WorldWidePastor

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Fuggedaboutit!

The Discovery Channel in the USA is running a fascinating show about "The Ten Commandments of the Mafia." The TV special features Michael Franzese, a former capo in the Colombo crime family who left the mob life behind to become a Christ follower and a motivational speaker.

Franzese also wrote a book called "I'll Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse: Insider Business Tips from a Former Mob Boss." Do you think that you could never learn anything of value from a former mobster? Fuggedaboutit! In the book, Franzese tells you how to get a plan, work it hard, work it smart, lead with your brain (not your mouth), and learn from your failures. He quotes Solomon a lot. You might never have thought that you could receive Godly wisdom from a former mob boss, but Michael Franzese proves to us all that you can.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Teresa of Avila

An observation by Teresa of Avila:

"Christ has no body now, but yours. No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion into the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which Christ blesses the world."

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Shots

Wayne Gretzky - nicknamed "The Great One", and for obvious reasons to any hockey fan - scored 894 regular season goals in his unmatched National Hockey League career. That is an NHL record.

Gretzky once was asked by a reporter about why he took so many shots on goal. "The Great One" thought for a moment, and then looked at the reporter and responded:

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Life, just like hockey, is the same.

In life, just like in hockey, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

What shots do you need to take today?

Remember that you always need to take shots before you score goals.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Bread

Archbishop Desmond Tutu:

"I don't preach a social gospel. I preach the gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned with the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, 'Now is that political or social?' He said, 'I'll feed you.' Because the good news to a hungry person is bread."

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Vince Lombardi

The late, great coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, once observed:

"Winners never quit and quitters never win."

The apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:24, wrote:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."

As well, in Philippians 3:14, Paul writes:

"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Ministry, just like life itself, is not for quitters.

I think that Paul would have liked Vince Lombardi.

I think that Paul would have been a Green Bay Packers fan.

Maybe Paul even would have been a cheesehead.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Contemporary Church

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.:

"The contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and even vocal sanction of things as they are."

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Bono

Today we present to you some words of wisdom from Bono, the rock star/activist/preacher from the band known as U2:

"God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."

So ... are you with ... them?

Monday, January 17, 2011

MLK: A Servant

As the USA celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today, it is a good time to reflect on a couple of verses in Matthew as well as an impactful quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Matthew 20:26 (TNIV) - "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant."

Matthew 20:28 (TNIV) - "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve ...."

Martin Luther King, Jr. - "You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant."

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Saturday, January 15, 2011

MLK

The heroic and martyred American civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was born on this day in 1929. Dr. King would have turned 82 years old, were he alive today.

A few of Dr. King's most poignant and impactful statements:

1. "To be a Christian without praying is no more possible than to be alive without breathing."

2. "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

3. "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

4. "The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."

5. "A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."

What are you willing to die for?

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Revolutionary

The French theologian and sociologist Jacques Ellul, who also was a resistance leader during the World War II Nazi occupation of his country, penned the following words in his book, "The Presence of the Kingdom":

"Now the situation of the Christian in the world is a revolutionary situation. His share in the preservation of the world is to be an inexhaustible revolutionary force in the world ... The fact that Christians, as human beings, at certain periods in history lose sight of the revolutionary character of their religion, does not mean that the Holy Spirit has ceased to work, and that the position of the Christian, to the extent in which he confesses his faith in the world, has ceased to be revolutionary. In consequence of the claims which God is always making on the world the Christian finds himself, by that very fact, involved in a state of permanent revolution."

You say you want a revolution? We all want to change the world?

Jesus Christ was the greatest revolutionary the world has ever known. Join forces with Him.

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was killed by the Nazis during World War II for resisting Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. As Bonhoeffer was leading his heroic resistance, he wrote the following:

"Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong."

Bonhoeffer's words were absolutely correct.

And he paid for them with his life.

What are you doing today to shock the world?

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Anne Frank

Anne Frank, the Dutch teenage girl who was a World War II Jewish Holocaust victim and whose diary has been read by students all around the world, penned the following words in her unforgettable journal:

"I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us, too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right."

What an amazing young woman.

In the midst of suffering through the absolute worst of what the world had to offer, Anne Frank maintained a positivity that rivaled that of the apostle Paul who, in Philippians 4:11, wrote about how he had "learned to be content whatever the circumstances."

I think that Anne Frank understood Paul's words and their significance better than any of us.

We must strive to be more like Anne Frank. When we see the coming wilderness, and when we hear the ever approaching thunder, it whatever form that it may sound, and when we feel the sufferings of millions all around us, we, too, must endeavor to look heavenward, and to think that it will all come right.

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Monday, January 10, 2011

Earthly Hell

The heroic and martyred American civil rights leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once observed, "A minister cannot preach the glories of heaven while ignoring social conditions in his own community that cause (people) an earthly hell."

Dr. King was right on target.

Too frequently the church glosses over the words of Jesus found in Matthew 25:35-36, when He exhorts us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, invite in the stranger, clothe the naked, take care of the sick, and visit the imprisoned. Too frequently we focus on our own personal comfort and prosperity instead. Meanwhile, the church misses billions of opportunities each day to be the hands and feet of Jesus all around the world, and to alleviate the "earthly hell" in which billions of people live their lives.

Get out of your comfort zone. Get into someone else's "earthly hell".

And then do your utmost to get them out of it.

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Friday, January 7, 2011

Chase Lions In 2011!

This Sunday at Celebration Champions Church in Celebration, Florida, USA, we will be starting a new teaching series called "Chase Lions In 2011!"

In this new teaching series, we will be focusing on all of the opportunities, dreams, and visions that God gives a person in life, and how to be willing to step out in faith and how to be willing to take big risks in His name, for His glory, and for His kingdom.

Don't play it safe!

Chase lions in 2011!