So Sunday night we had a family leave the church because 5 people where supernaturally healed.

We had an another family commit to the church because we had 5 people supernaturally healed…

We had a look at our stats for all our different podcast, those in the Pulpit Series and those on Guy Thing Radio, there are over 13000 sermons downloaded each month. We are growing at around 1000 a month.

There are nearly 200 teachings available for download.

It is just great to know we are helping so many people beyond us.

Before we go any further, I need you to understand the unique thing about mankind’s creation and the weight and value of the words God used to communicate His intention when he created us:

“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26).

At creation, animals were made according to their kind; they were made to look like each other, in the image of their own species, but mankind was made according to God’s image.

These two different words have two totally different meanings in the Hebrew which make up one incredible whole.

Image means the powers with which each one of us is endowed by God from the first moment of our existence. For example, we have free will, reason, and sense of moral responsibility, freedom of choice and an awareness of what it is to obey or disobey.

Likeness contains a whole different meaning. It carries the sense that if we make proper use of being in His image this will allow us to acquire God's likeness.

Timothy Ware writes that the likeness is not an endowment that we possess from the start, but a goal at which we must aim for and in fact acquired by degrees, depending on our moral choices.

He says Adam was set on the right path, but Adam had in front of him a long road to traverse in order to reach his final goal.

I was standing with my father one day when someone I had never met came up and introduced himself to us and turned to me and said, “You must be Peter’s boy”. I was 38 years old at the time. I said, “I sure am, but how did you know. What gave it away?” He said, “You stand like him, dress like him and talk like him.”

As I watch my son grow, I see him aspiring to be like me, to dress like me and have the same passions as me. There is the possibility that over time he will grow and value what I value, love what I love, and do what I do, yet all within his own unique way. He will move beyond my image and start to take on my likeness as a man, husband and father as time goes on.

Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi in his book< Immortality or Resurrection? writes:

"Being created in the image of God means … that we have been created to reflect God in our thinking and actions. We are to be and to do on a finite scale what God is and does on an infinite scale."

The Bible doesn’t say that Adam and Eve had no idea of morality or what was right or wrong. In fact if you think about it, the simple fact that God asked them not to do something, meant that they had the capacity to understand that it was wrong to do it or right not to do it.

I sometimes feel like people view Adam and Eve as simpletons hoodwinked by a cruel God as opposed to what they really where – fully aware adults who actively made a wrong and rebellious decision and refused to take responsibility for it.

Rabbi David Fohrman says:
“Imagine a world in which people were pretty much the same as they are now — they were smart, they could walk, they could talk, they could drive cars and become investment bankers. They were missing only one thing. They didn't know right from wrong. We have a word for people like that. We call them sociopaths.”

Adam and Eve would have had to have an understanding of right from wrong, but what they lacked was the knowledge - the intimate information, facts and acquaintance with – good and evil.

The ultimate end of preaching is to preach as a dying man to dying men.

This is not arrived at in the pulpit, but is required by you living in the shadow of eternity yourself.

Preaching is not found in eloquence of words, but unction, anointing of the Spirit.

This is not something you get my dimming the lights or working the crowd, but by walking with Christ.

Truth is always found in simplicity, not in the multitude of confusing arguments.

Your job as a preacher is not to impress people with your knowledge, but impress them with God's grace and greatness.

The aim of preaching is to take the complex issue of the word and make them simply daily truths for the listen.

if you have a true grasp of theology, you will be able to reveal it to people in no harder way than a child unwrapping chocolate.

Simple.
Anticipated.
Welcomed.
Eagerly devoured.

S.E.A.

State it
Explain it
Apply it

if you can’t say it in 5 minutes you will never qualify to expound it in 45 minutes

"We have abolished the fear of God and instead we live in the constant fear of man. We have done away with the idea of hell in the future and we have succeeded in turning our lives in this world into a living hell"

Wayne has been coming to kickboxing for about 2 months now - he was the guy who gave me the black eye. He also comes to church.

The only church I know of when you can solve your pastoral issues in the ring!

He is shorter than me, but man is he quick and tough.

