Daily Prayer - Today's Edition

Heavenly Father, You are Great! There is no one like You! Who else can hold the universe in the palm of His hand? Did any other "god" create the earth and stars and all that are in them with a word? Did anyone else make man in His image but You? And You didn't stop there, You showed Your overpowering love in rescuing us, me, from our just penalty of sin and rebellion - You sent the Son, Jesus, to bring all who put their faith and trust in You from death to Life!

Father, I bow before You this morning in humility. Who am I to come before You? Only You have made me eligible, through Jesus, to approach. And You said I can come to you with boldness and confidence, as one washed clean by the blood of the Lamb!

So I start my day with You. Your Word will stand forever. I read of the Rich Young Ruler this morning. Lord, may my heart be set on You, today. I desire to be supple in Your hands, a willing servant, belonging to you through Jesus. May nothing keep me from belonging to You today, to serving You fully, from engaging my heart in Your life and Kingdom.

Father, I choose Your deal ahead of my deal. Jesus did it; in the time before the Cross He knew what was coming...He wasn't desiring to be crushed, but He desired to get into Your redeeming, revealing, revolutionary will above all. I can only obey like Jesus did by Your power within me. I am weak, but You are strong.

Yes, You are strong. Father, You already know all I need. You know my business struggles. You know my folks are both sick and old and in the hospital now for a month. You know how this is putting a strain on my wife. You know the people I teach at church calling on me to help them. You know my friends who are struggling: my bud in the hospital and his bride and the struggles with his son and how that is pulling their family from you; my bro. in lefty TX and his family and their needs; my bro here with work up the the eyeballs and a question about what to do next; my friend who thought he could do it without the "church"; my fiend struggling with life in total and a family fraying at the seems... You know the responsibilities on my at church, our building campaign, my weekly gig, the conference talk coming up... You know my brothers are lost without Jesus. You know my weakness in not seeing stuff right in my own home and expecting stuff to work out...you know how I am shortest with my awesome bride even though I don't want to be.

Praise Your Name! You see my frailty and love me anyway. This setup shows off Your greatness rather than mine. I depend on You. I am desperate without You. If You don't show up, I am sunk. Protect our home, my wife and girls. Provide for our income. Give me Wisdom, Lord, for I need You!

May my life, our life, our home, our business, our ministry, be a glorious offering to you, Heavenly Father. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

Passion Dallas... or the Hospital with BOTH my parents

I was planning to volunteer for the Passion conference in Dallas this past weekend. I had a bud who was going to make the trip with me. We might not get to see all the sessions, but we would certainly be blessed and be a blessing to the students. Maybe bump into Louie, or Matt or Chris... And, I would get to hang with my friend on the road trip, which I was really looking forward to.

But we had another issue arise. My mom had a hernia and a part of her inside got outside, pinched off and died. Bad infection resulted. Very much life threatening stuff.

My wonderful folks are in their 70's and 80's. Mom and Dad stayed at home by themselves, but Dad has some dementia, and needs company to keep safe. So with Mom in the hospital, I stayed with Dad at night, with my brothers helping as well.

Then Dad got a virus, dehydrated and developed pneumonia.

God provided through our Community Group through church. One of our Group members is an ER physician. He called me to check on me, and asked if he could come by and check on Dad. He listened to Dad's lungs and said we should take him to the hospital. My friend and his wife (an ER nurse) called the Dr and Hospital and made arrangements for admiting Dad and helped me transition for several hours. WOW, what a testimony to the provision of God through SMALL GROUP!

Mom has survived the surgery, ICU stay, getting off the vent, and is in long-term recovery. From an 80% mortality rate, she has been delivered by the Grace of God to a road to recovery

Dimentia and hospitals don't mix well. They mix badly to be blunt. He is fine, then wants to go home, we keep him in the bed, he gets mad, the cycle worsens... So you medicate him and put on soft restraints. He gets ugly. It is super stressful for him, I'm sure. And it is unbelievbly stressful for the caregiver. My three brothers are all not Christians yet. It's tough for me to be patient, and tougher for them.

PRAISE GOD, Dad is going home today! I've been sleeping at his house or the hospital for 17 days, with two days off. My wonderful wife has been great, with a couple of small breakdowns in the middle.

There is more to say, next time. I'll conclude with this today: My God shall supply all my needs through His riches in Christ Jesus!

I pray for Dad, for Mom, for my unsaved family, and I praise God for my brothers and sisters in Christ at my church, and particularly my Community Group and Sunday Morning Bible Study.

All for His Fame (easy and hard)! jack

It's been 17 days since Mom got sick. Pr

Where thieves break in and steal

This past Tuesday, I was at the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet. It was good. Afterward, I was walking out and striking up a conversation about church and Jesus with the guy next to me. As I approached my car, I sort of squinted, then looked again...in disbelief.

Thieves broke open the passenger window, which was now laying on the ground. From the front they reached in and stole my bag, then ripped open the console and stole its contents.

