More Element Gives Back

17 01 2008

Couple new stories HERE. Keep em’ coming! Love it. We’re still trying to decide as a family what to do.





Element Gives Back

17 01 2008

New story HERE.





Heart for a city

17 01 2008

(The following is TRUE and in no way meant to be obscene)

I’m not sure my heart broke more for our city more than it did on Tuesday. I had met my wife and family at the mall for lunch at Sabarro’s Pizza. While we were eating I noticed four teenagers who were just hanging out in the atrium in front of Dillards. I had a direct view of them. They looked to be typical teenagers. 3 girls, one boy. They were probably 15 – 16 years old. What happened next made me so angry I felt the boy needed to be punched, and at the same time my heart BROKE for them. The boy was trying to flick the teenage girl on her breasts. He then proceeded to try and fondle her on her rear end and breasts. The whole time THE GIRL WAS LAUGHING! I wanted SO BADLY to go tell her “Don’t let him do this to you. Don’t give your heart, your body to someone who will treat you like this.” Maybe I should have, I don’t know. This continued with excessive pda for a while. Then I noticed the two other girls. One put her hand on the others buttocks and they too were showing some pretty obvious pda. TWO GIRLS! I looked at my wife and said “THEY are the reason we are doing our Satan’s Sex Ed series.” My heart ached for those girls who thought they needed to be like that to be loved. “YOU ARE GODS PRECIOUS CREATION” I wanted to yell. My heart ached for that young man who felt he needed to get to her body in order to be satisfied, to “BE A MAN”. I thought of my own kids and prayed over them silently while sitting there. I don’t want my beautiful Mariah, Makalah or Jaydah to fall for Satans lies that they have to give their bodies to a man to experience love. I hope that I as a father can teach them what REAL beauty is. What REAL love is. How a man SHOULD treat a woman. I don’t want my girls to SETTLE for ANYONE. I pray each day that God will bring them a REAL MAN to provide for them and support them. I don’t want passionate Jonah to take his passion and use it toward women. Jonah’s passion is a GOD GIVEN TOOL that if channeled with the Spirit can change the world. I don’t want him to fall for Satans lies that in order to be a real man you need certain physical pleasures, whether self induced through fantasy, or by receiving it from someone else. I want Jonah to be a REAL MAN who will treat women with the respect they deserve and treat HIS body with the purity it needs. WOW, I am getting pumped for our next series. Our culture is literally DROWNING in it.

To close: My heart was reminded to what Jesus must have felt like. Reminded of His words when he came into Jerusalem and began to weep. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace.” I wanted those kids to know that. And ““O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” Those CHILDREN need to be gathered. This next series is HUGE for where we are at as families today in America. My heart breaks for this city. For it’s children, teens, single adults and married couples. God has HUGE things for us if we’ll follow.

Following Christ,

Jeff





This Sunday, Series finale and Element Gives Back

16 01 2008

If you have an unsaved friend that has been “thinking” about coming to church, get them here THIS WEEK! God threw a curve ball into my message and while we are talking about money (since that is the series) we will be presenting a clear opportunity to receive the “GENEROUS GRACE” that Jesus came to bring. God asked me to present the Gospel message of salvation this week, and I am going to obey Him.

Folks, once again, I hate to talk stuff up, but we are finalizing the plans of the ending to our last Deal or No Deal service. NO, we’re not giving away more money (YET), but it is going to be the BIGGEST ending to a service we’ve ever done. If you are an Elementer and want to be challenged about what God has in store for us next, you need to be in church two Sundays from now. Actually, if you are an Elementer you should be there every week! :) We are VERY excited about the close of the series.

Several new stories on Element Gives Back. People, I’m telling you, when we begin to give God will open the floodgates! JUST LIKE HIS WORD PROMISES! Check it out HERE.





Element Gives Back

16 01 2008

New post, check it out here. All Elementers don’t forget to post your story. Remember, no story is too small!





Devotional Thoughts

15 01 2008

Not everyday does God just drop a Scripture on you like a ton of bricks, but yesterday He did just that to me. I am in Isaiah in my Bible reading and worked my way into Isaiah chapter 30. It’s a long chapter so I’m going to type out the verses on here.

