Are There Any High-Jumpers In The House?

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Bishop Wiley Jackson

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. - Joshua 1:9

A lot of times we wait for an event or special day, such as a new year, to start working on ourselves or to try to work something out of our systems. We do ourselves a disservice though, because we really should not wait for a special day or a new year to fix what is not working for us. There are areas in each of our lives that we need to retool.

For those not familiar with retooling, the automobile industry and some others shut down annually for a certain period and retool. They are not changing what they are producing - they are still making cars. They are transitioning and getting re-equipped for new models and greater productivity. It's the same way with life. What was working for you last year might not necessarily work for you this year. What was good last week might be obsolete this week. We are living in a time where the future is changing quickly and it is important for us to retool ourselves so we will be up to date with all that God is doing in the earth.

Imagine what Joshua must have faced in his retooling. He had been under Moses' leadership and he was walking around with a whole lot of people that were used to doing things the old way. You know how it is - whenever people are trained under one leader and somebody new comes along, the first thing they say is "Well, the other person did not do it this way.

Joshua had a problem. Everybody had an opinion about the way things should go. Nobody wanted change. The thing about retooling is it's really not about change. It's about transition. If you change something you can always go back to the old way. When you make the transition, you understand there is no going back. One of the first things God told Joshua was that Moses was dead. Before Joshua could move on to anything new, he would have to bury the past.

It's a new year, but some people are still moaning over past mistakes, thinking about how they messed up in 2009, wondering why they got hurt so bad last January, asking why they did not come thru for you in October. You need to bury it. You made it through anyhow, and God has got something new and better for you. Stop crying over spilled milk - just clean up the mess and go pour yourself another glass.

God has something special for you, but he can not bless you with you dragging your past behind you. Retool. Loose your past and let it go free. Ask God to forgive you, then repent. Repent means to go in the opposite direction. It is hard to go in the opposite direction looking back. You have to look ahead and focus on where you are going, because if you keep looking backwards you will find yourself in a wreck.

In 2010 there is no middle ground. You need to make up your mind to be on one side or the other. It's time to quit trying to play it safe. Step out and see what God has in store for you. There is an abundance of untapped possibilities that wait in front of each of us - we just have to move toward them.

Retool your vision. Retool your associations. Stop living in a place of depression caused by negative vision.
Stop running with people that feed your negative vision. Stop setting the bar so low that you can step over it. It's time to retool, be courageous, and raise the bar.

Are there any high-jumpers in the house?

Step Away From the Blender

Milan Ford

I'm pretty confident that what I am about to share with you is going to make you laugh. But, I pray it will also make you think as well. So please be prepared to do both.

I'll never forget an email I received one day from a friend of mine who was struggling with the terms of a New Year's fast and consecration her church had recently begun.

Although she was a devoted believer, and understood fully the importance of fasting, she honestly did not know if she was going to make it through the entire journey.

This is what she sent me:

"Milan, this may sound crazy, but I came real close to putting a piece of chicken in my blender the other night. Not to sure if I can keep up this liquid-only thing. Pray for me..."

{Insert Big Laugh Here}
Although I'm sure you'll agree with me that her email was a bit extreme, I can't help but wonder how many of us as believers, now only a few days into the New Year, have already given up on some goals we set out to accomplish this year?

Are we really (as believers) this undisciplined?

This year, what bad habit have you already returned to that you know you need to get rid of?

Or have you returned to a relationship you know God has already told you to leave alone?

And after all the pep talk many of us received on New Year's Eve, are you still going to sit back and believe that your boss, your spouse, or some wrinkled up bank receipt is going to control your destiny in God?

Again I ask: Are we really (as believers) this undisciplined?

I realize this phrase may be getting a little old now, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

Happy New Year Everyone!
It is now 2010. It is time to move beyond where you were last year.

I refuse to allow myself, my family, or anyone within my reach, settle for less than what God has already empowered them to accomplish this year. And neither should you.

So, just in case you're feeling a bit discouraged today, and have already begun to cast doubt on some of the goals you had set for this year, feel free to read this over and over again today.

And please. If you don't do anything else...

STEP AWAY FROM THE BLENDER.

