The Cost of True Leadership

This blog is for all you out there who know or feel like there is leadership in your future. This could be spiritual in a call of God or even in the business world as an executive or employer. This could even really fall in the category of parenting and leading a family.

Leading people is so much more than words. Leadership is really about sacrifice. A true leader will give their heart and soul to the cause. Many of us want the perks of leadership without the price of leadership. Becoming a leader isn’t about gaining rights; it’s about giving them up. Heartaches come and go. Sometimes huge sacrifices have to be made. CEO’s and leaders in the business world often make mistakes in thinking that it means more freedom in spending the money, more options with their time to be leisure, or even more freedom with their lifestyle and character. We’ve seen this all to well in recent events and we’ve seen the falls. Someone said one time, “The higher up the ladder you go, the harder you hit when you fall.” I personally don’t want to go any higher up on the cooperate ladder than my character will be strong enough to keep me as I go!

To be a great leader, we cannot separate our communication from our conduct. Now I don’t blog this thinking I have arrived because I haven’t. But I am still working on it. God has given Shonda and I opportunities to surround ourselves with some great leaders in the spiritual realm and the business world. One thing I have observed over the years in this field is that if we don’t live the values we want others to embrace, it creates a hollow and deceptive hypocritical lifestyle and that’s all. No one wants to follow this type of leader and lets face it, without people who desire to follow or imitate you, you’re not much of a leader are you? The way we talk, the way we lead, the way we live should mesh together!

Let me give you some lessons in leadership that I am gleaning from out of a book.

1. Leaders must maintain poise even in the middle of unfair demands
2. Followers in volatile situations need consistency from leaders
3. Leaders must lead from established values and standards
4. Regardless of what people do or say, leaders must model what is right
5. Effective leaders never lose sight of the big picture

There is a cost to lead. Are you ready and willing to pay the price because we need more great leaders in God’s kingdom and in our society!

A Shifting at Mending Hearts

At MHC, over the last few months I have felt that a shift of direction was working its way into what we are doing. Our values and balance of order will stay the same. Since my wife and I came to the church, we have strongly valued missions, evangelism, stewardship, generosity, integrity, excellence and relationships among many other things.
God is clearly directing me as the Lead Pastor and Director of The Leader’s Edge to change our focus in a few areas.

1. We’re leaning more towards our Spirit-filled heritage by being even more sensitive to giving the Holy Spirit plenty of time and opportunity to minister to the people above and beyond salvations. We’ve always had a excellence of balance in our services, seen the effectiveness of the ministry and we have never been accussed of having a church without the Spirit, but in this shift, God is beginning to use us even more in the Gifts of Spirit and prophetic words for the purposes of power, encouragement, healing and deliverance. People have got to have an encounter with God’s power today. I believe we’re going to see more of the gifts in manifestation in these days ahead in our churches that are Sprit-led.

2. I have also noticed the content of my messages seems to have shifted from excessive grace to character building, pursuit of holiness and purity of heart within the body of Christ. Don’t misunderstand me, according to the word, everything God has provided for us is by grace and faith into His righteousness and I strongly endorse this with our congregation. But I have seen a fall of the standards and convictions in Christianity in the last several years and it’s not right. The practice of sin belongs in the world, not in the church. I am disappointed at best with the way I see believers misuse the grace of God to cover their sloppy character and dare to say it grieves our Lord as well.

3. One more thing. I feel in the shift of our direction at MHC is something I am almost embarrassed to share. For years we have worked hard hours with dilengence to see what God would do inside our church facility but not outside. Sure we do our share of community outreach but that is not what I am talking about. I’m talking about Evangelism. I feel like God is challenging us to take the message of Christ even stronger to our families, neighbors and into the world. We are going to have to become more aggressive with the spreading of the word while our delivery is engulfed with unconditional love. God is looking for every person in His church to rise up to the opportunity of harvest and become missionaries.

My attitude has always been to go where God is going, do what God is doing and say what God is saying. I am convinced we are going the right direction for now. Do you see yourself in need to shift some things in your own life?

Oh Be Careful Little Eyes What You See…

Some of you may remember that song we learned way back in Sunday School when we were like 5 years old. Then some of you may have never heard it before.

