Overcoming

God's been reminding me the power I have in Him when facing difficult and discouraging circumstances.  How great it is that God has given us everything we need to overcome in every situation we face.  Check it out.

“So God not only prepares us for conflict, He leads us right into it. I’m not saying He is the cause of difficulty in our lives. He is not, nor has He ever been, the sort of Father who brings torment, sickness, or persecution into the lives of His children to teach them how to be more Christ-like. The point is that when we are pursuing our God-given purpose, every situation in our lives works together to accomplish it.  We never have to live in a moment of conflict without divine purpose because God can win with any hand, even a pair of twos.  In reality, He already has won.  Our job is to align our hearts with the reality of the victory of the Cross so that we can see His purposes and redemption at work around us. Then we can recognize how to partner with Heaven in our circumstances. People who have this perspective stand out because they get happy when they encounter a problem. They know it is their assignment, privilege, and joy to see impossibilities and problems bend their knees to the name of Jesus.”
–Bill Johnson in “Strengthen Yourself in the LORD”

“I really feel to highlight the part of this prayer report, where it says to focus on how blessed you are. I know this can seem strange, and even difficult amidst some of the circumstances, but I feel this is really quite important. There is this one phrase which I’ve heard repeatedly which simply states that our attitude determines our altitude. Seems simple. But it can be hard.  I feel like we often are looking for an “out” to explain away why things may seem difficult. We can blame it on the enemy or on spiritual warfare, but sometimes it is something as simple as our attitude. If we are having a crummy attitude and expecting hardship, heaviness, discouragement then we are opening ourselves up to this. It is a discipline to take these thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ.  This does not discount that there may be discouragement in the air, for example. It doesn’t mean to live in denial and paste a fake smile on. It means that we may feel all the discouragement or whatever negative emotion and then we turn in the opposite spirit and meditate on the immense blessings in our lives. We turn to praise and thanksgiving in the midst of the discouragement. It’s not denial, it is responding to it through a Kingdom perspective.”
–Kayle Mumby

Putting the Bridegroom Before the Bride

 "Leadership positions can actually distract us from the very sensitivity we are thought to be maintaining.  We can become so preoccupied with serving the Bride that we neglect our vital connection to the Bridegroom.  We live in an age when the driving agenda of so many ministers, in its raw essence, is a relationship with the Bride.  They spend more energy investing in a relationship with the Bride than with the Bridegroom."

"A paradigm of spiritual leadership that gives more attention to the body than to the Head is bankrupt.  It's true that leaders need to be faithful to feed the flock of God, but the only way to be a true witness for Jesus is to come to the word for yourself first, and then feed the flock from the overflow of what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you personally."

"The true friend of the Bridegroom doesn't come to the word primarily to find sermon material but to see the Living Word in the pages that point to Him.  He knows he will effectively serve the Bride only to the degree that he is maintaining a fiery, intimate relationship with the Bridegroom."

"The great leaders of this end-time generation will be those who have a personal, compelling relationship with Jesus, and who come to the word primarily for the purpose of encountering the Man, Jesus Christ.  If you don't demonstrate a compelling passion for Jesus in this hour, you will be bypassed as worthy to help the Bride prepare herself for her wedding day."

-Bob Sorge in "It's Not Business, It's Personal"

It's Been Awhile

Hey everybody.

It's been a very long time since I've posted and even longer since I've actually written something of my own.  I've had a very busy fall quarter that came immediately after my very busy summer of traveling and filming.  Just wanted to give an update on my life and my film.  I am very excited about how the production went for my film Why We Go and am anxious to get going in the post-production process.  I hope to have a trailer ready by the new year and am still hoping winter and spring quarter will be kind enough to me so I can finish the film by the summer of 2013.

I was not able to work on it at all during fall quarter which wasn't the easiest thing in the world.  However I learned that one can only do so much and I certainly wasn't lazy the past few months.  In fact they were probably the most productive 3 months of my entire life.  Between school, work, church and being president of a college Christian group my time was pretty much tied up 24-7.

But now it's Thanksgiving break and over the next week I'll be posting some of my fall quarter work, some more book quotes, and perhaps even some thoughts of my own. 

Stay tuned :)