So I challenged Remnant this past Sunday to write down their testimony in one hundred words or less and then email it to me at contactus@remnantloves.me so I can give feedback, direction, and a high five.

To help you with your testimony here is mine in less than 100 words:

I grew up in a home of achievers. I was driven to achieve, perform, and succeed at such a high level that it became unhealthy and destructive. I grew emptier with each passing achievement. I became completely burned out, tired, and discouraged. God was not impressed with my performance but was there for me when I finally gave up and received His grace and love for me. I learned the way to his favor is simply receiving his love and the gift of His son. I did both and my life has been rich and full ever since.

That would be 98 words ladies and gents. Clear before and after picture. No fuzziness. All credit to God!

King David’s famous Psalm 23 states I will fear no evil for thou art with me.

So many people controlled by fear. Fear of getting cancer because there Mom has it. Fear of losing their job. Fear of losing their house. Fear of people not liking them or accepting them. Fear of failing.

King David’s fear of evil is not what cost him. Living comfortable in the palace and enjoying the blessing is what lead to his adultery, murder, and eventual death of his son.

Where I see so many people fall away from God is not when they have nothing and there back is against the wall but rather when God brings them out of the valley of the shadow of death and they begin to forget who they are and where they came from. Their blessing distracts them from the source of their blessing. As a result, they fall… usually really far and hard.

If we took our fear of evil and repositioned it to fear blessings we would use blessings to become even more generous and not selfish.

I’m the type of guy that likes to take the bull by the horns and make something happen. I am not known for reading instructions when putting together toys for my son AND I tend to drive over the speed limit.

I have faced situations that I can NOT change. No matter how hard I try it won’t change. I am slowly learning that all change starts in PRAYER. When I give every situation to God in prayer FIRST it seems like change seems to happen with so much less sweat.

There are many things that only God can do and if I don’t seek him in prayer I will only be limited to what I can do. There is a big cap between what I can do and what he can do. Pray change before you try to change, ask for change, or expect change.

There is a big difference between being in a hurry and having a sense of urgency. Here’s how you can know which one it is you have:

- Sense of urgency is always based in people and hurry is always centered in ME

- When in a hurry you don’t pay attention to detail when driven with urgency the heavens (not devils) are in the details

- Hurry’s final destination is rarely known and the road there is unmarked whereas urgency has a clear cut plan, definitive timing, and an obvious finish line.

So I am in the midst of a personal breakthrough of epic proportions. Patience is having its perfect work in me (James 1:4). It is remarkable what God is doing in me. I can’t really explain it. All I know is that my demeanor, approach, and attitude have drastically changed. I have lived my whole life in a hurry. I am realizing now that being in a hurry is really a symptom of selfishness.

Here’s a couple of tidbits I have discovered thus far:

1. Patience KEEPS you living in the moment

2. Patience KEEPS you in the right place at the right time

3. Patience works out with faith. When patient I know I can OVERCOME anything.

4. The more patient I become the more I realize how long God has been waiting on me and not me on Him. I am just trying to catch up and the way to catch up is not by trying harder but actually getting more patient.

More to come as my life becomes more patient.

Being someone you are not while being convinced that person you are not really is you… it has happened to me so many times. Our real DNA gets lost in the mix of life and we end up settling on being a person far below the identity of the person God created us to be. When I forget who God created me to be and who He sees me as I always begin to coast and slowly decline. In these times my faith wanes, my vision stalls, and I tend to get cozy and comfortable while not really doing anything or being anyone. When I look into the mirror and see who God created me to be the very opposite occurs. My faith gets jolted to life, my vision expands, and I start rolling with momentum.

Knowing you and being you is so crucial. I’m convinced your life will teeter between mundane and mediocre until you come in contact with the person of potential God created you to be.

I felt this question in my heart tonight. What am I really doing for God? It’s so easy to say giving financially, praying, reading my bible etc. What is it that I am really doing solely for God? I could say planting and pastoring a church for sure but even in the mix of everything we are doing have we really identified:

1) What God has asked us to do

2) Are we doing it really for God or for us, someone else, in order to get something etc.

Its so easy to do ministry and forget who we are doing it for. It’s all for Jesus. All of it.

PROCRASTINATION- delaying, or putting off something you have to do, need to do, or don’t want to do

I can understand this. Avoiding the necessary evil while knowing the longer you wait the worse it is going to get. The bad part of this is that it holds your thoughts captive and controls you until you finally get around to doing it.

FLESH- the internal desire that directly opposes the desires of our spirit and ultimately keeps us from doing what we don’t want to do (See Galatians 5:17).

The flesh keeps us from doing what we actually want to do. In essence it makes NOT want to do what we actually want to do. The whole time we are NOT doing what we want to do we aren’t really enjoying it.

What I want to do is crucify my flesh. I want to kill the very thing that is keeping me from living the way I want to live.

RECAP- procrastination delays us from doing what we don’t want to do. The flesh keeps us from doing what we do want to do. They both keep us from growing. Take them both to prayer and begin to live in the moment the way you want to.

Romans 13:8- Don’t owe any man anything but to love him

Our country is swimming in financial debt. Our federal deficit, a shiny way of saying debt, is at an all time high and only going up. The average college student graduates with at least 15K in credit card debt. Debt is all around us.

God told us to stay out of financial debt but stay IN love debt. We are to stay current in our LOVE PAYMENTS to every man all the time. No excuses. Love should be our first reaction, motive, response, proactive action, and thought.

What we need is the Dave Ramsey of love. Teachers that equip us to love.

LOVESTRONG is…

1 John 4:19- He loved us First. RECEIVING HIS LOVE.

Mark 12:29-31: Loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength

John 15:12: Loving others like He (Jesus) has loved us

Luke 7:47- LOVING MUCH because we have been forgiven of much

Basically, its all about receving God’s love for us and then directing that love back to Him, believers, far from God people, and ourselves.