Oh be careful little eyes what you see…
Oh be careful little eyes what you see…
There’s a Father up above, looking down with tender love…
Oh be careful little eyes what you see…

Shonda and I raised our two sons with a strict standard of what they could or couldn’t watch on TV, movies or what video games they were allowed to play. We were extremely ridiculed for this by many. I have always believed that what you put into your spirit by your eyes and ears, that is what molds you through life. Our sons are grown men now but I have noticed that they are still moderately careful about what they watch considering how bad it can be today by the standards of our society. They also know that as long as they are under our roof, junky content  on TV and computers is not allowed!

This morning I was reading in Matthew chapter 6, and verses 22-23 says ”The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.

I have a good friend who works with Ron Luce and Teen Mania Ministries. He is now one of the main speakers at all the Acquire the Fire Conferences across our nation speaking to thousands of young people. We were blessed with the opportunity to have him stay with us in our home for 2 weeks a few years back. During that  time, I was with him when he recieved a call from Benny Hinn himself offering him a job at the ministry there in Orlando. He prayed for 3 days straight in our guest room and when he came out, he called him to turn it down. Said it wasn’t God’s will for his future. I will never forget something he said to my family one evening at the dinner table. We were talking about movies and he made the statement that if he watches a movie that has bad content such as filthy language, nudity or excessive violence, it takes him more time to get that out of his spirit than he cares to spend doing it. So as a proactive measure, he just doesn’t watch junk.

I want to challenge you all to guard the content of what goes into your spirit man. Let your standard be above the average of the worlds standard. Just because they do it, that doesn’t make it right! In 1 Corinthians it says a little leaven spoils the whole lump. It doesn’t take much to smudge up the purity of your spirit.

August of Abundance-Pastors’ Style!

My wife and I spent the weekend in Albany Texas near Abilene preaching in a church that a dear friend of ours pastors. On our way home Monday, I received a call from the Arcadia Lake Wildlife Management team. I have friend that works in the offices there. I was asked if I wanted to participate in a Deer Population Survey that took place that night. What a thrill for a deer hunter and of course I  carefully drove to get home… quick!

This may not rock your boat but like I said, it is a great thrill to go out and legally spot light and glass deer at night. So last night, I joined a team of the wildlife management at Arcadia lake and spent most of the night spotlighting and counting the bucks, does and fawns. They do this to know the population before hunting season starts and then to keep track of the harvest and deer management. Of course, in this area, hunting is limited to archery only and you have to submit a request and be drawn from a list to have the opportunity for a 4 day hunt during archery season. It does cost $50.00 per name entered and that goes to the Arcadia Lake Management funds to keep up the lake. I was told last night that in the fall of 1981, the first survey and the beginning of supervised management, they counted a total of 18 deer. This weekend the average count for deer sighted over a three night survey was 190 deer per night in the same area.

There were 7 of us and we were out for several hours with high powered lights and optical glasses driving slow with bright caution lights flashing all over the east Edmond and lake area. Standing on a tool box in the back of a 1 ton pick-up truck, holding on to a custom metal rack driving around the lake, up and down side streets and even into housing additions (it’s amazing the deer you will see in peoples nice yards eating their flowers, plants and grass in the middle of the night). At one point, I seen 3 massive bucks, the largest being a 14 pointer and the smallest was a 10 point. They were all running together with many does and they still had felt on their antlers. We seen many fawns (for those who may not know, a fawn is a baby deer) which is always a good sign for deer management and population. It’s funny to see the reactions of people driving around us as they watch us and see what we are doing. Some people get offensive and threaten to turn us in until they see the sign on the door of the truck that says Arcadia Lake Management. Others want to ride along. We tried to keep going when the rain came in but eventually the storms hit and we had to shut down because of lightning but what a fun time it was while it lasted! This was part of my August of Abundance for sure!

It was a great night of thrills and I just thought I would share the experience. Thanks for reading.

Don’t Let Your Heart Fail You!

John Chapter 14 is one of the most quoted books of scripture when it comes to bringing comfort to the cause of the death of a loved one or reassuring someone about the coming of the Lord and the promise of eternity.  Jesus lays out a plan for us to see concerning our future and hope of eternity.

John 14:6 Jesus said…, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. NKJV

Can I show you something I believe the Lord just showed me while reading the chapter in it’s entirety? 

