Our 2nd Gift To Manage: Health -- Part 4

Continued from yesterday...
(Remember: These are my unedited notes, so don't get bothered by any punctuation or spelling errors!)

The last area that effects our physical health is our Downtime (Rest/Sabbath/relieve stress).

How much downtime you give your body has a huge effect on your health!

In Mark 6, Jesus sent the disciples out in ministry groups. They had a lot of success and came back and told Jesus about it.

Listen to the advice he gave them in Mark 6:30-32..
30 The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and told him all they had done and what they had taught. 31 Then Jesus said, "Let's get away from the crowds for a while and rest." There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn't even have time to eat. 32 They left by boat for a quieter spot.

Jesus cared about the disciples need for quiet and rest. He stopped them from being in "workaholic, adrenaline" mode and got them to pause from the busyness, because he knew our bodies need proper rest!

I heard on a recent news report that SLEEP is as important as diet and exercise! In this report they said that getting the right amount of rest can help you drop a dress size!

These are the three areas that will have a huge impact on this gift of health that God gave us to manage: Input, Output and Downtime–.

There are two ways to focus on your health: on Prevention or Cure!

Some of us might need to change some of our habits that we'’ve created in our lives, so we can cure some of the health problems we have.

Prevention is the best way to focus on your health!

If you want to be healthy 1 year from now do something about it today!

Don'’t try and make BIG changes. You'’ll only do it for a short time and eventually fail! You might see a big change, but it won'’t last!

Focus on making small changes that you can KEEP doing over a long time. That way you'’ll slowly build new habits and the accumulation of good choices over time will have a huge, lasting effect!

What I'’ve been doing to improve my health:

• Trying to drink more water.
• Take a multi-vitamin everyday.
• Drink less soda. (I limit it to one soda -– at the most)
• Focus on my posture.
• Do simple exercises for about 10 minutes or so a day until I get back to the gym.
• Prayer walks. (Spiritual & Physical Health!)

I want to encourage you to focus on prevention and begin investing more in the gift of health that God has given you!

I'm obviously, not telling you to forget about spiritual things.

In 1 Timothy 4:8, Paul said, "“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."

Keep focusing on your Spiritual health and growth. It has eternal value!

But, also make sure to focus on your WHOLE being. Study and live out what the Bible says about your emotional health, your intellectual health and your physical health!

One of the ways you can invest your gift of time is by working on your gift of health!

THIS Sunday, we'’ll look at the third gift that God has given us to manage!

Our 2nd Gift To Manage: Health -- Part 3

Continued from yesterday...

Let’s look at the next area we need to manage our health with …

The second area that effects our physical health is our Output (exercise).

What exercise you put into your body through, or not, has big effect on your health.

The Bible doesn’t talk directly about exercise.

Instead it talks about it indirectly when it talks about work. Work in that ancient culture was hard labor and the main source of exercise that you got back then!

It used to be like in our country when many people worked on farms. It’s still that way in many 3rd world countries today.

You need to realize something...

You only need to worry about/focus on exercise in cultures like ours, cause most of us don’t do anything physical that increases our strength or burns calories!

We looked at the idea of a weekly Sabbath last week and talked about the importance of rest, but listen to what God tells us about work in the first part in Exodus 20:9 “6 days of work you should work...”

God told them that so they wouldn’t go to either extreme: work all the time or hardly ever! I want you to see the importance of work to God.

Remember:
God emphasized work because it gives people satisfaction, meaning, makes them productive and what we’re emphasizing today – it keeps them healthy!

I found this online...

"Early retirement might be dangerous to your health. So say the findings of a recent study published in the British Medical Journal.

"Entitled Age at Retirement and Long Term Survival of an Industrial Population: Prospective Cohort Study, a team of researchers tracked thousands of employees who worked at Shell Oil. The investigators found that leaving the workforce at age 55 doubled the risk for death before reaching age 65, compared with those who kept working beyond age 60."

