Bring Your Best Today

Colossians 3:23 (NIV) “And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men.”

God put a desire in all of us to have fruitful lives. So, it doesn’t matter if you work the line at a factory, you’re a teacher at a school, or the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company we all should start our days with a goal to bring our very best. I would like to suggest five things that will help you put that goal into practice.

#1  When you get to work, be ready to work.

If you’re playing in the NFL and you’ve got a 1:00pm kick-off you’re not pulling your Escalade into the parking lot at 12:59pm. You’re probably there by 9:00am preparing to give your all on the field of play. Why is it that so many employees come to work minutes before their “kick-off’s” and wonder why they are not being celebrated for their efforts?

Here’s the deal. If you’re supposed to be on your post at 8:00am then be there, ready to go, well before 8:00am. Then, please don’t spend the first hour at work “winding up”, getting your coffee and eating your bagel and then spend the last hour of the day “winding down”. When you’re at work-- work!

Excellent employees don’t wait to get there till they ‘get there’, they come ready to work!

#2 Stay Focused

We live in a world where there seems to be a million distractions. So we need to learn not to chase the shiny things of life. Do you ever find yourself distracted from your main task by a Facebook notice, a Tweet, a text message from a friend, or even an email that is just not that urgent?

One way you can stay focused is having a daily checklist of the things that you want to accomplish. I would recommend setting aside a few minutes of thinking and planning time, at the beginning of each day, to prioritize your day. Then stay focused on it throughout the day and my guess is that you’ll be shocked as to how much you were able to get done.

So hunker down and stay focused on the task at hand.

#3 Be Solution Oriented

It’s easy to be the one at work that points out the problems, but how about becoming the person who comes up with solutions. Problem pointer-outers are plentiful, but solution comer-uppers are few and far between. Just because we’ve done certain things forever doesn’t mean that we need to keep doing them the same way. The incredible advancement of technology has opened up so many opportunities to improve efficiencies both at home and at work, it’s truly amazing.

So, if you want to increase your worth at work, be the one who works on making your company a more efficient operation.

#4  Don’t Hang With The Wrong Crowd

Every company has a group of negatrons. You know who they are. They are the ones who complain about everything. If they got a bonus, instead of being happy they’d find something to criticize about it. You don’t ever want to be associated with that crowd. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV) that “...bad company corrupts good people.”  Your image at work can be tarnished simply because you’re hanging out with Negative Norm or Critical Cathy too much.

So choose your associations wisely.

#5  Go The Extra Mile

With every task we are assigned, we can do just enough or we can choose to do more than enough. It’s what’s called going the extra mile. Don’t be ever be satisfied with just getting by, be the one that rises up above the others because you’re known for doing a little extra. I learned this lesson during my very first job, 36 years ago. My job was to park and fuel private airplanes. But there was typically a lot of waiting around in between tasks. So I took it upon myself to always sweep and clean the hangers. It wasn’t on my job description but I just saw that it needed to be done. Nobody else noticed except the owner. Owners of businesses have a tendency to notice things like that. Well guess who got the promotion to manage the whole department. You guessed it, the one who went the extra mile.

So, today bring your best to what you’re doing. Let the glory of God shine brightly through your work, no matter what it is.


“Father, I thank you for my job. Today I’m choosing to bring my very best because I want to please You with my work. I want to glorify You and bring You glory. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

God's Got Your Back!

As one who has now been walking with the Lord for 30 years I think I’m finally at a point in life when I can actually say AMEN, with some authority, to today’s text. It really is true. I have seen it over and over again, in my own life and in the lives of countless others. Jesus is committed to those who are committed to Him. He will never forsake those who have forsaken all to follow Him. In fact He says that in Hebrews 13:5, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you,’” NKJV I love how this verse reads in the Amplified Bible because it amplifies these rich and powerful truths about God’s commitment to us, “…For He, God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down, or relax My hold on you, assuredly not!” Wow, are those incredible promises? God Himself is reminding us that whatever it is that we’re going through, we are never alone. He is ALWAYS with us, He NEVER leaves us and on top of that He ALWAYS has an ample supply of whatever we need in life. Are you facing some challenges today? Do you wonder how you’re going to get through? Well the good news is that you don’t have to go through it alone. God has promised that He will never forsake you, no matter how tough the problem is or how big the mountain seems, He’s going to stick with you through it all.  Then on top of that He’s got the resources that you’ll need to get through it. He promises us that in Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” NKJV So, what do you need God’s help with today? Do you need a door to open? Favor? Opportunities? Do you need some extra finances for a project? Well it’s time to believe God and to walk in His promise today, because God’s got you covered!

Goodbye Beverly!

“Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her.”  Proverbs 31:28

Her previous church had burned her and she’d been unable to find another one that felt right so she had given up. Then out of the blue her daughter called and asked her to join her at this new church that had started. That’s when we first met Beverly Kirk 20 years ago. The whole clan came, her, her family, her brother and his family—I called them the choir section because they all sat together, off to the side, near the back of Masonic Lodge that we transformed each week to hold our services. We didn’t have much, but they didn’t either. But something clicked; I’m not sure what it was. The preaching was marginal, the music pitiful, and the place…well you can only do so much with a 50 year-old Masonic Lodge in the middle of a cornfield. I think it was just the purity of loving Jesus with all our hearts and wanting to live to honor Him that captured her heart.