New Beginnings

Tanya James

Every year around the beginning of December, people around the world implement a list of new action items in their lives effective January 1st. We decide to start working out or eating better. We vow to finally launch that business or go back to school. We promise to give up smoking or drinking or some other addiction that we have.

We re-dedicate to a lifestyle of prayer and worship or to be nicer to everyone around you; the list can be endless.

However, many times before the month of January is over, we’ve already forgotten about or given up on many of the action items on our list. And for some of the items, we wont even reconsider them again until the end of the year when its time to start thinking about the new year.

We also tend to put God on our schedule – declaring what He will do (or wont do) in the new year. And doesn't it seem like these declarations tend to come in the form of a statement 'rhyming' with the current year?

For example: "We will win in 2010!"
I'm sure you can name a few others you've heard lately as well.

This cycle has always been perplexing to me, Why do we tend to only equate new beginnings with a new year? Who decided that January 1st was the date to renew goals and to dream bigger? And if these things are important beginning January, why aren’t they important enough to start immediately?

And why do we place a timetable or time limit on when God can move in our lives? Using the above example, do we only want to WIN in 2010? How awesome would it be if instead of having this time of “reflection” and “renewal” only once a year...we did it daily?

What if we claimed the promises of God on a regular basis and not just for our new year’s declarations?
“Behold I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?” Isaiah 43:19

Will we miss that new thing because it’s not the first of the year when we expect new things? Or will we be open to receive and embrace what God has for us AND what God is calling us to do right now, regardless of what the date is?

I challenge you to let go of the “new year’s” resolutions and instead make “lifestyle” resolutions. Daily, make it a priority to strive to be more Christ-like. Daily, implement Psalm 34 into your schedule (I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth). Daily, move forward in those things God has called you to do and be!

And let’s stop putting God in our yearly boxes. He has things in store that we can’t even begin to think of, and those things may not “rhyme” with entrance of every new year.

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” Lamentations 3:22-23

New mercies daily...
...now that sounds like the type of new beginning that I want to grab hold of!

Time To Meet Your Maker!

Ben Komanapalli Jr.


Another year has come to an end, and here we are starting a new one. For almost everyone reading this, we have been at this place at least a dozen times. Looking back at our lives, some of those moments were great but some were pretty bad. In fact they were so bad that we wanted to forget all about it when we entered the New Year.

As this new year begins, most of us close certain chapters of our lives and open new ones; we also plan on changing things. All of us have want to become better than we were in the past year.

As we come to that time of the year again, I have a simple question to ask: Who is making you?

Let me explain. In Acts 26:13-18, we see Paul recounting his conversion story to King Agrippa. In verse 16, it is important to see what Jesus says to Paul during the encounter. Jesus says, "I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness...."I want you to focus on the words 'to make you.'
My question to you as a leader is more specifically this: Are you letting Jesus make you?

All of us live in a very fast paced world. There are many responsibilities that we as leaders have in the world today. There are things that need to be accomplished, vision to be cast, money to be raised, conflicts that need to be resolved etc. We need to do all of these things as good leaders.

However, the most important thing is to let Jesus make you the man or women He has called you to be. We can only lead other people as well as we can lead ourselves; the most important thing in leading ourselves is to let Jesus make us the people He has called us to be.

There is always the temptation for us to do the work of God more than we let God work in us. Bill Hybels once said, "The way I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me." I heard that statement about two years ago and it has stuck with me. I believe it is a dangerous place for us to be when we are more excited about a book, album, project, program or an event than about spending time with Jesus and letting Him work on us.

As we plan, strategize, evaluate, set goals and recharge our batteries to make ourselves better leaders for next year, make it a priority to make this year the year where you let Jesus make you the person He has called you to be. Planning and setting goals are very good things but letting Jesus make you is the God thing. He desires to make each one of us. He sees much more in us than we can see for ourselves. We must stop resisting the things God wants to do in our lives. No matter where you live or what kind of organization or ministry you might be leading, if there is one thing we are to do as Christian leaders it is to let Jesus make us.

We might not have had an encounter with Jesus in the way Paul did on his journey to Damascus, but we can all remember the time when we received Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives or the time when the call of God became very real. This is a good time to go back and remember the purpose for which Jesus saved you and to let Him make you.