The first 6 verses Jesus was reminding us that when He departed from this earth, He was going to PREPARE A PLACE FOR US. We have two promises in these verses; First, that when our spirits pass from this life into eternity with the Father and The Christ, we will have a place prepared to live in forever within the Father’s house (heaven). Second, that if He does prepare a place just for us because we believed and trusted Him to the end, He promises to come back, get us when everything is ready and take us there to be with Him. Sweet Promises!

As I read on into the the rest of the chapter, I began to notice something. This may be just for me, but then again isn’t that what my blog is all about; whats going on in me? The rest of the chapter deals with His disciples on subjects like the works of authority done in the name of Jesus during our remaining stay on earth; the promise of another Helper just like Jesus, the “Spirit of truth” and He will live with us and in us to teach us and show us things to come and remind us of things we have learned about the Father. He is the strength in the believer to help us carry out the commands of Christ! We also see that we have a promise of peace, not based on the standards or events of the world but given and lived in by grace from someone bigger than we are! 

In all this, God shows me that He is PREPARING US FOR A PLACE.Our remaining stay on earth, is to be obedient to the will of God, fulfill the commands of Christ with our life, learn from and glean strength from the Holy Spirit! It may be just me… but these are the things that keep me prepared in my heart and eternity driven!

My heart will not be troubled or afraid of what I see around me because I know He has prepared a place in eternity for me and in the process of time on earth, I am being prepared for my place in heaven!

“To Be Fruity, Draw Your Strength from the Vine”

We all are looking for more success and prosperity in our lives. if you’re not, that is a whole other Blog! To know the Word and in it His will, is to know that He wants exactly that for us all. Joshua 1:8; 3 John 2; Jeremiah 29:11; 2 Corinthians 9:8; and on and on… Of course, my prayer has always been, that the gifts and prosperity of God will not take me places that my character can’t keep me in. Just food for thought! I’m not looking to get rich before such time that God thinks I can handle it!

The strength of who we are is always magnified during our most difficult times. Almost anyone can lead with momentum on his/her side, but when death is staring you in the face, or a major test of your faith has smacked you right upside the head, it’s going to separate the men from the boys! I hope you’re picking up what I’m laying down!

God has grafted the believer into His Son Jesus so that they might draw strength and nourishment from Christ Himself. In John 15, Jesus even describes Himself as the “Vine” and us as the “branches.” There is a saying, “No man is an island.” We must draw our strength in difficult times from a divine power. That is the advantage of being connected to the Godhead. We must stay connected to Him if we are to be competent for Him.

 Fruitfulness is Fun! In John 15:11 Jesus taught that those grafted to Him would become fruitful, and out of that, our joy would be made full and His joy would remain in us. Jesus is our source and that’s exactly the way He wants you to see it. When we stay connected to Him, we naturally become fruity!

Solve our Problems but Save Our Pigs

In Luke chapter 8, Jesus and His disciples came to the country of the Gadarenes to teach and do ministry. He was then met by a man called Legion because he was possessed by many demons. The man had lost all control, found himself living naked in the cemetery and had been chained and kept under constant guard by the people of that area until he broke loose from that and was driven by the demons into the cemetery where he now stayed among the dead bringing havoc to the community. So Jesus, having compassion on the man, cast out the demons and drove them into some nearby pigs which in turn, the demons drove them into a wild stampede over a cliff and into the water until they all drowned. The man was now completely delivered and instantly grew calm and whole! Sounds like a happy ending… or does it?

The area residents came straight to Jesus and asked Him to leave their territory. There is no doubt that the destruction of those demons had been put to rest, but it came at the expense of some of their livestock!

Often we resemble the Gadarenes. We want change, but we don’t want it to cost us anything! We want change as long as it doesn’t change us! I actually heard some say one time…”We don’t want to upset things or get to radical”. Most of the time, change and improvement comes at a price.

It may come at a price of discomfort.
To receive change that can benefit or change your situation, it may require you to step outside of your comfort zone. What is the saying… “If you want what you’ve always had, keep doing the same thing you’ve always done”. To be rid of your problems that continue to cause discomfort, you may feel a little discomfort along the way of ridding it, but in the hands of Jesus, it will bring more comfort in the end.

