This upcoming Sunday, July 12th, 2009, Overflow Church in Appleton, Wisconsin will be officially licensing me as a children’s pastor.

The service will begin promptly at 10am. Seating is limited. As of this moment (Friday July 3rd, 2009 9:02am) there are only 69 seats left for the service.

You are invited! Everyone I know is invited however … since we have limited seating if you plan on attending the service you must RSVP ASAP!! You can RSVP by visiting http://twitlik.com/ordination or by clicking here!

After the service we will be having a huge party/fellowship at my parents home (click here for more info). The party will start around 12:30 and will go until the last person decides to leave.

Everyone is asked to bring a dish to pass and a lawn chair to the party.

Hope to see you there!

This post is only for people who are serious about reaching and being all they can be in Christ. This post may be a little strong for some people. Accountability starts now.

This past week has been awesome. God has really been speaking to me about being yielded. Being yielded not just at church but 24/7. It’s something that most of us refuse to do subconsciously. We hear God speak or feel that God has prodded us to do something but because we choose to not be yielded and because we choose to listen to our flesh sometimes more than God, we don’t do what God has requested. Just being real folks.

Have you ever been in a hospital and felt led to pray for someone but didn’t do it because you were afraid of what people might think or say? If so, you yielded to your flesh not to God.

Romans 6:13 says “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

We have to be yielded at all times, even when we feel that we are not where we need to be emotionally and spiritually.

Yielding to God not only affects our lives but it also affects the lives of the people around us. You want to know why you church is growing as fast as you think it should be? It’s because people aren’t yielding. You want to know why you services (including children’s and youth services) have been dry? It’s because people aren’t yielding.

We have to stay yielded to God. Romans 12:1-2 says “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

That scripture says so much. Not only does it say be yielded to God but it also tells you how!! It’s by the renewing of your mind. You have to decide who you are truly in love with. God or your flesh? If you love God more than you love your flesh then you should have no problem being yielded to God. Real disciples love their leader more than they love themselves and they don’t care what other “people” think. To many times we hear God say something but we don’t do what he says because our flesh get’s in the way. We have to crucify the flesh.

If you are yield yourself to God something will always happen that will change and bless your life.

We need to stop going to church to be entertained. Going to church to be blessed or to get something from the service. Instead we need to go yielded. We need to go giving God everything we have. In total surrenderance … with our hands up saying “Here I am Jesus”. I can’t help but think that if we do this, we will leave more blessed then ever before.

God desires to be in a passionate relationship with us and I don’t know about you but when I am in a relationship with someone it’s not always about me. It’s not always about what I am going to get from it. So why do we go to church or live our lives just for ourselves and not for Him. If I was God, I would have broken up with myself a long time ago, but God loves me and you more than we can imagine.

It’s time for change. Real revival in our country will come from yielded people. People giving God everything and people who have laid down their flesh.

A couple weeks ago God began to speak to me on watching what I say and how I say it. I am not talking about speaking mean things or talking about people as we all know that that is inappropriate but what I am talking about is the tone of our life.

I never realized the tone that I kept. I am not saying that my tone was always negative but I think sometimes the negative tone was heard more than the positive tone (at least in my head).

Twitter is a great tool to use while trying to find out your tone. If you have a Twitter account and use it often, go to your twitter profile page and just read the last week or so of tweets. What’s your tone? Do you have a positive tone or a negative tone?

1 Timothy 4:12 says “Let no man look down on your youthfulness but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, show yourself – an example of those who believe”.

We have to be an example? We are leaders. People are watching us and are seeing how we deal with issues. I am not saying be fake. That’s not what I am saying at all … what I am saying to do is to look for the positive side in everything. Serious … last week … I had an early morning meeting with a few local pastors and then I had to get to work. On my way to my meeting the car broke down … but PRAISE GOD, another vehicle was waiting for me to use. Seriously there is a positive thing for every negative thing so why do we focus on the negative?

Let me say it again … WE HAVE TO BE THE EXAMPLE. The word example means to be “Imitated”. The Greek word means “to mimic, “ to behave in such a way that another can copy it exactly. Do you like being around negative people all the time? Then be the example of a positive person. Be the one that people chose to imitate! That’s what Paul told his disciples (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1)

Anyways … just something I am working on in my own personal life. I want to be an example. I want to be an example of good Godly leadership. I want to be that person who is always thankful and full of joy. Don’t you?

This past week has been one of those weeks in which I feel like I could have done so much more. It’s been a great week and many awesome things have taken place this week but yet I see this laundry list of stuff that I need to get accomplished. My list is so long that it’s even become a character issue for me.

I always want to be a man of integrity and if I say I am going to do something for someone then I am going to do it. Unfortunately, that creates a list of stuff that needs to be completed and sometimes there just isn’t enough time in a day to do it all. I gotta get caught up and will over the next couple days even if it requires long nights and less fun.

Over the last few weeks I have been talking about being prepared, disciplined and alert. This is just one of those areas in which I need discipline. This is an issue that I need to quickly address.

Today I nailed down a bunch of things I need to get done for our upcoming Father’s Day Family Picnic event and also prepared myself for the next 13 weeks of teaching “Super Church” so today so far has been very successful. Now I just gotta wipe out the other items that have been waiting patiently.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by a list of stuff you committed to but don’t seem to have the time to complete? What did you do?

This was emailed to me this morning from my uncle. It’s an interview between Craig Groeschel and Satan. I thought it was pretty interesting. A lot of great points!!