Hope Rising

My wife, Kat, has shared a book called "Hope Rising" with me that I want to recommend to you. It is about the stories of the pain and victory of the children and horses who visit the Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch.

The back cover says it all: "Where Wounded Spirits Run Free"

Follow a horse where no one else can tread, through the minefield of pain that surrounds a broken child's soul. From mistreated horse to an emotionally starved child and back again, a torrent of love revives their barren places.

In the presence of unconditional love, a mute girl speaks for the first time. A defiant teenager teaches a horse to trust again...and opens his heart to love. A rescued horse gives a dying man his last wish. A battered girl finds love and protection in the friendship of a battered horse.

Come visit a place where the impossible flourishes, where dreams survive the inferno of reality...a place where hope rises.

Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch

As I read the stories found in the pages of this book tears swell to my eyes. Tears being brought by the story of how one teen's determination saves four abused horses.  Tears being brought because of how an abused horse and an abused child find peace and trust in each other.

Tears brought because this is what the body of Christ, the Church, should be doing. Let me challenge you to move beyond the four walls of your building and get your hands dirty with the lives of the wounded. I want to encourage you to be more than a Sunday morning Christian that goes to church each week to pay the premium on your hell insurance.

God wants to add your story to the book of Acts but in order to do so you must get out of the pew, get off the couch and act. You need to discover, develop and use your Spiritual Gifts in order to not be like the person talked about in the "Parable of the Talents" found in Matthew 25: 14-30 who hid the talent given to him. Unless you take the talent (Spiritual Gifts) the Holy Spirit has emparted to you and use them in service to others you are hiding it and it gains nothing for the Master. You are wasting the pages of the book of Acts that could have been added.

In 2010 become a person who is being the Church not doing Church. I suggest you purchase "Hope Rising" and let God stir in you the compassion found in the hearts of these children who have found hope. I want to read about your story as God adds it to the book of Acts. He can do great things through a person with a compassionate heart.

Who Has Your Blind Side?

Every man has a blind side and he needs other men to cover it. For years I lived fearful of having male friends. Then I found a church where men had compassion and a couple of men covered my blind side. They did not try to fix me instead they showed me Christ. Men let the Holy Spirit do the fixing as you do the encouraging. 

Men! I encourage you to get some guys together and go watch the movie, "The Blind Side". Then stop by a StarBucks or even a bar and talk about what was stirred in you. Guys if yo don't get another guy to watch your blind side satan and his demons will sack you.

Center of your life

Colossians 3

He Is Your Life

1-2 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

3-4 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.

5-8 And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.

9-11 Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.

12-14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

As you listen to and read the words of the following song consider who or what is at the center of your life. This song, "Be the Centre", can be purchased at Vineyard Music.

What one thing can you do to place Jesus in the center of your life? What one thing will be the results of you making Jesus the center of your life?