It may mean disruption.
God will sometimes use a little disruption or dissatisfaction to move us to greater things or higher ground. When it’s time for the young eagles to learn to fly, the momma eagle will pull a mass amount of feathers from the giant nest that is actually twined together of thorn vines. The poking of the thorns disrupts the little eagle’s comfort zone. As he/she then starts to wiggle away from the thorns and uncomfort, they find themselves at the edge of the giant nest where mom then proceeds to knock them out! Talk about disruption. I don’t understand why God would allow this… : ) Of course mom is always there to help catch them on her wing, lift them up only to do it again until they learn the strength of their wings and begin to fly themselves. It seems to be part of the process for growth.

So if you want change and rid of the problems that face you, and you probably do in some areas, remember it will cost you something. I leave you with this… Jesus had no desire to take sides between Legion or the farmers. He just wanted to take over the situation and deliver a man and a community from demonic activity and strongholds. Really everyone benefited.

Christians… Please Do Your Part!

I have had major concern for the church body lately only to find out it is the consensus of many Pastors that I know and have talked to lately. I hope you take the time to read this.

In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said He would build the church on the revelation of Who He is as the Christ, Redeemer, Savior for the world and their sins. We should understand that the church is the body of disciples or as in Acts 11, verse 26, disciples were also first called Christians. These were simply the believers who chose to follow in faith the path of Christ. Jesus also says in Matthew 16 that those who become the church empowered by Him as the Christ, that not even the power of Hell or evil will be able to overcome them. Now… If Christ does His part to bring us together to the place of power against all Hell, why is there such a breakdown in the churches across the world because to me and apparently to others, we sure don’t look or even act like that kind of powerful church! What is the deal?

Are the Christians allowing the purpose of the church to be diminished? Are we not doing our part? Think about it.
We don’t see the faithful attendance from our members in our church bodies like we should. It seems that people come now out of convenience. When they want to, if nothing else is worthy of more effort or relaxation, you may see them Sunday. Now I sometimes take this personal and question what I am doing right or wrong that might affect this, but I know the Pastors that I have counseled with lately about this issue and they are good preachers of the solid word, powerful and prophetic with strong and clear vision just like I am. We all acknowledge this is a common problem. Christians have lost their desire to come together for fellowship at the facility where the church meets on a regular basis. Hebrews 10:25 warns us about this very issue. Coming to the synagogue (churches facility or congregational meeting place) is very important for many reasons but I’ll just give you three:
One, it is a place where we hear the direct word of God for the season we are going through. God still speaks divinely through His leaders of the pulpits and disciples (Christians) cannot afford to miss that instructional Word from God backed by those anointed for the position.
Two, it is a place of cooperate worship and prayer. We can come together to lift up the name of God, give worth to all He is, receive from Spiritual gifts and join in the power of prayer together. There is something to be said about a group of believers praying and worshipping God together. Read Acts… this is what shook the foundations of the earth for change. It is how the apostles many times were delivered from death and bondage. Pastors seemingly are working overtime to keep the body of Christ on the path to their eternity. I can’t tell you how many times I knew someone in our body was going through a desperate situation, and on a Sunday the power of God was present to deliver anyone from anything, and they wasn’t there to receive it. I won’t even dare to share the excuses why. There used to be a day when people came to church for healing when they were sick, they would ask for prayer and those prayers would heal their sicknesses and weaknesses!
Thirdly, when we come together in the same unity of the faith, we encourage one another. Listen to me and repeat it after me… I cannot be the church effectively by myself at home all the time! It’s not even good enough that we choose to watch a live internet steaming broadcast or Christian Television every Sunday. That is meant for those who cannot get out physically or are gone on a trip but still want to connect for the sake of the word from their pastor. Christians who do this are missing one of the key elements of what God intended and that is the gathering of each other and the excitement it generates on that special day of worship (their Sabbath).

One more quick thing and I will stop blog for the day. The Christian bodies are being affected financially. What is happening is that when people don’t show up to their fellowship, they simply don’t give tithe or offerings for that week. The finances are fluctuating like the attendance for most fellowships, big and small. People please don’t treat your tithe and offerings to God as a cover charge! If you know you are not going to be with your congregation for the next worship experience for a legitimate reason, make sure you get your tithe and offerings in anyway. This is how the christians become effective in sharing to the community for the needs of everyone. Not long ago, I had to turn one of our own members down in helping them financially through a crucial situation in their life and I have grieved over that ever since. We simply did not have what it would take to help them out at that time. That is never supposed to happen. We are not wasteful at Mending Hearts Church. As a matter of fact, our advisory board makes wise decisions with our spending and we are extremely diligent when it comes to handling the money. But because many of our members don’t tithe or give at all, or hit and miss so much without consistency, we don’t have a surplus of money to help others like we would love to.