These verses meant so much to me because of the rapid growth we’ve seen and the expectation of “What in the world do we do next?”. I’m going to be a bit transparent here and tell you that I wrote in my journal yesterday before I started reading “I’m scared Lord”. What happens if we become a church of 500 people? 1000? I don’t feel capable of that. YES this is VERY exciting, but at the same time SO OVERWHELMING. “Where will we meet next?” “We’ve got to get into East High School!” “The Theater isn’t big enough!” Then THIS!

vv. 1-2 “What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,” says the Lord. “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit, thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me, you have gone down to Egypt for help. You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection. You have tried to hide in his shade.” v. 7 “Egypt’s promises are worthless!” (I wrote in my margin while reading “so what do we do?”)

vv.10-11 (speaking of Judah) They tell the seers “Stop seeing visions!” They tell the prophets, “Don’t tell us what is right. Tell us nice things. Tell us lies. Forget all this gloom. Get off the narrow path. Stop telling us about your Holy One of Israel” (I then wrote in the margin “we keep preaching”) We can’t get off the narrow path.

v. 15 “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it. You said ‘No, we will get our help from Egypt’”.

v. 17b (if we get our help from Egypt) “You will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill or a tattered banner on a distant mountaintop” (I wrote “we want to be an army to storm the gates of hell”)

v. 19b “He will be gracious if you ask for help.”

v. 21 “Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, ‘This is the way you should go,’ whether to the right or to the left.”

v. 23 “Then the Lord will bless you with rain at planting time. There will be wonderful harvests and plenty of pastureland for your livestock.”

v. 26b “So it will be when the Lord begins to heal his people and cure the wounds he gave them.”

When will the Lord bless you? v. 23 says “Then…” After all of this…Keep from making plans with Egypt. Consult Him. Keep preaching the TRUTH! Be quiet and confident in HIM. Ask! Listen for His voice behind you. THEN…THEN he will bless you with rain. Plenty of pastureland (or sanctuary space). I felt as if God was speaking directly to ME through Isaiah. Just a reminder of who is in charge around here.





Letter of testimony

15 01 2008

WHOA! I am absolutely blown away by what God is doing in peoples lives through this series and through what happened on Sunday. I think we need to start another web-site where people can post their testimonies of what God is doing for THEM in their financial journey. Today we received in the mail a letter from an Elementer with a beautiful testimony of what God is doing in their lives. They had been a slave to fear financially since their spouse passed away and have been SET FREE from the fear our enemy was holding them to. I talked to them on the phone today and they said what a peace it was to go to sleep at night without fear. GO GOD!! The letter brought our office to tears. With the letter was a very generous offering to the church. All totaled in the mail today, we received $1817 from Elementers who gave, and with one of those checks was a pledge card to start tithing. Click below to view the letter. I received permission to show it. I don’t want this move of God to stop. Elementers pray for this Sunday. Invite for this Sunday! We are going to present a clear invitation for people to receive Christ!





Element Gives Back

15 01 2008

Keep it going guys! Three more stories are up that are blowing me away. It’s amazing what someone can do with $10. People are matching money, pooling money, figuring out how to make an impact. Check out the new stories here.





Video

14 01 2008

Here is the video to promo our Element Gives Back idea. We showed this just before we revealed that last weeks entire offering was in the peoples envelopes.





Offering

14 01 2008

Offering from yesterday was $4802.97. That is one of our largest offerings ever! Praise the Lord. We asked everyone NOT to put the money we gave back into the offering, so we’re not sure if any of the cash was given back or not. I was told that it was more cash than usual, but there is no way of knowing. I’m sure some people put their money back in, and that is ok. I can’t wait to hear more stories of what is happening with the money. If you’re an Elementer, please make sure and tell us your story. No good deed with your money is too small or too large. Even you you left an extra large tip, we want to know! God uses our money as a tool in all sorts of different ways. Let’s celebrate them all!








Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 175 other followers