I’m not saying you should work forever.

I’m telling you that God’s word, and science seems to be confirming, that keeping active is better for our health than sitting around doing nothing!

God emphasizes how important output is for our health when he emphasizes work over and over in the Bible!

We'll look at the last area that effects our health tomorrow!

Our 2nd Gift To Manage: Health -- Part 2

This is part 2 from yesterday's post...

There are 3 Main areas that effect our physical health.

The first area that effects our physical health is our Input (Eating/Drinking).
What fuel you put into your body has a huge effect on your health.

In Daniel 1:3-20 there's a story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and their desire to guard their input and obey God's law...

3Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, who was in charge of the palace officials, to bring to the palace some of the young men of Judah's royal family and other noble families, who had been brought to Babylon as captives. 4"Select only strong, healthy, and good-looking young men," he said. "Make sure they are well versed in every branch of learning, are gifted with knowledge and good sense, and have the poise needed to serve in the royal palace. Teach these young men the language and literature of the Babylonians. F3 " 5The king assigned them a daily ration of the best food and wine from his own kitchens. They were to be trained for a three-year period, and then some of them would be made his advisers in the royal court.
6Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were four of the young men chosen, all from the tribe of Judah. 7The chief official renamed them with these Babylonian names:

Daniel was called Belteshazzar.
Hananiah was called Shadrach.
Mishael was called Meshach.
Azariah was called Abednego.

8But Daniel made up his mind not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. (He remembered God’s warning from his law about what we input into our bodies.) He asked the chief official for permission to eat other things instead. 9Now God had given the chief official great respect for Daniel. 10But he was alarmed by Daniel's suggestion. "My lord the king has ordered that you eat this food and wine," he said. "If you become pale and thin compared to the other youths your age, I am afraid the king will have me beheaded for neglecting my duties."

11Daniel talked it over with the attendant who had been appointed by the chief official to look after Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 12"Test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water," Daniel said. 13"At the end of the ten days, see how we look compared to the other young men who are eating the king's rich food. Then you can decide whether or not to let us continue eating our diet." 14So the attendant agreed to Daniel's suggestion and tested them for ten days.

15At the end of the ten days, Daniel and his three friends looked healthier and better nourished than the young men who had been eating the food assigned by the king. 16So after that, the attendant fed them only vegetables instead of the rich foods and wines. 17God gave these four young men an unusual aptitude for learning the literature and science of the time. And God gave Daniel special ability in understanding the meanings of visions and dreams.

18When the three-year training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief official brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. 19The king talked with each of them, and none of them impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they were appointed to his regular staff of advisers. 20In all matters requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, the king found the advice of these young men to be ten times better than that of all the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.


They guarded the input into their bodies and they became healthier than all the other guys who just ate whatever was put in front of them!

In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon says that people should enjoy eating and drinking and enjoy the results of their work, but Proverbs 23:1,2 says we need to control our appetite and show self control.

God cares about our input!

He wants us to enjoy food and drink, but just not let our appetites get out of control!

God’s word basically tells us what ever good diet does…

Eat better (healthier food) eat less (control how much you eat - lower your calories) and your health will be better!

I remember reading in a Reader’s Digest article awhile back that if you stay on your diet 80% of the time (about 5 days of the week) you’ll still loose weight!

That means we don’t have to be obsessed when it comes to guarding our input.

We can loosen up a little on weekends. That will help us to feel freer and keep it up! Just don’t go too crazy on your looser eating days!

But input isn’t the only thing that effects our health.

TOMORROW We'll look at the second area that effects our health...

Our 2nd Gift To Manage: Health -- Part 1

These are the notes from my talk yesterday. They are unedited, so you'll probably find typos and punctuation mistakes! :)

I want to start today with a story that Robert McGarvey, shares in "Little Things Do Mean a Lot" from Reader's Digest. He says this…

Success is often reached through the little stuff. When Pat Riley coached the Los Angeles Lakers from 1982 to 1990, the team won four NBA championships.

