Do you believe that God has a plan for everybody’s life? Do you believe that He wants you to know what that plan is?
Ask the average believer and he or she will probably answer, “of course.” The idea that God has a plan for our lives is right up there with the idea that we have a guardian angel and God wants us to go do heaven.
Ask Henry Blackaby, however, and he’ll probably tell you something different. The esteemed author of Experiencing God says we get it backwards. It’s not that God has a plan for my life… it’s that God has a plan, period. And our task is to align ourselves with God’s plan for the world.
Point taken. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that those whose hearts are turned toward God have a sincere desire to please Him, and to have confidence that they are following in a path He wants the to follow.
So… back to the question someone asked – How do you know when you’re doing God’s will? Let me suggest three guideposts you can use to evaluate your life in light of God’s will for you. [click to continue…]
This is awkward. But I want to tell you about an experience I had a long time ago, when I was young and stupid (as opposed to middle-aged and ill-advised).
I was in a season in my life when I had lost nearly everything. I don’t mean that poetically. I mean, everything.
Job… fired.
Career… lost.
Health… busted.
Friends… nearly all vacated.
Marriage… destroyed.
Kids… gone.
Integrity and credibility… a bad joke.
Finances… bankrupt.
Sanity… toast.
I was a shell of a man, crushed under the weight of stupid choices, addictive behavior, and shame. I would sit and, without realizing it, rock back and forth. (Braves fans, remember how Leo Mazzone, the former pitching coach would rock on the bench? Yeah, that was me and worse.)
On this particular day, I was sitting in a hospital day room when somebody stuck his head in the door. “Anybody here named Andy Wood?” he asked. [click to continue…]
How’s this for a welcome to a pastor’s study?
NOTICE
The Pastor of Calvary Church Receives Sinners and Eats With Them.
Any Questions?
Now there’s a guy who’s either long on courage or short on brains! But he knows his New Testament. And if he does it in the right spirit, he also understands something about the searching heart of God.
In answer to the question hanging on the pastor’s door, Jesus once told a story. [click to continue…]
Inspired by an analogy I heard from my friend Bill at lunch yesterday…
Let’s say you’re a camp counselor. And on this day you’ve loaded up 45 nine- and ten-year-olds on the bus for an outing. Everybody’s had a great time as you have taken them into the city or to the beach… picture you own favorite locale for a gang of kids to have a blast.
Now it’s time to head back to the camp. So you load ‘em up and move ‘em out.
That’s when it hits you. You forgot the first rule of kids-on-the-bus management.
Yep. You forgot to count heads.
Forty-one. Forty-two. Forty-three. Forty-uh oh.
It’s every kid herder’s worst fear. You’ve left somebody behind. He’s lost.
So what do you do? [click to continue…]
(A Turning Point Story)
“This is my god,” he said, pointing emphatically to the marquee below him.
“This” was the Midtown Cinema – Mobile’s downtown porn theater in the 1970s.
It was a Friday night, and a group of us had met to do street ministry in downtown Mobile. We left the church parking lot armed with tracts – little booklets that explain the facts of the gospel – and hearts filled with boldness and expectancy. The people I joined on that particular night were a who’s who of influence and friendship during my high school and early college days – Terry, Wayne, Greg, Pat, Pam, among others. We spent some time at the bus station, as well as the sidewalks beneath the majestic oaks that line Government Boulevard. We gave literature to anybody who would take it, and talked to anybody who would stop. I remember that several people prayed to receive Christ that night. Most didn’t.
[click to continue…]
Do you believe that God has a plan for everybody’s life? Do you believe that He wants you to know what that plan is?
