• To know Christ: am i engaged deeply is the relationship?
• To be Like Christ: Am i developing His character?
• To accomplish His purpose for me: do you know your mission in life?

• What did Paul need to forget? Galatians 1:13 (ESV)
  ¹³ For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 

• I believe Paul thought about Stephen a lot.    

 Baggage; we all have it and it keeps us from reaching our full potential. as long as we hold on to it we can’t completely take hold of Christ. He works best when our hands are empty. 

• Possession: Genesis 17:8/ 1Cor 6:20 
• Child: John 1:12 
• Workmanship: Ephesians 2:10 
• Friend: James 2:23 
• Temple:1 Cor 3:16/ 6:16 

• redeemed by the blood: Rev 5:9 
• set free from sin /condemnation: Rom 8:1-2  
• forgiven: Col 2:13
• given a sound mind: 2 Timothy 1:7 
• given the Holy Spirit: 2 Cor 1:22 
• given great and precious promises: 2 peter 1:4

• In Christ I am ………………………………………….
• Free from the power of sin: Romans 6:14
• Going to Heaven: John 14:6
• The head and not the tail. Deut 28:13

• Your life matters, you where saved for perfection.

• The only thing worth holding on to is CHRIST.

I have ask this question many times; Who am I?, What am I here for?, is there any meaning to this life?. until I meet Jesus nothing really made much sense to me. Going back two-thousand years and Jesus is asking the disciples the same question? “WHO AM I”. seems odd to me because if you read the bible it never appears that Jesus was unsure about WHO He was.

In the Gospel of Mark chapter 8:27-29 Jesus ask those closest to HIM this same question???? “Who AM I”. First it was who do people say that I am? the answer was one of the great men, John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the other prophets. Which was a  common answer based on a common observation. Then He ask them the twelve “Who do YOU say that I am?’ Peter says you are the One, the Messiah this time not a common answer by common observation but, an answer revealed by the Spirit of God.

People had been healed, delivered, and fed. People had studied God’s word, sacrificed, served and gave money. Most people saw a great teacher, few people recognized the Messiah. The difference was in the seeking, as we seek God with our whole heart the Spirit of God will reveal Jesus to us for who he is.

                                                      The Savior of the world. 

I have been hearing this a lot and I mean A LOT over the last few weeks. Don’t judge me, somehow people are very confused about this issue of Judgement. As a Christian we are never to judge someone unto damnation, because at the end of the day only God can judge a heart.

                 We are however, called to make judgements about life.

1 Peter 4:17-18 NLT, For the time has come for judgement, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgement begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?
    And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?

Whats the point? what you believe here and now will determine where you will spend your eternity.

The question ?  Does God love everybody, the answer is yes God loves everybody. But thats not the most important Question. The most important Question is do YOU love God? Because God said himself if you love me you WILL obey my commandments. This is where the judging comes in, there are very specific things God tells us about how we are to live. Check this out…….

Romans 1:17-32

17. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say. ” It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

18. But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

19. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.

20. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

21. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their mind became Dark and Confused.

22. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools

23. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

24. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each others bodies.

25. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen

26. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.

27. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

28. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God. he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do thing that should never be done

29. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.

30. They are backstabbers, hater of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.

31. they refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.

32. They know God’s Justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

That covers that. If you are a Christian you are called to make judgements about behavior. There are somethings we should never do. And the most loving thing I can do is to tell you to stop. God loves you and made away for you to live complete and lacking nothing and his name is Jesus, he is waiting for your call. And thats the way I see it in my market.

Do you think we have enough programs for discipleship? Maybe just one more and that will do it? I’ve been around long enough now to have seen a few (lol) of these. nothing wrong with a lot of them,  but most are missing the most important thing–RELATIONSHIP– It amazes me how often we abandon the model of discipleship the Jesus himself laid out for us for “something more effective”.

True discipleship only happen in community, when someone like (Paul) takes time with someone like (Timothy) and spends their life on them. It’s not 12 weeks or 5 steps or anything else, It is a slow process, two steps forward one step back. the biggest thing is that someone has to be willing to teach and someone has to be willing to learn.

    I thank God for the people that took time with me a raw punk kid with a lot of attitude, that questioned everything. Wendy and I had the good fortune to meet or maybe it is better said that God thought enough of us to send these wonderful people into our life, Bob, Joann, Tom, Sara, Richard, JD, Jimmy, these people helped us in life by simply modeling Christ. They taught us the bible by allowing us to read them, and we are better for it.

     30 years latter and the seeds they planted so long ago are still growing, some are just budding now. This past Sunday, Easter Sunday, I had the opportunity to preach on the Resurrection of Christ and 33 people raised their hand for him and you what is great about that? I gave what had been given to me, these people poured their life into me and the Holy Spirit used it and that is real discipleship.They shared in the harvest. “Some Plant, Some Water, and Some Harvest, but it is the Lord that gives the increase.” and thats the way I see it in my market.

The resurrection of Christ in the central fact of the gospel. And the bible has a lot to say about it, Here are just a few, this would make a great bible study.

Job 19:25-27
Psalm 16:10
Daniel 12:2-3
Isaiah 53:10
John 14:19
Hebrews 2:14-15
And just about all of 1 Corinthians 15. “If Christ was not resurrected then your faith is worthless and you and I are still dead in our sins.” You see the resurrection validates everything Jesus said and did. If Jesus was raised from the dead (and he was) why do so many christians life such dead lives? The point of a resurrection is to bring something that was dead back to life, something that is new and transformative.
To give up my dead selfish life, for a life that has meaning and purpose.