In taking over the New York Knicks in 1991, Riley inherited a team with a losing record. But the Knicks seemed able to play above their abilities and even gave the eventual champions, the Chicago Bulls, their hardest competition in the play-offs.

How did Riley do it? He says his talent lies in attention to detail.

For example, every NBA team studies videotapes and compiles statistics to evaluate players' game performances. But Riley's use of these tools is more comprehensive than that of his rivals. "We measure areas of performance that are often ignored: jumping in pursuit of every rebound even if you don't get it, swatting at every pass, diving for loose balls, letting someone smash into you in order to draw a foul."

After each game, these "effort" statistics are punched into a computer. "Effort," Riley explains, "is what ultimately separates journeyman players from impact players. Knowing how well a player executes all these little things is the key to unlocking career-best performances."

We have a pretty amazing God.

He’s a God that cares about the “little things” - the details. He doesn’t just care only about spiritual things. He cares about all areas of your life!

He advises and coaches us through his word about all the little things that help us live the best lives possible.

I’m about to talk to you about something that I don’t think I’ve ever preached about in the 17 or so years I’ve been speaking.

I’m going to talk about something that I don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon about before.

But first, let me remind you about what we’re trying to do in this series. ...

Last week we started our new “Life Management” series.

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given.

Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

Last week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at how this amazing gift is the building block of all we do in life. I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only have 1440 minutes given to everyday. If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes. You can never get more. The only way to make more time is by managing it better. How we manage our time becomes our worship to God.

It makes Time Management a holy thing!

Today we’re going to look at Gift #2.

The second gift God has given us to manage is Health!

Remember, I just told you at the beginning about how God cares about the little things – the details of life?

A lot of people believe that God cares about our Spiritual health, but what about our Physical, Mental and Emotional Health?

He cares about these things too! We’re one being that is made up of spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical parts!

When we only focus on the spiritual we leave the rest of who we are out! It’s like deciding to only focus on the health of one body part and ignore the rest.

I want to make sure my right-hand is healthy. That’s it. If it works and doesn’t look to fat, then I don’t care about the rest. That’d be crazy!

It’s just as crazy to think that God or we should only focus on the spiritual and ignore the rest! God looks at ALL those things as one unit that make up who we are!

Steve Sjogren said this in the recent issue of his ezine called “Serve”…
(From this cover story "The Pathetic Segmented Life: Why people stay away from Church by the droves" here.)

We live in a time when virtually all of mankind lives a segmented approach to life. For the most part, people have a section of life that is dedicated to their married life, another section that is all about work life, another section that is for spiritual life, and so on it goes until, if you will, an entire wall of boxes or segments are produced that is called “Someone.”

Life for segmented people, looks like a multi-sectioned configuration, all of which go together to make up a whole which we call life.

He later says…

The segmented approach to life is not only not biblical in the least, it is not healthy mentally. Any therapist… will tell you that a person who is living a segmented approach to life, is attempting to control issues in an unhealthy way – in a way that is going to eventually break down. This approach to life, one that shifts from mask to mask, depending on the segment one is living out at the time, will ultimately fall apart under the pressures of normal living.

Jesus’ life was one whole square with no smaller sub-sections.

What I want us to understand today is that God cares about ALL of you. He cares about your spiritual health, AND your Physical, Mental and Emotional Health!

Let’s look at God’s word and I’ll show that this REALLY is true…

What did Jesus come and do that was a BIG part of his ministry?

He healed people!

Matthew 4:23-25 (NLT)

23 Jesus traveled throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues, preaching everywhere the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed people who had every kind of sickness and disease. 24 News about him spread far beyond the borders of Galilee so that the sick were soon coming to be healed from as far away as Syria. And whatever their illness and pain, or if they were possessed by demons, or were epileptics, or were paralyzed – he healed them all. 25 Large crowds followed him wherever he went – people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, F28 Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

Jesus attracted HUGE crowds because he cared about MORE THAN just their future lives in heaven. He cared about their lives now and he healed them!

