People limit their lives when they lack this overcoming Spirit. Some Christians believe that "faith people"; live in a perfect world where there are no challenges, no difficulties and nothing to overcome.

That is just not true.

“Faith People” are people who have faith in spite of what they see, instead of fear because of what they see.

The New Living Translation says:

2 Tim 3:1 &5
In the last days there will be difficult times…(people) will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that

When a man denounces Christ in speech or writing we recognize that such a man
is anti-God and anti-Christ. But the vast majority of people in this country are not guilty of that at all, but rather of
having forgotten God altogether. They do not speak against Him; they just go on living as if He did not exist. It is not a
question of actively speaking and working and organizing against church or Christ as it were.

There is a tendency to equate Christianity with mere temperance or abstinence from certain forms of vice and that is full of inherent danger.

 The Strongman we face as a church in Texas is religion or rather churchianity as compared to Christianity. People have some how come to equate behavior as holiness. Holiness is an external manifestation of an internal work.

Most of what people call Christian behavior, are really just cultural norms.

it is the living Christ in me and my passion for Him that cause an external manifestation of my love for His Word and cause me to temper my behaviour.

Lets not train people in religion but facilitate an encounter with Christ and hearts change, churches change, families change, communities change and God gets all the glory.

Remember we are not in the business of behaviour modification, but spiritual restoration.

Church was brilliant Sunday night.

The worship was great, people loved the preaching.

People were getting right with Christ.

It was just a blast!!

Download the sermon from podcast - I had one guy tell me it was the best sermon he had ever heard….I was just having fun.

God is so good.

I really like this version of the Bible but….

what's up with all the political correct rubbish?

In proverbs Solomon is speaking to his son

That’s why he says "My son…"

The Hebrew meaning of the word is: male child.

So, how does the NLT get "child" except if you are being so culturally aware you would rather misrepresent the meaning of the word

If I have to read about being the bride of Christ, I am sure the girls are capable of reading "My Son.." and not getting bent out of shape.

If they are comfortable doing this with such a straight forward translation, what else have they messed with?

I need to find a version printed before the 2004 and see if it is any different .

People do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.

All that we achieve is the direct result of our own thoughts .

We can only rise, conquer and achieve by lifting up our thoughts. We can only remain weak and abject and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.

Montaigne, the French philosopher adopted these
seventeen words as the motto of his life: "A man is not hurt so much by what happens, as by his opinion of what happens."

Many people seem to regard the Christian hope as merely a matter of temperament; the person who has the Christian hope is seen as someone who is an optimist a genial, cheerful kind of person, always smiling.
But we are not all born with such a temperament.

This Christian hope is not merely a matter of temperament or a question of optimistic philosophy. The gospel of Christ faces life in a realistic manner. It never comforts people by telling them to turn their backs on the world, or by intoxicating them with wonderful phrases or clichés.

The doctrine of this hope tells us that our salvation is something that is mainly future.

In this life we merely receive the first installment of our salvation, what Paul calls "the earnest of our inheritance. "

Salvation is something that is mainly future. There is a great estate awaiting us. We have not entered into it yet, but we have been given the title deeds.

The world may kill us,

That regardless of what you are currently experiencing there is a future and a hope to look forward to. This applies to those of us who follow Christ THIS side of eternity and that side of eternity

So ask yourself:

What do you fall back on when things go wrong?
When you face disappointments in business;
When you are laid aside by illness? When you face death, what do you rest on?

Is it not this glorious hope that he is coming again, and that we shall one day be with him?

It is our one source of comfort and consolation, as we face the trials and tribulations of this world?

The doctrine of the blessed hope is the only incentive to true Christian living. The day is coming when I shall see Christ face to face. When I think of that estate, which I shall one day enter, when I try to conceive of the glory and wonder of salvation, I press forward.

The hope that is set before me inspires me to diligence in my Christian life.

I don’t strive for transformation because it is an easy thing to do; I strive for perfect and transformation because it is the eternal thing to do.

Download the whole sermon form the podcast button to your left

Not everyone is going to be for you when you start to have a dream. Most people do not want you to succeed because your diligence highlights their complacency. 

People think that one great big creative surge will make it happen for them – YOU ARE WRONG, incredibly naïve and horribly wrong. You will be at best an over night success that took 20 years to make.

It is perseverance that out last persecution, not spasmodic performance.

I tell all my leaders when faced with failure to: shut up, dig deep and go again.

Die fighting; the view is better than living on your knees.

I am sick of the excuse of people who tell me why they can’t.

I can’t do this.
I can’t come to that.
I can’t be there

They call me up and say: I can’t go on any more.

That’s the problem; they have spent years practicing thecant’sthey have never trained themselves to ‘can’

Bad grammar, I know, but a good point!

By Sir Winston Churchill (the single greatest war time politician…. ever)

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

"Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."

"One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half."

"Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

My turn last night.

Had a great fight - I did the clock cleaning!

I have been doing some specialized training and it is starting to come together for me. Just a personal routine I have worked out to try and get faster in the ring. That and I have lost 3-4 pounds these last two weeks, that has given me an increase in speed, made me irritable to live with Beccy says, but still she is happy I am not getting hit so much!

Prayer is not something we do Sunday at 5pm.
Prayer is someone we are.

It is that moment at the beginning of the day, when you humble yourself (show respect and deference) to the framer of your world and the Saviour of your soul.

It is not a meeting, it is a heart.
It is not an event, it is the making of a man or a woman.
It is not something you do, it is someone you are.

When we come to prayer we are saying… God this is not our church we are trying to build, but your church we are trying to be.

We are saying this thing in our heart, this dream, this passion is not something we put there, but a dream you put there.

We are telling Him, we can’t do it and we are asking Him to do it through us.

We are not abdicating our role, we are acknowledging His leadership.

We are responsible for doing what we must do – and we give our word to Him that we shall do that…. But unless He meets us, then there is no point for we will labour in vain.