Jesus said “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but anyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.”(Matt 10:32-33)
Its pretty obvious that it not only takes mere faith but commitment and boldness to proclaim you belong to Jesus. But, what happens if being bold for Jesus leads to trials, tests, struggle, ridicule, job loss, pain or even death? Are we willing to be that bold, to go that far? Think about this:

• Simon Peter- Most facts confirm he was crucified….yup, he was crucified and because he felt unworthy to die like his savior, he requested to be crucified upside down.(This isn’t lethal injection or even the electric chair, this is the most horrible way to die, there wasn’t human rights activists, this was cold blooded torture)

• Matthew- Nailed to the ground with spears and then had his head cut off. (Just try putting yourself there, would you still deny or proclaim your faith?)

• Thomas- Stabbed and killed with a spear (no more doubts there, he knew what and why he was dying)

• Andrew- Crucified on an X shaped cross in Greece.

• James(Jesus brother)- After being thrown down from 100 foot high temple, surviving the fall, he was then beaten to death with a club.

• Bartholomew- Flogged and whipped to death.

• Matthias- (He replaced Judas) Stoned and then got his head cut off.

• Apostle Paul- Tortured and then got his head cut off.

• John(The beloved)- He was actually thrown in a basin to be boiled to death, and God spared his life, he lived and later was able to write the book of Revelation. Amazing.

So, I ask you because I’ve had to look myself in the mirror and ask…am I willing to die for what I believe in? Listen, nobody I know is willing to die so horribly for a lie. Don’t even think that terrorists are brave, they cowardly, usually blow themselves up, killing innocent people, they don’t meet death in an intimate level, they take the quick way out.The examples above are just devout believers willing to die for what they believed in, there are people dying daily for the same faith all around the world. Jesus said “If you cling to your life, you will lose it, but if you give up your life for me, you will find it” (Matt 10:39)

Are you willing to die for what you believe, better yet, are you willing to really LIVE for what you believe? I just want to challenge your thinking a bit here, I’m not trying to convict you, the Holy Spirit does that, I just want to stir up some passion for faith because America desperately needs it again.

How far would you be willing to go to prove your faith?

1. Fall in love- Remember that love is the difference in everything we do, remember why you love the person. Remember that although you feel upset, angry or frustrated that your (tone) needs to convey love, not only choosing loving words but saying them in a loving way. If you forget this principle you will say things in a hurtful tone or even worse, you will choose words that hurt and wound the person instead of helping them heal and improve, which should be the core reason of the conversation.

2. Remember truth- When the Bible says “speak in truth and love” its not saying our version or perception of truth, its referring to the only real truth, Gods holy word. You need to base your facts based on biblical teachings and look closely on the life of Christ. Gods word tells us to always to “cloth” ourselves (which means put this on since you don’t already wear it) with humility, gentleness, kindness, etc..Sharing facts in a cold way doesn’t reflect Gods heart towards that person, it actually misrepresents God entirely becuase God LOVES his people, even when they make mistakes. I read recently from John Mason “God doesn’t view us as failures but as learners.” Aren’t we all learning?

Pray about the person, pray over yourself BEFORE having the meeting or conversation, and this meeting should not be the first time these issues become evident. A good leader coaches along the way, towards change, in other words there should have been encouragement, direction along the way before that important (talk) takes place. One more thing, don’t bend facts to support your position, remember the idea here is to improve and move forward, by remembering to state truth, facts in a loving way, we avoid using them to lash back from our own frustrations.

What are some principles you might be applying when having an honest conversation? Share them here.

1 Corinthains 6:19,20

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

That sounds pretty clear, when you take care of your body, you honor God, he gave it to you and he also died a horrible death for you so the price he paid was extremely high. Why would we dishonor him this way?