Scott Morris of the United Methodist Church founded the Church Health Center in Memphis in 1987, “to provide healthcare for the poor,” he says. “The reason we do it is because a third of the Bible has to do with healing the sick.”

1/3 of the Bible has to do with healing the sick!!! God cares about our health!

If you look at the Dietary laws and other laws God gave the Israelites you see more proof God cares about our Physical health. Listen to what these verses warn the Israelites about and see if you hear God as a parent telling them best ways to live their lives …

Leviticus 3:17 - Eat neither fat nor blood.
Leviticus 15:2-11 - Washing the body and clothes to control germs.
Leviticus 13:46 - Quarantine to control contagious disease
Deuteronomy 23:12, 13 - Human body waste should he buried.

See! God cares about the details of our life! But cares for more than just our Physical health! Look…

Emotional Health - The health benefits of a positive attitude.

Proverbs 17:22
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.”

1 Tim. 6:6
”…true religion with contentment is great wealth.”

Intellectual Health

Romans 12:2
2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

Philippians 4:8
And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

***How did we as Christ-followers miss this and get so focused on ONLY the Spiritual part of life?

God’s given us the gift of health that we have.

God gave you your genetic makeup from your family. That's how you got your body-type and your metabolism.

For some reason God’s given us each different levels of health. We start out at different levels of health. But no matter where you start…

How long you live and the quality of life you have are affected by how you manage your gift of health!

You can start out with a worse genetic makeup or metabolism and IF you manage it better you’ll end up healthier than a person who started with a BETTER genetic makeup or metabolism who manages their health wrong!

I’ll say it again…

How long you live and the quality of life you have are affected by how you manage your gift of health!

I gave a talk on guarding our hearts from Proverbs awhile back (which when the Bible says “Heart” means our mind, will and emotions) –, so I won’t focus on our Intellectual or Emotional health today. You can get it here.

Today, I want to just look at some things about what the Bible tells us about how to manage our physical health.

We’re gonna just look at the 3 Main areas that effect our physical health.

Continued tomorrow...

Our 1st Gift To Manage: Time -- Part 4

Continued from Yesterday Sept. 21st...

I want you to hear this today…

Time is our life and when we waste our time we waste our life!

How you manage your life is your worship to God!

In Romans 12:1 (theme verse for this series) , the Apostle Paul says...

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.”

Don’t waste time – invest it!

When you spend it you get nothing but that experience. When you invest time it gives you something back – now or in eternity!

Think about this…

You can’t save time. You can only give to God or others, spend it, or invest it!

There are only two ways manage your time:

Look at what we should do.
Look at what we shouldn't do.

We need to pray and ask God “What are some things should I stop doing? What are some things I should I start doing?"

We have a choice each day.

You can do what you want to do, or you can do what you should do. Each of these choices will give a different result. I've decided....

"Should do" is the path to success. "Want to" is the path to failure!

When I live my life constantly choosing to do what I want to do. I might get immediate gratification, but I won't get lasting satisfaction.

The people that succeed in life do what they should do, even when they don't want to!

They do the hard, boring task - right now, instead of procrastinating.
They say, "No," even when they really want to say, "Yes!"

That’s what Jesus did!

The people that fail in life do what they want to do, even when they know they shouldn't!

They do the easy, fun task - right now, instead of doing what should be done. They say, "Yes," even when they really know they should say, "No!"

If we want to a better or different life, if we want to do what God wants us to do - become what God created us to be, then we need to begin choosing what we "should do" instead of what we "want to" do!

Isn't this what God's trying to warn us through the stories, commands and warnings throughout the whole Bible?

The question for us, each day, is not "What do I want to do?", but "What should I do?"

What SHOULD you do today/tomorrow? Do it.
Ask God to help you to do it.
Ask someone to keep you accountable to doing it!

