1.  Start small

Sometimes we fail because we plan too big.  Start with a small goal with the disciplines, understanding that the Christian life is a growing process that takes time.

2.  Put together a plan

Once you have set some goals concerning the practicing of the disciplines, put together a plan of how you are going to get there.  Take into consideration, when, where, what, and how the disciplines are going to look in your regular life.

3.  Find an accountability partner

Find someone who will hold you accountable to be faithful in practicing the disciplines.

4.  Pray

I know it may sound like a given but we often forget the reality of the spiritual world we live in.  More than anything, Satan does not want you to develop disciplines that will strengthen our relationship with God.  Make it a practice to wake up every morning and begin your day praying that God will help you be faithful in your relationship to Him.

5.  One last thought—ENDURANCE! 

Remember that the disciplines wouldn’t be considered disciplines if it didn’t take hard work, determination, and perseverance in putting them into practice.  It also wouldn’t be considered “practicing” them if it didn’t mean we weren’t going to fail every once in a while.  Don’t let failure throw you completely off course.  God so deeply wants a relationship with you that He desires that you move past the failures and keep going!

When challenging his leaders in relation to serving students he said there are three things he asks them to do:

1.  Pray

You can’t lead someone spiritually if you haven’t asked the Spirit to guide and help.  Prayer is one of those “must” that rarely ever happens.

2.  Prepare

Be ready to for what might come up with students.  Know what they are going through.  And if you are teaching a lesson, definitely take the necessary time to know and ingest the topic you are discussing.

3.  Pursue

Teens like to know they matter and one of the best ways to do that is to pursue them.  I’m not talking about during church or the EPIC teaching times, but outside of GPCC and EPIC.  Contact them through Facebook, text, or call them.  Meet with them for a shake or a burrito.  Show up at one of their sporting events.  Really, just love them throughout the week.

Thanks Adam, for this great reminder!

Question: How many of you would consider yourself a daredevil?

Question:  What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

Question:  What is the most dangerous thing God had ever done?

Illustration:

Chronicles of Narnia:  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Mr. and Mrs Beaver are explaining to the kids about the world of Narnia, how Narnia got to the place where it is cold, frozen, etc., and goes into great detail about Aslan.

Lucy, the youngest of the three can’t grasped that a Lion would be something that people would be excited to see.  She asks the question, "Is he (Aslan) safe?"  Mr. Beaver quickly replies, "Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he is not safe.  But he is good. He’s the King, I tell you."

Of course if you are familiar with the Narnia story you know that Aslan represents Jesus.  So essentially, the message of that scene is that Jesus is not safe but he is good.

Application:

Jesus is not safe.  He didn’t call us to live a "safe" life.  He didn’t die so that we can live a mediocre, non-challenging life.  Jesus is very dangerous.  His teachings are dangerous and those that truly follow Him will find the path they walk to be dangerous.

So how do we follow Jesus?  We live has he lived!!

1 John 2:6 (NIV)
6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

So then the question to be asked is, "How did Jesus live and how did he command us to live?"

Mark 12:28-31 (NIV)
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."

John 13:34-35 (NIV)
34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

But loving people isn’t always safe. 

Loving people means we invest in the life of others.

It means we have to get messy. 

It also means we have to give our all!!

So how do we love?

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NIV)
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

One of the best examples is David.  Read Psalm 42.

Psalm 42:1-11 (NIV)
¹ As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
³ My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
⁵ Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and
⁶ my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon–from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
⁸ By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me– a prayer to the God of my life.
⁹ I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
¹¹ Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Though it is discouraging that David felt this way, I am thankful to know that he struggled like most of us.

This year, God has placed this passage on my heart,

Philippians 4:11-12 (NIV)
¹¹I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

In a world and culture that is so materialistic-driven, I would love to find my contentment in God and who I am in Him instead of stuff I have or don’t have.

God, my prayer to you is that I find myself being satisfied in you and only you!  Amen.

Nine-year-old Noah Smith represents at least the fourth generation in a long line of fishermen and the first among them to catch a gar.

But he earned more than just family bragging rights when he landed the 3.17-pound, 29 3/16-inch spotted gar June 30 from Crooked Lake in Steuben County. He earned a spot in the state record books.

“It feels awesome,” said Smith, who is from Delaware, Ohio.

Smith’s catch was not particularly large for its species. Spotted gar can grow up to 6 pounds. But his entry came at an opportune time. The Indiana Record Fish Program just recently began recognizing the different species within the gar family. In the past, the program grouped shortnose gar, spotted gar, and the much larger longnose gar into the same category.

Smith’s entry was the first submission for a spotted gar. On Aug. 17, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources sent Smith a letter certifying his record fish. How long the record will stand is unclear, but the family plans to enjoy it while it lasts.

“Nobody in our family has ever caught a gar period,” Noah’s father, Ryan Smith, said. “To catch that one and catch a state record is pretty cool.”

Smith baited his hook with a minnow and tied his fishing rod to a dock, letting it stay there overnight. When he woke up the next morning, he reeled in the fish.

He plans on mounting the fish on the wall in his bedroom.

I will admit though, that after check in, I am very disappointed so far.  There is one thing I always look forward to after check-in and that is the conference bag and notebook.  The bag this year is from Plywood People (www.plywoodpeople.com).  The idea is pretty cool and I like the concept.  Don’t know if I will carry around the bag this week though because it really looks more like a purse than anything.

But what I was disappointed about the most was the notebook.  In the past years the notebook has been a really well put together resource that is suitable to take notes in and to put one my bookshelf at the office.  This year, I feel they tried to cut corners financially (which is odd because the cost of the conference was still expensive) by putting together a “newspaper” look.  No room for taking notes and completely pointless to carry around because it is so big and awkward.

I so hope that the conference from here on out doesn’t have a cheap feel.  Praying that even if it does, God will still give me the fuel to take EPIC to the next great thing He has for us.

But there is Hope,
There is Peace,
There is Love,
There is a Way,
There is a Light.
Fullness.
Completely Jesus.

He is able more than able
To accomplish what concerns me today
He is able more than able
To handle anything that comes my way
He is able more than able
To do much more than I could ever dream
He is able more than able
To make me what He wants me to be