Within my bag was my Bible I have been carrying and making notes in for about 18 years. It had message ideas and notes and some keepsakes. My journal from the past couple of years was in there. I own a business which has a bunch of very expensive keys, which were stolen as well, and some other valuable property.

My best bud came up to meet with me. It was cold. The police took a little bit to get there. Afterward, we drove around hoping to see my Bible if the thieves tossed it out the window or something. We didn't find it. Upon my friend's prompting, we prayed for the people who took my stuff, that the light of the Gospel of Jesus would shine on them, and they would get transferred out of the domain of darkness and into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son, Jesus.

"Father, may the testimony of my life in Christ contained in those pages have an impact for eternity in the lives of people. Your Word is Truth! Use me, even as one who was stolen from, the be a minister of reconciliation, because You care for people!"

It is a bummer getting your stuff taken. Replacing those key boxes is going to be quite expensive (you could buy a nice used car for the price), and my insurance will likely only cover a little of it. Then there is the large amount of time spent getting back to where you already were.

I did think of Romans 8:28, "28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose." God uses even the results of sin in our broken world. I thought about changing a component of my business that those keys have to do with. It would be expensive, but the first part is already in play, thanks to the thieves. I will now put my bag in a more concealed position in my vehicle. A few other security things have come to mind. And I will probably journal electronically more, hence my entry here today, lest my recorded memories get taken away.

My worth is not in my stuff. You can take my Bible, my notes, my journal, my cash, my keys, my sense of personal security, my memory stick, my business documents, my business notebook/log for the past couple years, my gun, my time recovering from your actions...but you cannot take me away from my God. You cannot take away my treasure, because it is stored up where moth and rust cannot destroy, and thieves cannot break up and steal.

Jesus, I belong to You!

All for His Fame, jack

Die Daily

Jesus is an incredible leader. (When you are God, it just comes with the package.) Jesus challenged his potential followers. He wasn't afraid of rejection. And He was never afraid to challenge people to the very core. One day Jesus was praying in private with His closest followers, and He asked them who they said He was. One of the inner group, a fisherman named Peter, responded, "You are Christ, the Son of God." Wow...what a response!

Jesus then warned these disciples that He was going to be rejected and killed by the religious leaders in the very near future.

Picture yourself sitting there as one of these 12 guys. You just left your family and business behind. You just walked away. You invested all you have in following this Jesus guy. You bought in to the vision and Kingdom Jesus has been proclaiming. Then Jesus drops this bomb...He is about to be rejected, suffer, and be killed. Where would that leave these followers? But Jesus wasn't done yet. He finished that sentence with the real bomb, "and on the third day I will be raised to life."

Then he said to them all, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it," Luke 9:23-24.

Jesus is The Leader. It's His job as God. He is leading those who will follow to die daily, so that He can live His life in us. Die to self-sufficiency, to self-leadership. To surrender self-leadership and Trust in the One who was willing to surrender His very life for our sake, Jesus!

In this season of difficulty in my life, I need to remember that self is not sufficient. Only Jesus is sufficient for my every need. If I forget this for a day, my heart sinks and hope drains away. Our Heavenly Father, the One who didn't shrink back from sending His own Son, Jesus, to sacrifice His life so that I could live and escape the just punishment I earned, will He not continue to show His love and care for me, even through the midst of difficulty?

Yes, I can trust in Him! Jesus leads the way.

All for His Fame, jack

Blessed Be Your Name...

The Matt Redman song "Blessed Be Your Name" is a tremendous anthem of God's sufficiency. He is the Indescribable God, whether our lives are running smooth or we hit some rocks.

I'm feeling a little rocky today.

My new business venture is disappointing. My plans for seminary and really plowing into the Community Group project at our church will be delayed, and my work load on our other business (and probably the need for another business) will go up significantly.

More concerning to me is my feeling today I can only call weary and just wanting to sit. I so prefer my typical way of life, positive, challenging, bright, encouraging others in the Lord.

In the Bible, James tells us to "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." James 1:2-4, The Message.

Man, doesn't that so go against our will? If you are like me, you want to fix it, and fix it NOW! So, knowing that I am not God, I did not create the universe, and I do not know what is coming or what I will need to handle it...I choose to Bless the Name of our God through the Son, Jesus, when my life is easy and when there is tougher time.

So, I choose maturity and to, in our Heavenly Father's loving hands, be molded into a well-developed follower, sufficient in Him in every way. Lord, help me to learn quickly and not forget!

He is the One who called me into His marvelous story! Then called me again to step into the path of spending more of my time investing in His Kingdom by building others up (vocational ministry). He is sufficient, and I will trust Him!

All for His Fame! jack

Seven Things...

Sydney (the most lovely woman in the world...my wife), tagged me to list Seven things about me. Here goes:

1. I love Jesus.

2. I love my wife. She is smart, beautiful, kind, sweet, unbelievable with our kids. She knows God's Word like nobody's business. I am blessed!

3. I dig playing the Guitar. I'm playing a Big Baby Taylor. It sounds great and was not expensive. I just played some songs from my recent birthday presents, songbooks from David Crowder*Band, Remedy, and Chris Tomlin, See the Morning.