1 Corinthians 9:27

I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

Again, Paul here is keeping himself accountable, he understands that God has called him and is using him to preach the good news around the world, yet how far do you think he can he go if he’s unhealthy and out of shape? Think about it, being out of shape gets us pretty cozy and ultimately makes us lazy, tired, lowering our immune system, causing all sort of problems for us. For years I suffered migraines, but then again I wasn’t taking ownership of my diet, I was eating foods without reading their ingredients, that were actually triggering my headaches. I can tell you without hesitation, when I had a migraine, I wasn’t able to do much of anything.

Our body is an amazing creation that God blessed us with, it can and will heal itself, just like it did when you were a kid and got a (“booboo”), treat it well and it will respond well, if you treat your body poorly and it gets sick or you get a sickness or pain, please stop blaming the devil, that guy gets so much credit he’s got a beacon score above 800. Do what it says in Romans 12:1 “…give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

Are you honoring God with your body?

]]> http://www.marcmillan.com/2012/02/17/honoring-god-with-your-body/feed/ 9 http://www.marcmillan.com/2012/02/16/an-encouraging-hymn/ http://www.marcmillan.com/2012/02/16/an-encouraging-hymn/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:01:37 +0000 Marc Millan http://www.marcmillan.com/?p=1308 By Daniel Whittle and May Moody

Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine; Living with Jesus, a new life divine; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Refrain

Moment by moment I’m kept in His love; Moment by moment I’ve life from above; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine; Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Never a trial that He is not there, Never a burden that He doth not bear, Never a sorrow that He doth not share, Moment by moment, I’m under His care.

Refrain

Never a heartache, and never a groan, Never a teardrop and never a moan; Never a danger but there on the throne, Moment by moment He thinks of His own.

Refrain

Never a weakness that He doth not feel, Never a sickness that He cannot heal; Moment by moment, in woe or in weal, Jesus my Savior, abides with me still.

I underlined some very important words here for emphasis.
Consider the profoundness of this revelation from a man who asked God for wisdom, the LORD not only granted him this request but gave him everything else because he only asked for wisdom, pretty sweet deal. Solomon, already being enlightened with Gods gift of wisdom tells us off the bat, Trust. Trust the LORD, normally we function in reverse, we want the LORD to give us all the information, details, the where, the who, the how and then after that, we occasionally choose to Trust God. Trust is a must. Having faith doesn’t mean you feel like it nor does it mean you can see it. Having faith means we choose to believe it.

Here is the second point, giving God all your heart when you choose to trust him. Our heart is the center of our thinking, the center of our feelings, everything we desire or think of flows from the heart. God is telling us, through his word and Solomon, he needs to be what you are focusing on here.  Finally, we take a look at our understanding. What we know is far less than what we don’t know, yet we rely on our understanding more than anything. We look back on our experiences, we try and figure things out, we lean on it with amazing confidence, like its a solid wall, a pillar of unfathomable knowledge. We are told, DO NOT depend, do not rest on, do not lean on OUR understanding. Yet, every time we are faced with the unknown, we try and understand all of it. God is telling us, HE knows all things, we need to TRUST him, LEAN ON HIM, DEPEND on him through this.
One final word I want to share about this, stress is a deadly killer. We spend way too much time thinking about (possible) future events that never actually happen. We worry, we get anxious, we stress on things we have absolutely no control over. Learn to trust in God, remember that “this is the day that the LORD has made,” that should give you the peace of knowing that God is already in tomorrow, he’s seen it, he’s created it and will walk you through it.

Do you get frustrated easily and how are you learning to deal with it?

Just want us to connect, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for recomendations for music and books.

So, I’ll share some books and music here but the idea is for anyone to leave a comment so we can learn and mature together.

Music: Gotta check out….
• All the Sons and daughters
• Loft sessions (Bethel)
• The Brilliance
• Bryan and Katie Torwalt

Books: You gotta check out…
• The enemy called average by John Mason
• The God I never knew by Robert Morris
• War of words by Paul Tripp

What you got?

How does a team, already living out the values, chasing vision and upholding core beliefs go to the next level? The following steps are not the only steps but I do believe that this particular order of steps, help teams achieve greatness.