In Psalm 39:5 the Psalmist says...

"My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath."

Even those of us who live to 100 are going to feel like time flew by!

The crazy thing about life is that when you really start to understand it, you feel like it’s halfway gone! Age sneaks up on you!

Listen to what Erma Bombeck wrote in "If I Had My Life To Live Over"...

If I had my life to live over, I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television - and more while watching life.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner."

There would have been more "I love you's".. More "I'm sorrys" ...

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it ... live it...and never give it back.

-----

Time management is holy. Organization is good. It's not that they're important and good, in and of themselves, but because of what they allow us to do!

David Allen “Productivity Guru” says his secret about why he creates "To Do" lists is so he can have time to do the stuff he wants to do - that aren't on the lists!

Managing your time allows you to do not just the things you really want to do, but the things God wants you to do!

It frees up your life to do and be what God wants for you.

Jesus is the only one who can redeem your past and give you a new future. He reaches into the trash bin of this world and is constantly looking for people and situations to redeem.

Let him do that in your life today!

Seize the moment. Make the most of your nows! We should live each day with purpose, on purpose!

In the next 4 weeks, we’ll talk about more ways to use our time effectively. The rest of the 4 gifts all can only be used in time. They all are used best when we manage our time for them.

***You can hear the talk on the next gift live this Sunday, September 24th!

Our 1st Gift To Manage: Time -- Part 3

Continued from yesterday September 20...

Are you ready for something that might sound like weird advice about time?

King Solomon the wisest man that lived said this in Ecc. 7:2-4...

"2 It is better to spend your time at funerals than at festivals. For you are going to die, and you should think about it while there is still time. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. 4 A wise person thinks much about death, while the fool thinks only about having a good time now."

That doesn't mean we should always think about death and be depressed. It's to help us wake up and not sleep walk through life!

God’s word teaches us to look at the end and make sure we know where the path we’re currently taking is going lead us.

Looking at our death can change the way we see things NOW!

From my Church Gatherer blog June 19, 2006…

In one of success "guru" Brian Tracy's latest issue of his "Time Management Success Newsletter" titled, "Consider The Consequences" he says this...

"Doctor Edward Banfield of Harvard University, after more than 50 years of research, concluded that "long-time perspective" is the most accurate single predictor of upward social and economic mobility in America.

"Long time perspective turns out to be more important than family background, education, race, intelligence, connections or virtually any other single factor in determining your success in life and at work.

"Your attitude toward time, your "time horizon," has an enormous impact on your behavior and your choices. People who take the long view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future.

"Successful people have a clear future orientation. They think five, ten and twenty years out into the future. They analyze their choices and behaviors in the present to make sure that they are consistent with the long-term future that they desire.

"In your work, having a clear idea of what is really important to you in the long-term makes it much easier for you to make better decisions about your priorities in the short-term."

Hmm... That sounds like Solomon might've known what he was talking about! :)

Keeping the reminder that one day your life will end will help you make better and different choices NOW!

Imagine you were on your death bed looking back at your life…

• What would be important to you? What wouldn't be?
• What would you wish you did today? What would you wish you didn't do?

God’s overall instructions to us about time are this…

Eph 5:15-16 says...

"15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil."

In Psalm 90:12 the Psalmist asks God…

"Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom."

Time can’t be stopped. It can only be seized!

God’s word teaches us to cherish and squeeze everything we can out our time.

Mark Twain said this, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

This moment could change all the ones after!

How many lost hours have we wasted?

I saw this quote from Steve Mariucci, former 49ers head coach on Glen Davis’s blog…

“I never wear a watch because I always know what time it is. It is always NOW. And now is when you should do it.”

Continued tomorrow: How to invest your time....

Our 1st Gift To Manage: Time -- Part 2

Continued from yesterday Sept. 19th....

God’s given us instructions with this gift called time. One of them is…

Exodus 20:8 God said…

8 "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days a week are set apart for your daily duties and regular work, 10 but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any kind of work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.