If you read this blog, you can strengthen the church body by simply doing your part and encouraging others to do the same!

The Sign says…

Recently I was at a 2 day seminar in Oklahoma City where the teacher used various signs as illustrations. We all see the signs on the road around us and they speak to us. “Stop”, there is danger ahead unless you evaluate your surroundings. The same with “yield”. Go slow into your heading and read your surroundings.  ”Road Work Ahead” (we see alot of these lately ) which tells us to slow down and watch out for others ahead. There is a lot to be said here about warnings and clarity when you apply this to the spiritual surroundings of our day.

I was just reading/studying several chapters of Jeremiah this morning. It’s hard for me to read through books like this mainly because of all the middle eastern names of kings and rulers and such. You can easily get lost trying to correctly pronounce them all. But the content of what God was saying through the prophet’s writings is amazing and something we need to learn from today. The signs are simply laid out that if we will live right, love God and serve Him only, not only do we have promise and covenant that we will live a strong, healthy life but it promises our family, our state and even our nation supernatural protection and provision. Do we still care about where our help comes from?

God is looking for people of obedience to His word. It is not hard, it just takes a commitment to make good choices based from what we know is right. Why do we make this so difficult? Love the Lord YOUR God with all your heart(passions), all your mind(thought processes), all your body(physical needs and actions) and all your soul(your choices)! By doing this, you give no place for evil or wrong doing to move in. Come on… we have enough signs around us and taught to us that we have no excuse how we should live and what we should or should not do. When people make smart choices, based from good and not evil, we see the results of it around us. When people do the opposite, again, you see the results of sin and evil. And we wonder why bad things are happening all around us. People, it is the results of sin in our nation that we see.

The signs are warnings that something needs to change. Is that something your own life and choices? I believe and live in the gift of grace and forgiveness of God! But I’m also convinced that God is the same, yesterday, today and forever and we had better heed the signs that will bring us back to a fear (reverence) of the God that is still in control of our surroundings, our nations, our world!

Digging Deep

I haven’t blogged in a month but June has been a hard month for me spiritually. Thank you all for your prayers during this time. God has taught me in this period to dig deep into my soul and spirit to make good decisions in desperate times based from my knowledge of the word, wisdom acquired from God, and even the heritage of my dad and mom.

Proverbs 1:8 says My son, hear (or heed to and do) the instruction of your father and do not forsake the law (or conscience, character & standard building teachings) of your mother. 

My dad instilled inside of me a spirit of excellence and “can do”. I have found over the years, even though I used to complain when dad would demand me to work with him and help him in projects, there is nothing I can’t do when I apply knowledge, wisdom and effort (You should understand at this point that our wisdom, not the wisdom that we get from God,  is actually gained in experience). So the more we do in most cases, the more we know and understand. Then there’s that excellence thing that seems to haunt me only because others don’t seem to get it and I seem to expect it from everyone because I expect it from myself. I was taught in my early years, which is the years that form us, that if I’m going to do something, give it my best… not half-way, not a good effort, but my best! Even though I struggle more with this externally when it comes to dealing with other personalities, I owe a great deal of thanksgiving to my dad for this training. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Mom. Wow, where do I start, trying to keep a blog short, when talking about my mother! I really miss her! Even though I rebelled for a period of my earlier years, there is something instilled in me by my mom that might be recognized as faith by most, but to me, it is so much more. She taught me by example how to have Christian character in the face of adversities. I was taught by mom that I’m not going to get away with anything  I do (and she prayed that way) if it leans to the side of wrong or bad choices, and I shouldn’t expect to… that would only allow me to go further down a bad path. She also taught me by teaching and example to take power and dominion over our circumstances… and the neat thing is, when you get aggressive and couple it with faith based on God’s word, it really does work! This kind of stuff will never leave me because I have seen it and experienced it and no one can take that away from me.

So, in times of toughness, I dig deep to what I know is truth and what I have been taught by good leaders that works. I encourage you who read this to dig deep into your soul and your spirit in what you know will produce the positive outcome you are looking for. You know the truth, it’s just hard sometimes to put action behind it to make it happen. But in this day and age, we had better dig deep, trust God in all we do and with all we have and do what we know is right!