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Take some time to think about the moment when the purpose of God became clear to you. What is it that He has purposed for you?

2. Become very intentional to let Jesus make you into the person He has called you to be during the next year. Write down some of the areas that He really needs to work on.

3. Thank God for the opportunity He has given you to serve people for His kingdom and Glory.

Saddle Up

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Milan Ford

Well, here we are. Today is Thursday, December 31st.
The very last day of the year 2009. And what a year it was.

It seems like only yesterday that many of us joined up with millions of people across the nation this time last year to gather inside of our respective local churches for some form of New Year’s Eve or Watch Night Service. And although there are times when the variations of our church annual themes and proclamations can make God sound a bit schizoid to the ears of the unbeliever, for the most part, many of us heard a message that evening about the significance of the year 2009.

2009. The year of (yep, that’s right)…
…New Beginnings.

From areas of relationships to finance, issues of health and areas of leadership, the hope for a New Beginning was indeed high on the hearts and minds of believers both young and old this year.

Now I am not in any way what you call the greatest practitioner of biblical numerology, but last year around this time, I remember doing a little research about the significance of the number nine (9).

What I found was actually very interesting. The number nine (9) literally means: to bring to an end. In fact, in one instance, I found that the number (9) means: to bring a judgment (or conclusion) to. I think I’ll repeat that one more time…

To bring to an end.
To bring to a conclusion.
To bring a judgement to.

Those aren’t exactly the kind of words people pack out a sanctuary or tear up a few pews in order to hear at the beginning of a new year. New Year phrases like ‘the year of divine favor,’ or ‘the year of a new beginning’ tend to have a better ring to them.

About a month or so ago, I heard probably one of the most powerful faith statements I had ever heard in my life. It is one that I pray becomes a staple for every believer reading this devotional today as we prepare for the beginning of a new year.

“God’s sovereignty does not excuse our apathy.”

While I realize we all are looking forward to a great harvest in 2010, please know that this harvest in many respects will be a result of the seeds we have sown throughout 2009.

2009 (for many of us) should have been a year to put an end to our excuses. A year that you and I should have ceased from blaming any oppressor (spiritual or natural) from hindering us from accomplishing the goals and dreams we set out for earlier this year.

2009 was not a year to be lazy. Or vulnerable. This year (for many of us) should have been a year that many of us for the first time in our lives became (sorry for the dirty word here)...responsible.

On tonight, be careful not to become too consumed with asking God (yet again) to begin some new things in your life, without examining the things He has also told you to bring to an end this year.

You still have a few hours left to cancel some of those credit cards you know you need to stop using. A few hours left to ‘unfriend’ that person you know God has told you to stop chatting with online. A few hours left to email that proposal you’ve been sitting on now for weeks to your boss.

In fact, there’s even a few hours to call that relative of yours you know God has told you to apologize to and mend the relationship. It may be tough to do, but it is time to get it done.

I realize there are a plethora of scriptures many of us will probably be given on tonight concerning what God may have in store for us next year, but I want to give you one that my wife and I have already taken on as a personal challenge for our family throughout 2010.

It’s a dangerous one, so please don’t write it down if you’re not prepared for it just yet.

“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with the horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5-6

Ladies and gentlemen, whether you and I are ready or not, 2010 is here. For many of us, this will be a year that many of the things we have prayed for throughout this year will come to pass. However, for those of us who are still holding on to things (and people) God has told us to get rid of, and for those of us who have allowed 2009 to be a year where our apathy and discontentment for where our lives are right now get the best of us, then what in the world are we going to do when the ‘horses’ arrive?

If God decides to bless you in 2010 with that ‘new job’ you’ve been asking for, are you prepared for it? If God decides to bless your business or church with incredible growth in 2010, did you position yourself properly this year to receive it? Or perhaps for some of you reading this today who are still waiting for God to send you a spouse, will you be able to identify him or her when they come, or is your focus still on holding on to those ‘safe alternatives’ from your past?

Family, enough is enough. No more excuses.
To be quite honest…I am tired of making them. And if you're like me, tired of hearing them too.

The horses…are here!! SADDLE UP.