God told us to rest!

In this 24/7 workaholic world we live in that’s a powerful thing to hear! Think about it…

Rest gives us a chance to STOP, look back and appreciate where we’ve been and what we’ve done (like God did in Genesis). When we rest we get a chance to learn from what we’ve done, see if we’re headed in the right direction, and plan where we want to go!

If we don’t do this, we get caught up in the fast paced flow of life!

Resting helps us so we can stop and remember God – remember what’s important! It’s helps us to refocus.

Every day we have a huge amount of choices thrown in front of us. A few of those choices have no consequences, but most have some consequences – big or small.

In Deut. 30:19, Moses is getting towards the end of his life and he gets up in front the Israelites and gives a speech to inspire them to keep following God. Towards the end of it he says…

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live!”

The choices we make everyday fall into these categories!

Would you purposely choose a small “curse” or a little death? No! But some of the small choices we make are small steps in those directions!

Joshua must have learned from Moses cause later he said this in Joshua 24:15...

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve . but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

How can we know what choices lead where? How can we know which ones to make?

The only way is to not just take a Sabbath every week to remember and refocus, but to daily spend time with Jesus.

In Matt. 6:11, Jesus taught us to pray for our needs for each day.

He showed us the example of daily getting alone with God early in the morning to get direction and guidance for that day!

We need to spend time with God everyday, because need help everyday!

There are too many important choices that we need to make. We need that daily Sabbath to remember and refocus!

If you don’t spend time with God daily, then I want to encourage you to find a place and time that you can get alone with God and talk and listen to Him.

Let’s look at the next thing about time.

It’s good news for those of you that feel stuck…

We need to remember that seasons come and go!

Summer is ending and Fall is coming. They won’t last forever. We know to appreciate summer while it’s here because it will be gone. We know not to worry too much during winter cause it will soon be gone too!

In Ecc 3:1-11, Solomon says a lot about this. Listen to the first thing and the last thing he says in this passage.

"1There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven…"

"11 God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."

Only God knows the BIG picture that’s why we have to trust him! We need to look for the reason/opportunity that’s in every season we’re going through in life.

If you’re going through a hard time right now I want you to hear me: This is just a season!
Be patient! Trust God!

If you’re going through a good time, then appreciate it – enjoy it cause we know that harder times will eventually come! :)

There’s something else I want you to think about this whole idea of seasons…

God is into things happening at the right time. Timing matters to him!

In Gal 4:4, Paul says...

"But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law."

1 Tim 6:15 says...

"For at the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only almighty God, the King of kings and Lord of lords."

We should care more about this! Timing is important. Timing matters!

We need to pray and talk to God daily about making choices and doing actions in the right time!

Now the next thing I tell you could at first sound of the weirdest advice about time…

To Be Continued...

Our 1st Gift To Manage: Time -- Part 1

I didn't get a chance to record my talk last Sunday so I'm going to post it in segments here. Here's part 1....

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For the next 5 Sundays, we're going to look at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

We all like getting gifts. I don’t know anyone who hates getting gifts!

But a gift always leaves us with a choice: Will you accept it and use it or will you reject it and throw to the side?

I found this online…

An American Express survey about Christmas gifts found that the fruitcake was chosen most often (at 31%) from a list of "worst" holiday gifts. It even finished ahead of "no gift at all." When asked how to dispose of a bad gift, 30% would hide it in the closet, 21% would return it, and 19% would give it away. This suggests that the Christmas fruitcake might get recycled as a gift for the host of New Year's party.

What are you going to do with these 5 gifts God’s given you?

Will you accept them or reject them? Use them or abuse them?

An unaccepted or unused gift isn’t any better than no gift at all!

Over the next 5 Sundays, we'll look at the five of the top gifts that we all need to manage if we want our lives to be better and different.

Today we’re going to look at the first gift.

It’s Time!