Bev and her husband Bob became part of our Ministry Team Leaders. We were a ragtag bunch of nobodies that had a vision to be a church that taught the Word of Faith, lived with a Spirit of Faith, and loved God and loved each other.  We sweated through 4 summers of church without air conditioning, but we finally bought our first building and it had 6 of them. Although our summers Sundays were much cooler our faith in God stayed hot. We had our issues; there were kids to be born, friends who died, the joy of marriages and pain of divorces, even some challenging family issues. But through it all Bev stayed strong in her faith, and she prayed. Not many days went by where she wasn’t praying for Bob, her kids, and her church. She and Bob loved our trips to Tulsa for our week of meetings at Rhema where we had attended Bible School. Her faith grew and her love for God and her family grew with it.

But it wasn’t until she faced some major health challenges that we saw just how strong her faith in Jesus her Healer had become. We lovingly called her a cat, because she seemed to have nine lives. More than once Bev, lying in a hospital room, stood on the Word as she fought through a serious health issue that would have taken out most of us. She was a woman of great faith, and it was that faith that extended her life many years.

In the world’s eyes Bev never had much. She lived in a modest home, drove a modest car, never wore fancy designer clothes, nor ate in the finest restaurants. She didn’t travel much, but she was very rich. She was extremely rich in the wealth of knowledge she possessed in the love that God had for her. She was rich in the love she received from her devoted husband, from her family and her friends. She was rich in an unwavering faith of a Jesus who loved her, and despite her flaws went to the cross for all of her sins and all of her diseases.

The last few years Bev, now in a wheelchair and on oxygen, she and Bob attended and graduated from our Epic School of Ministry. She was a woman of faith to the end and when the end was near she spoke of being satisfied and ready from meet Jesus face to face. She went out of this world the way a champion, a hero of faith should. She had said her goodbyes to her family, sang songs of worship and praise to the One who saved her, and then waited for us to come to her side to pray. You see we had gone out of town for a couple of days and so we called her Sunday afternoon, and asked her to stick around until Tuesday so that we could come to pray and say our goodbyes. We got to her side around 9:00am Tuesday morning and encouraged her to go in peace and be with Jesus. We prayed, thanked her for her walk of faith and the example she had been to her family and then we released her to heaven. Then in just a few hours later, with her family at her side, she departed peacefully to be with Him, forever.

Thank you Bev Kirk, for being faithful charter member of Valley Family Church for 20 years. Thank you for giving us time to learn how to be pastors. Thank you giving us some room to make mistakes and to learn from them. Thank you for not being critical when others were. Thank you for always having our backs and for always believing in us. Thanks for allowing us to be your pastors, and for the example of faith you have been to so many. We’re going to miss you. And don’t forget to tell Jesus what we told you, “Send help!”

You Can Have What You See

“Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east…” Genesis 13:10-11 NKJV

This week we took our executive team out of town for two full days of planning and dreaming as we set our faith goals for the next couple of years as a church. I was reminded of the power that vision plays in life as we reviewed where we’ve been, and set our sights on where we’d like to be. Today’s text is a reminder that we need to set aside times in our lives when we can lift up our eyes beyond the here and now and just let God help us to see what could be.

Have you found yourself in a rut lately? Are you focusing all your emotional energies on dealing with today’s issues and loosing sight of tomorrow’s possibilities? I believe that God wants to breath some fresh vision in your life if you’ll just lift up your eyes.

Proverbs 29:18 tells us, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” The word vision is quite often translated; “revelation”, or we could say a divinely inspired vision. God is telling us here that without a vision people perish, they run wild, they live without a goal— they live their whole life below what could be.

It all starts with a vision. So what do you see? Because if you can’t see it, if you can’t picture it, then most likely you’ll never achieve it.  So lift up your eyes, set your sights on a new prize and dream a God inspired dream for your life. Then do what Habakkuk 2:2 says to do, "Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.” It really is amazing what can happen if you will just begin to write down your vision of what you would like things to be.


So lift up your eyes, catch the vision, and run for it, full of faith, with a confident expectation.  Because you can have what you see!

Seasons

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 

It’s graduation season, it’s the season when we celebrate the accomplishments of our family and friends. We have four graduations at our house this year. Our oldest daughter Meghan is graduating from Rhema Bible Training Center today so our family is in Tulsa today to celebrate her accomplishment. She’s been school for the last eighteen years, and I’m guessing that she’s ready for this next season. Annie, daughter number two graduated last week from Spring Arbor University. She’ll be home for the summer and then she too is heading down to Tulsa to attend Rhema next fall. Our son Luke finished his second year at Western Michigan University but is also graduating from his first year as a member of our Epic Commission discipleship program as well as his first year of our Epic School of Ministry. Finally, our baby Eric is graduating from High School in a few weeks. Then on top of that we are moving into a new home after ten years of living at the same address. So the Jones’s are experiencing a whirlwind of seasonal change. How about you?