4. I am super decisive about some things (stuff in the Bible, moral decisions, most business decisions), but indecisive with others (which shirt to get...).

5. I am really relational. I would not like to be on a desert island all alone for a week. It is such a kick to encourage people in Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for allowing me that privilege.

6. I really enjoy the TV show, 24. Now, for my next big present, I Jack Bauer's pistol. It is an HK USP. OK, maybe that makes me weird, but so be it.

7. When I get to Heaven, to be before the Lord, I want a really FAT crown to lay before His feet! What a wonderful Day that will be.

All for His fame, Jack

Well...

Did you know today that you are loved by God? That is true of everyone. In addition, if you belong to Jesus and He resides in you, you are accepted by God and a treasured possession of His?

I needed to hear that. I'm a little discouraged today. This "Burning the Ships" thing can lead to some unknowns...and that's where we are right now.

But this I know, "My God is a Consuming Fire," and I belong to Him. So, I will trust Him when I feel all great, and when I don't. He is faithful. When I wonder about God's commitment to His Glory, and to me inside that, I just look at the Cross of Jesus. Look there with me now. There hangs the price God was willing to pay for you and me. We can trust Him.

All for His Fame, jack

Pray (displacing worry with Constant Communion with God)

It has been interesting recently. Last week I was deep into anxiety about stuff that was supposed to be settled about an investment but was still hanging, unknown and not in my power to change. I prayed, yes, but my anxiety remained.

I pulled out Louie Gigloi's "I talked to God Today" cd set, which I have listened to several times before. But I needed this encouragement from God.

My life belongs to my Heavenly Father. He is in control. I can trust Him.

So, I prayed. And I called a few friends in Jesus, and then started displacing that worry with prayer. In Philippians 4, Paul tells us that the Peace of God will stand guard over our hearts and minds! Wow!

The fact is that My God shall supply all my NEEDS according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus, Phil 4:19!

And the Peace of God is standing guard over my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father in Christ Jesus. He is my joy, strength, fortress, provision, protecton, victory and overcomer.

Thank You, Lord.

Burn the Ships

Legend has it that Cortez, upon arriving in Mexico to conquer it, burned his ships while his men on the beach watched. Knowing the work would be treacherous, Cortez's intent was to steel his men's resolve to move forward no matter what. There was no going back to Spain on those burnt shipsI

Well...we didn't light any fires, but we did "Burn the Ships." July 31, 2007 ended a near 15 year run making a living as a Banker. We have launched forward into Entrepreneurship (full time in the business we entered into 3 years ago and a new project) to make a living and pursuing Christian Ministry and seminary!

I have a burden. A burden to lead people into a growing relationship with Christ. The chief way God has grown us, Sydney and me, has been in the context of intimate relationships. Call it Community. And we are moving forward to integrate Community Life into our Church, chiefly through small groups as an adjunct to Sunday Morning Bible Study.

Initiating change as an established church is an interesting endeavor. But here is where we are planted, and as I see it, we could be so much stronger, reflecting a more accurate picture of God to the world and much more connected to Him through each other. Then, when we tell others about Jesus, they look at our lives and think, "I want to be like you. I'll keep listening."

So, the adventure continues.

Sydney and I are committing...All For His Fame, jack

All Gave Some...Some Gave All

It's Memorial Day. Sydney and I took our four girls to the Avenue of Flags. It is a collection of hundreds and hundreds of large casket flags that have been donated or loaned by the families of deceased Veterans.

Did I mention yet what a great country we live in?

This past weekend, I rediscovered the Billy Ray Cyrus song, All Gave Some...Some Gave All. I'm sure I heard the song when it came out, and I remember when they used it in an episode of Doc, starring Billy Ray. But after watching Hannah Montana with the princesses on Saturday, I stumbled across that song, and it's been on my heart and playing in my mind since. Of course, I checked out the original video for the song on YouTube, and several people's renditions of it with patriotic themes.

I LOVE THIS COUNTRY! We live in the greatest nation on Earth! God has blessed America. But, freedom isn't free. It costs blood and treasure. It has cost hundreds of thousands of men their lives. That sacrifice brings such gratitude to my heart. Thank you to the widows and sons and daughters and all who long for those who will not return home. We appreciate your sacrifice!

I know war and death is not glamorous. But evil lurks then lashes out and such requires a response of force to defeat it. The United State of America has been an agent for justice and good. Oh, we have erred and caused some injustice. But we punish our own when we fail to live up to the good. While far from perfect, my declaration is that I am for America because She is for right! Pray that America continues in what is right.

Freedom isn't free. It costs blood and treasure.

Just ask Jesus. My freedom from sin and death was costly. It cost Jesus his life. The Father experienced the ultimate Memorial Day...when Jesus laid down His life for the sins of the world.

All Gave Some...Some Gave All. Some came through for the Red White and Blue and some had to fall. If you ever think of me [a vet named Sandy Kane], think of all your liberties and recall...Some Gave All

God Bless America