If you think about it, this is a pretty amazing gift. Let’s look at this gift and really see what we’ve been given…

Everyday we’re given 1440 minutes. If you sleep 7 hours you end up with 1020 awake minutes to use. That’s it!

This gift is the basic building blocks of our life! You have just 1020 minutes to make today better or different than yesterday.

This is the only gift we’re going to look at that’s refillable. We're all given a new equal amount of each day. We get a NEW 1440 minutes everyday!

I get the same amount you do. Old and young get the same amount. Rich and poor get the same amount. All the other gifts we’re going to talk about will be things that some of us have more of OR some of us might have less of.

We all get a new amount of time each day, but this is the scary part…

None of us know how much TOTAL amount of time we’re going to get in life. Only God knows!

Ps. 139:16 says...

"You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."

None of us know how much time we have left.

Some of us here will live longer lives than others of us. We don’t get to decide how long we live. We only get to decide how meaningful we make our lives!

Time really is an incredible loving gift that God has given us!

I want to unwrap this gift today and really look at it to see how we can receive it and use it in the best ways.

The first thing I want you to notice…

PACKAGE: God packaged time for us in two compartments: Day & Night

Genesis 1:1-5 says...
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day" and the darkness "night." Together these made up one day.

Have you thought about how much of a blessing this is?

I had a really stressful day the other day.

The cool thing was to get to go to sleep and get a new start! Without day and night life would be one long, monotonous experience.

It also let’s us deal with life in bite sized pieces! You only have a small chunk to deal with called “today”! Actually, the chunks of time you really have to use are even smaller – they’re called “now”.

You can’t mess with yesterday and change it. It’s gone! God’s done that to try and force us to let it go and only deal with now. You can only learn from the past and redeem it.

God gave us the future called “tomorrow” so that we’d have something to plan/aim for and something to inspire us in our “nows”.

Here’s our problem... A lot of time people try and live in tomorrow!

In Matt. 6:34 Jesus said...

"So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today."

There are things that we can control in life and things we can’t. When we worry and spend time on the things that you can’t control just causes the things you actually have influence over to get worse!

Plan for tomorrow, but don’t worry about it.

Don’t try and live in the joy or pain of what you think MIGHT happen tomorrow!

Example:

Last week I was worried about a conversation I was going to have. I started imagining the conversation and the results. It made my NOW really stressful!

Guess what? When I finally had the conversation, none of what I imagined happened! It was a totally good conversation with good results!

I had wasted my "nows" worrying about my tomorrow!

***I'll reveal to you one of God's instructions about time that helps us in this workaholic world when I post Part 2 TOMORROW! :)

How To Live On 24 Hours A Day

Arnold Bennett in “How To Live On 24 Hours A Day” said this...

“Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions..."

He goes on to say…

“…you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste to- morrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you."

Then he says…

“You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness--the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends!-- depends on that.”

At The Speed Of Life

The time we each get in this life to do, be and have is so short!

King David said in like this (1 Chronicles 29:15)...

"We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a shadow, gone so soon without a trace." (NLT)

We need to live today remembering this fact!

"Life Management" Series: 9.17.06 - 10.15.06

I'll begin a 5 Sunday series THIS Sunday where I'll talk about 5 important gifts that God has given us to manage.

Get more info here!

"How You Can Finally See Change In Your Life"

This is the .PDF free report that I promised you. (I know it's late. Sorry!)

It contains these ideas and more:

• A description of what I call "The Inside-Out" Way Of Living
• Why just changing your thoughts doesn't change your life
• 3 things you can do to apply this right away

You can download it here by right-clicking on the link below:
"How You Can Finally See Change In Your Life"

You need the Acrobat Reader tool to open it. If you don't have it go here.

Everything You Need To Succeed...

You have been given (and will be given) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your potential.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based NOT on what you had, but what you DID with what you were given!

How close you come to succeeding and becoming what you were created to be will be based on your choices.