When something or someone who was dead and now is alive should get your attention. The resurrection of Christ is the single most important event in human history. And let take it further, It should be the most important event in “your” history. my, your, eternal destiny depends on it. Are you living in the power of the risen Christ? If so what is the evidence? If your are a christian you are called to live a supernatural life. I am determined to live in Him, with Him, for Him and through Him. and thats the way I see it in my market.

This Sunday at the end of my message the Holy Spirit reminded me of something. There was a time in my life that I thought I could fly, or at leased I dreamed I could. What happen’s to our dreams as we grow up?
Why do we give up on the impossible, the outrageous? When I was 8 I dreamed of flying, being the hero, I rode horse’s into battle, and hunted bears, I thought Greatness was in reach, and then people started to laugh at my dreams and I was told to grow up and face the real world. I think this must have been how Joseph felt when God gave him a dream, when he shared it with his family?? Not possible, ridiculous, Who do you think you are?

It is clear in Scripture that GOD gave him the dream. Can I make an observation? I have been reading the Bible for awhile how and I have yet to find an example of God giving anyone a ordinary dream, please correct me if I am wrong.

something happen’s to US when we quit following GOD”S given dream for our life. I long time ago I gave up on the dreams of my childhood and started dreaming of being ordinary. wanting to fit in rather than stand out. I am at a place in my life that I am ready to trade my dreams for God’s dreams.

Man! think with me about Abraham, Moses, Noah, and what about Peter, James, John, and Paul. They treaded in their Life for God’s Life and look what happened! I think I can! oh, Fly that is. Can you?

What would you really be giving up to trade your life for HIS? I think the realest life we can live is seeing God’s dream and saying to ourself, yea I am going for IT! And thats the way I see it in my market.

If everything that is  YOU is suddenly gone and all you have left is God is that enough for you?.  How you answer that depends on the kind of relationship you have with  him now.  Do you love the benefits or do you love God? Does how you feel about God depend on if you are winning or losing? Hear a lot of “Christians” quick to give all the glory to God when it is good, but rarely do you hear them give God the glory for the hard time. And I think we all have to answer the question???

DO I REALLY KNOW GOD OR JUST KNOW ABOUT HIM?


I  think the answer is in the CROSS am I using it, in some kind of self-serving way? or have I found life in my death?

The Lord said  “take up my cross and follow me”.  To follow Christ is to follow him through death and if you are dead you can hold on to anything in this world. I must confess I have held on to somethings in this world for to long and I think to day is a good day to let go, and hold on to the CROSS. and thats the way I see it in my market.

I had a great time last night at our Wednesday night gathering, after the meal time we have been working through a study on apologetics. We have been talking about all the thing that trip people up when it comes to matters of faith in the bible, God, Jesus Christ and so on. When a very important point was raise! Why are we so disconnected from each other? And again my mind and heart floods back to Acts 2:42-47

This is the model of a New Testament Church.


42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 parsing God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.


Can we expect God to move in our life and in the life of others if we live to a standard less than this?????

We have a fundamental issue that has to be corrected And it starts with Jesus He has to come to the front of the line in our lives……until we put HIM first, nobody else has a chance and NoBody will believe our message. and thats the way i see it in my market.

I just had a birthday a couple of weeks ago, for those of you who must know I am 51. There seems to be something about 50 that means you should have learned something things, I mean after 50 years you should know if what your doing is working or not. I think it is a time to have an honest evaluation of where you are in life, if your on the right path and your life is bearing fruit great, but if that is not the case maybe it is time for a change. So, if I could do it again???? I would………….not in any order……..

• Love more and hate less
• spend more time with people than things
• I would work on being kinder
• I would slow down
• play more with my kids
• dream more
• Laugh a lot  more
• pray more, study less
• be where I am
• say no more
• read the words in red more (a lot more)
• make friends with people different than me
• have more self-control
• live in the freedom that God has given me in Christ
• criticize less, encourage more
• Love God and Love people more
• work on my relationships

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6


This idea of God the Father or maybe better put this way, God as a father trips up a lot of people. I never had a good relationship with my earthly father, so the concept of God being a father to me was hard for me to grasp. My dad didn’t like me very much, he was never satisfied, nothing was never good enough. He was angry a lot……….. and was gone most of the time. He never spent much time with me growing up. I tried to earn his love or at lest his respect, but I finally got tried of trying to have a relationship with someone who didn’t want one with me.

I was so hungry for a Father I looked for other men who seemed like they understood what it meant to be a father and I tried to spend as much time as I could with them but, most of them had families  of their own, so I felt out of place….. a lot.

After I came to know Christ as my Savior I still had a hard time relating to God as my Father, It took awhile, but I figured it out. God is not mad at me and he loves me just how I am, but he doesn’t leave me that way because he is making me to be like Christ. He is patiently crafting me into a whole person repairing all of the cracks in my life. I am good enough, you are good enough. I don’t know what your experience is with your earthly father? If it was good, YOU are blessed and if you can, give dad a call and tell him how much you love him. If your story is kinda like mine this is some of what I know about our Heavenly Father, our Everlasting Father.

• He is Compassionate 

”The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.’ Psalm103:8


“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for you souls” Matthew 11:28-29

• He is Caring       

” For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

• He is always There 

”Never will leave you; never will forsake you” Hebrews 13:5  

 You need to get this, God Loves you. and thats the way I see it in my market.