1. Ownership - The first step towards greatness starts with a person taking full ownership of their responsibilities and roles, without depending on someone else. Until a person can own up to their contribution and hold themselves accountable to the standard, the team will not take off the ground. Everyone needs to get to a place where they realize they don’t have a job, they have a responsibility to themselves and to the rest of the team. Remember the B.E.D. Principle= (Don’t BLAME others/Don’t make EXCUSES/Don’t DENY your part in it)

2. Leadership- The second step is getting people to lead themselves, getting team members to think on their own. The worse scenario is for talented people to just be waiting around for the opinion of one person. That is called a lid, or a bottle neck. Talented people can think, they need to be thinking and responding to situations and needs once they are revealed on their own, thus taking them into leadership. Leading from where they are.

3. Development- Assuming your people are now taking ownership, that they are leading in the places and situations they find themselves, most teams stop right there. The next step is incredibly beneficial but it’s almost hypocritical not to do it. Now your not only leading but you are now leading groups of people. You don’t need to know it all to develop other leaders, just start by passing on what you already know. If you get your team to start leading and stop there you rob yourself of growing your organization. The biggest difference I have seen personally from small churches to large churches is; smaller churches have a few people doing most of the work, the larger churches are finding ways to developing other leaders, coaching people, building people, so that the vision can get accomplished. Therefore smaller vs Bigger. You have to get to a point where you continue to develop other leaders. This is HUGE.

4. Influence- Finally, a team that is developing leaders now has the opportunity to influence the culture of their organization. Once your team has gotten in the game by taking ownership, once they are leading and thinking on their own, they begin to develop the next level of leaders, you can finally start to see some of their influence. Teams that are innovating, changing things are teams that have gotten in the drivers seat for their vision. When teams can reach this level, we start to see future shapers, leading from within and reaching all around them.

These four steps, in this particular sequence will help any team with ordinary results become a team with great results. There aren’t great teams right? there are just great results. If you don’t believe me, look at the LA Lakers before Phil Jackson, they had O’neal and Kobe there already but could not get it to work until Coach Jackson arrived. The difference, taking them step by step, ownership, leadership, development, influence = Championship type success.

What are some things you might add to this list or to it’s definition?

I am no longer comfortable calling myself a Christian. I just honestly believe it doesn’t represent who I am trying to be, I am calling myself a Christ Follower instead. Being a Christ follower, tells me all I need to know every single moment of my day..FOLLOW CHRIST. Jesus said “If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.“(Matt 10:38). Did you get that? We aren’t even worthy of being his if we choose not to take up our cross and follow him. What does that mean, follow him, it means follow his word, follow his heart, his way of living, crucify your will and live God’s will, or in easier terms, pick God’s game plan everyday and leave YOUR game plan at home. This is pretty significant because the difference can be seen by others. The early church, the one talked about in the book of Acts was becoming known by their love for one another and because they were living lives, similar to Christ, they were preaching, teaching, reading God’s word daily, baptizing people, attending to the sick and poor….so people associated them with Jesus Christ and began calling them…”those Christians.”  We are talking about upholding the name of Jesus Christ by how we live. Let me add this here, we aren’t perfect, no one is…but we are being perfected by grace. My favorite Bible verse is in Phil 1:6, it’s God’s promise to continue improving our lives until we are ready to join him in heaven, the question is are we allowing him to perfect our lives, is there a sign of progress and improvement?

Jesus said “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.” Is Jesus judging a person? No. He is simply stating facts, when we hear the phrase, “don’t judge a person” we are trying to convey that we may not know everything about them, but based on what we DO know, here is the verdict. My desire is to live and glorify God in all that I do, with Jesus being my example, his word my guide and his spirit my strength. Yeah, I am a follower of Christ, radically saved, drastically obedient, I am a follower of Christ.

Which describes you best, Christian or Christ Follower?