It will be based on how you manage what you've been given.

Don't Forget:
TOMORROW I'm going to post a downloadable .PDF report that will reveal a missing key that is needed to succeed in life.

Stay Tuned For Tuesday...

I think that it's important for us to guard our thoughts, because how we think has a HUGE effect in our lives.

But...

On Tuesday, I'm going to post a downloadable .PDF report that will reveal a missing key that is needed to see real change in our lives!

Until then, I'll be adding some more posts.

Stay tuned!

Live For Today

This is a quote from Leadership Expert Chris Widener's ezine on August 18, 2006...

"What happens... is that we figure we will be able to live another moment in the same way we are passing on right now. Time becomes a commodity that we trade… and the riskiest commodity of all – our futures! We pass on this moment for the option to live it in the future.

"The problem is that there is no guarantee of the future… Take some time this week to think about the Once in a Lifetime opportunities you are passing up each day:

• The opportunity to play with your children or grandchildren.
• The opportunity to love your spouse.
• The opportunity to take that business risk.
• The opportunity to take that dream trip you have thought of for years.

"Live for today my friends. Make today the best day that you can. Be aware of every moment and how it is the last time you will be able to make the decision on how to spend it. Today is your once in a lifetime opportunity to live your dreams, love your family, and make a difference."

Subscribe to his ezine here.

Are You Guided By The Past Or The Present?

Henry Ford once said...

"We should be guiding our future by the present, instead of being guided in the present by the past."

Success Secrets Revealed By A 16 Year Old Ice Skater!

February 21, 2002. It was an unbelievable moment in ice skating history.

The winner herself couldn't believe it!

Sarah Hughes had just gone from 4th place in the "short program" to gold medal winner, after she performed an incredible set in the "long program".

The odds were against her, but her performance proved the odds wrong! The most incredible thing for me out of this whole moment was the words I was about to hear her say.

I didn't realize it, but this 16 year old girl was about to reveal a secret to succeeding in any area of life.

Before I tell you what she said, let me warn you.

The words she said will seem like they fly in the face of everything that you've ever heard about what it takes to succeed.

They will seem to go against goal setting.

But listen closely, because they don't go against any of these things! What she said is, for many people, another missing ingredient for success!

Many people are so involved in trying to succeed that they miss this one thing that this young girl instinctively knew.

What is her secret to success?

In the interview afterwards, she said that after getting 4th place she really doubted she would get gold, so she decided to do one thing: to just enjoy her next performance!

That's the missing ingredient to success!

Enjoy what your doing NOW! Enjoy the process! Don't wait till the future, because it might never come. Enjoy today!

Set goals. See yourself attaining your goal. Be positive, but enjoy the process!

Sarah wanted to win a gold medal. It had been her goal since she was a child, but the reason she won was not because she was determined to win. It was the simple choice to enjoy herself -- to have fun.

I heard a story once about a toll taker on a highway. He stood out from all the other toll takers. The line to his booth was always the longest.

Guess why? It wasn't because he was the fastest or the most precise. It was because he knew Sarah's secret!

When people pulled up to his booth on the way to work early in the morning, they saw an incredible sight. They saw a man with a big smile on his face. He was singing along to his music and dancing!

He was truly enjoying himself. His joy was contagious. It changed the attitude of each driver that came through his line. That is why his booth was so popular. That is why he succeeded at a job that most people do half-heartedly.

He enjoyed himself!

If a toll taker and a 16 year old can do this and succeed, then why can't you?
No matter what your goal is, decide today to enjoy the process.

You'll reach your goal and you'll enjoy yourself on the way!

Success Secret #2: Positive Addictions

Anthony J. D'Angelo said...

"Become addicted to constant and never-ending self improvement."

Success Secret #1: Everyone's A Manager

No matter what your job, no matter what you're background is you are a manager.

We all are.

How you manage the resources you've been given in life will decide how successful you are.

Successful people are successful life managers.