit. Changes happen. You can’t stay the same. The spirit on the inside of you won’t allow it to be as it was before. And relationships take work in order for them to blossom. So once you’re in it, are you trying to dive deeper to keep it? Are you closer to Him today then you were yesterday, last week, last year? So I ask you, do you have a relationship with God or do you just throw around His name? ~Prez