Success is a choice.

You can only hear someone’s voice if they are close enough to you. So many times we keep people close to us that are our enemies. We feel discouraged and defeated because we are listening to the wrong voice.

So much of our decisions we make are determined by the voices that we listen to. One voice echoes that we won’t make it. One says that you are more than able.

Success is a choice.

So is defeat….

You can stop doing what you are doing, but that means the enemy wins.

I love the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8). Jesus told the people that were against her that he who is without sin cast the first stone. No one threw a stone…in fact we know the story they all began to walk away one by one. Yet she still stood there before Him.

Until it was just her…and the maker of the Universe…Jesus.

God’s love for you will outlast your accusers. She never defended herself, not one time. She just continued to stand and let Jesus speak for her.

Let me tell you something. God’s word will outlast the people that say you can’t make it. God’s word will out last your failures. You don’t have to have all the answers. All you have to do to win is just stand, and let Jesus come to your defense. Before you know it all the people that were against you will be gone.

Some might say the woman caught in adultery got lucky that day, but she received the Grace because she stood. She stood when others told her to run away. In life there is no such thing as luck. What the world calls luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

Just keep standing.

Success is a choice…..Not a right.

LOVE MULTIPLIES CHALLENGE

Our church has been raising money for our parking lot for two years. Little by little we have been paving our parking lot as we have the money come in. We are about to pave the LAST of THREE phases. In that a couple in our church challenged us today to use the talents that we have to finish the final things that needed to be done, and gave us $5.00 each to go multiply our seed. Our church is calling this LOVE MULTIPLIES CHALLENGE.

Talent....We are born with it right?

Well some of us were born with it any ways. I was sitting there thinking of what I could do and my mind was blank. Then it hit me.... CLOTHES! I LOVE CLOTHES

We all have that time in the morning staring in a closet that looks full of clothes yet we still can't find anything to wear right?!

This is my favorite part of my day is putting together outfits. Taking what I have and using it in different ways. So with that said for the LOVE MULTIPLIES challenge at our church I am going to people's homes and helping them take what they have and put it together in different ways then they would have usually done.

I will keep you all posted on how much money I raise for our church. I have two weeks from today and I am believing that my $5.00 that was given to me will turn into at least $500.

Makes you think what talent do YOU have that you just overlook. The widow in Kings was asked by the prophet...WHAT DO YOU HAVE? He didn't ask her what she WISHED she had. What she would ONE DAY have. He asked her what she had at that moment. She then told him that she had some oil. With that little bit of oil she filled lots of jars.

So now I am CHALLENGING you with our LOVE MULTIPLIES challenge. What do YOU have in YOUR house that you can give to God and watch God multiply over the next few weeks? Let's start a LOVE REVOLUTION with people using what God has given them to impact others... If you do rise to the challenge let me know and blog about it so I can see your progress along the way!

Key to Multiplication

No matter who you are the New Year always brings a time of reflection...Looking inward and thinking about all the things we would have done differently....Thinking about things we are glad we did.....Thinking about what we would like to see in the year to come.

In Matthew 25:14-30 there is a popular story of the parable of the talents. Here Jesus tells us about a Man who was going on a journey so he entrusted all his wealth to three men each according to their ability. Sometime later the Bible tells us the first two brought back their earnings having doubled what was given to them. The third however came to the master calling him hard and reveals that he was afraid of him therefore he didn't do anything with what he had been given. The master was then disappointed with him.

I find it interesting that here we see three men all given an opportunity and all given something that they didn't necessarily earn. They all three had encountered the Man at the same time yet one had a skewed view of who He was.

A lot of us as we begin this new year we begin to take inventory of what all we have to make success happen. We begin to count things that really don't even matter as to weather we will be successful or not. For example we count the prestige of our jobs to see if we are successful. The amount of money we have in our checkbooks tells us if we are going to make it another year. The number the scale tells us if we are pretty or not. All of these things when counted will not bring forth any multiplication of what we desire.

The two men in that text in the Bible saw increase in their life because they saw the man (Jesus) for who He was. When you begin to see Jesus for who He is you begin to multiply in every area of your life. This time of year people are buying self help books, gym memberships, and listening to motivational speakers. All those things are good, but they will bring no real change.

What will bring change is just to find out who Jesus is in your life, and that will change the way you use everything you have. The two men that multiplied what they had did so because they knew the Person that gave it was loving forgiving and merciful. Where you know you are loved there begins to be a freedom to take risks that ordinarily you would have never taken. They knew the Man had given them something that cost Him everything, because they realized the price the Man paid for them to receive that chance they were willing to act on it.....

The final man received a rebuke from the Man (Jesus) in this text. He received rebuke because he had potential for increase, but didn't do anything about it. God has entrusted each of us with talents gifts and abilities. Those things are not ours to do what we want with. They were given for us to go and multiply what was begun in us. However there will be no multiplication until you see Jesus for who He is.

So I end this blog with a statement that has pierced my heart the last few days....

"Every area that is experiencing lack in your life is under the influence of a lie."-Pastor Lawrence Neisant.

The lack we see in our life really comes down to us not seeing Jesus who He is. So who is Jesus to you this 2012 year? Is He a hard man? Is He loving? How you see Him is how you will increase...It all starts with your vision of who He is.