He cleaned my clock last night!

He is just so fast. All my years of karate are actually proving detrimental. I feel like I am stiff as a board.

Wayne as been fighting for 8 years or so, a different martial arts style.

But, still I would like to be able to hold my own - I don’t know how to get quicker, to be able to see and anticipate what is coming.

We may have a tournament coming up in November - I don’t know if I will be ready for it, but I have started training for it in earnest.

Ecclesiastes 9:4,11-12
But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

You may feel like you're worthless, act like you’re worthless, you might even think you look like you're worthless…but at least you're alive.

Better to be a live dog than a dead lion. While there's life there's hope.
It is God's will for you to get a life and the abundant life, which is spoken of in the Word is anything but a dog's life. God created you to live an abundant life not a redundant life!

Solomon said, our collision with our future is based on TIME and CHANCE, and these are available to all of us. In other words, we all have our TIME and we all have our CHANCE at life. You don’t pray for opportunity – you prepare. So when your time and chance comes, you’re ready.

You have a God-given time and chance on earth.

Both these words TIME and CHANCE are significant in understanding what it means to collide with your destiny. TIME refers to that moment in life when you stand on the edge of your CHANCE or opportunity at destiny…you are about to collide with your life's purpose. And the context of Solomon's word CHANCE refers to “a collision with destiny." This collision is not fate, nor is it luck. It is predetermined by God. A specific plan for your life. A unique one-off purpose - the destiny you were born to fulfill.

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Proverbs 13:20
He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.

You must be very careful with whom you spend your time.

Who do you allow to give you advice?
Are these people moving onwards and upwards?
Are they colliding with their destinies and pursuing their life dreams?

In a nutshell, negativity is foolishness. It is foolishness because it creates a confession contrary to God's Word. Negativity is also foolishness because it limits people and colors their outlook, it is also contagious and spreads very quickly. The companion of fools will be destroyed. It's not God who destroys them but their foolishness, the foolishness of being negative.

Are their words inspiring you to become the person God intended you to be, or deflating and distracting you? Are they wallowing in negativity, self-pity and mediocrity, going nowhere fast? Whatever direction your friends are headed will have a major influence on your future, if you allow it.

2 Sam 13:15
Sin always promises to serve and satisfy, but in reality it always enslaves and dictates. People think that giving in to there base desires will bring them fulfillment - it never does, it may bring a sense of temporary relief but lust of the flesh is insatiable.

There is a high cost for low living. The death penalty is the cost of murder; divorce is the cost for adultery.

Ammon would pay dearly for not being man enough to talk with the King but instead dishonored and violated Tamar.

Ezekiel 20:31
People move away from the things of God in increments. But over time they end up engaged in the most abhorrent lifestyle choices. Choices that when compared to the original are willfully destructive to all that they love.

2Cor 6:10
Our focus in the midst of trails determines our outlook and response to the trails. You can’t change trails, trails we will always have. My, a valley is something you are suppose to pass through on the way to something better.

The valley of the shadow of death is not some place you by timeshare in, but is a place you pass through on the way to having fellowship with our Lord!

I was approached by Phoenix & Phoenix, a well know publicist and promotional organization, who are wanting to do a nation wide campaign for Guy Thing.

There aim is to bring nation wide attention to the book and get the 'message and the man out there'.

They work with organizations and outlets like USA Today, Good Morning America, Larry King, CNN. Mostly secular and non-Christian organizations. Which i think is great. The appeal of Guy Thing is to a great audience - men in need everywhere!

I asked them about there previous clients and they told me:

We have handled such a wealth of high-profile ministries during our history (from John Hagee to John Maxwell to Stormie Omartian to Vicki Courtney to Stephen Baldwin to Ed Young), along with campaigns from major Christian publishing houses (Harvest House, Zondervan, Baker Publishing Group, Thomas Nelson, B&H Publishing Group, WaterBrook Press and a few others all have active accounts with us), we do have great contacts at most Christian media outlets (including the ones you mention).

The thought is that once we build a platform with these organizations we have a vehicle to be a force for the kingdom within the church and the community.