 This text is a reminder to all of us that seasons are a part of life. There are seasons of sowing and seasons of reaping. Seasons for taking risks and seasons for experiencing the rewards that accompany them. There are dry seasons, and there are rainy seasons. One thing is certain though—God is working through every season we experience. So if you’re in a tough season right now, don’t give up. Maybe it’s just a time for you to hunker down, dig in, and set your sights on Jesus and the new season that’s just beyond the horizon.

For those of you graduating this year, you have been in a long season of gathering knowledge. A season of being stretched, pulled and pushed beyond what you thought was possible. But you finished, you stuck it out, you got your degree. Now you are facing a new season. A season to take those things that you’ve learned and begin to apply this new found knowledge in every day practical ways. So here’s today’s word of encouragement for you. The same God who was with you in your past season will be with you in this new season. Did you know that He’s been preparing you for this new season all along? Of course He has, He’s the God of every season, so you’ve got nothing to fear. In fact He’s ready to do a new thing in you and through you in this next season.


“Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19

So get ready because God is about to blow the doors off of your self imposed limitations. It’s time to think big. It’s time to put away the old, and embrace the possibilities of the new. You’re moving from faith to faith, from glory to glory, and your best days are ahead. Remember with God all things are possible. So rejoice in your new season. It’s time for you to shine!

Listen and Obey

"Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 28:1-2

 Today’s text is both inspirational and instructional in nature. On the inspirational side, who wouldn’t want to have God set them on high and have His blessings overtake them? But, did you notice that God gives us some pretty clear instructions in terms of actually qualifying to receive those blessings? The key is found in just one word—a big one, “if”. If we will listen and if we will obey, the blessings come, if we don’t, they don’t. Pretty simple, huh? Our ability to receive these promised blessings from God requires our willingness to diligently obey the voice of the Lord. There are a lot of voices in our world that are daily trying to influence us. Advertisers have a voice, our friends and family’s have voices, and even popular opinion has a voice. But those voices are always changing. The voice of what’s in and what’s not, what’s today and what is so yesterday. Aren’t you glad that God’s Word never changes?

“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” Psalm 119:89 

 While these voices may speak to us, we need to establish ourselves firmly on the ONE voice that will see our through our whole life—The Word of God. God’s voice should always have preeminence in our lives because His voice never changes. We can always take Him at His Word. His voice in our lives is not moved by current culture or by popular opinion. He is the Lord and He doesn’t change. Do you remember what He said in Malachi 3:6, “I am the Lord I change not…” God’s positions on life and social issues don’t evolve; they stay the same, because He stays the same. We can place our trust in Him.

"God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” Numbers 23:19 

 Finally it’s important to note, that we’re required to do more than just hear the word of God, we are to obey it. In other words, we’re not to debate it, massage it, manipulate it, nor are we to try to adjust it to fit the times. We’re to obey it, period! We don’t ask God to adjust His Word to fit us; we adjust our lives to fit His Word. We don’t have an option, either we build our lives upon the truth of God’s word or we don’t. There is no middle ground, no room to compromise, only obedience. But because we’ve chosen to listen and obey, our faith is now under attack. Because of our love for God and His Word we are called haters, bigots, intolerant, or even simply minded. So let’s make our stand upon the Word of God. Let’s stay strong in our trust in the truth we find within its pages. Let’s continue to diligently obey the voice of the Lord our God.

Rock Solid

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24-27

 I’m more and more convinced that our lives need to be built upon God’s unchanging word. Doesn’t it seem like the world around us is always moving, it’s always shifting and always changing? When our kids were very young I taught them the multiplication table. I did it because I wanted them to learn that there are very few things in this world that you can always count on. Please excuse the pun, get it—count on? You see math isn’t open to new views, opposing theories or the winds of change. It’s always the same—two times two always equals four, eight times eight always equals sixty-four, you can bank on it. Did you know that you can bank on God, and His word even more, because He never ever changes. Storms will come and go, but God will never ever change.

 In the above text Jesus describes two types of people. He calls one of them wise, and the other foolish. The wise man builds his life upon God and His word, the rock. The foolish chooses to build his life upon the circumstances of life, the sand. When the storms came only one house stood the test. One house weathered the storm, while the other was crushed by the very same conditions. You see the same storm come to both the wise and the foolish, but success or failure depends on what we build our lives upon. Chances are you may be facing a storm or two right now. Storms happen to the best of us. So I just want to remind you that you can weather every storm if you’ll keep your eyes on the One who never changes.

Remember the promise in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus IS the same yesterday, today and forever.” Listen God loves you, He’s got your back, He’s there to help. So don’t give up, don’t quit, don’t run, don’t throw in the towel. You can make it, you can stand on His promises. His word will never fail. Your house will stand in Jesus’ Name.