And Dad...I love my God

Yes, joyful are those who live like this! Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:15

Joyful are those who have made the Lord their God. When I read this scripture today I was reminded an event that took place approximately two weeks ago. It was a Sunday and we had a great time at church and also went out to eat with some friends after wards. My son and I were alone in the room taking his shoes off when he mentioned to me. "Dad I love my my mom...and I love you Dad...and I love my God." I was taken back by the words of my son, because they are powerful words.

I've often said this, anyone can be a father, but not everyone can be a Dad. To me a Dad shows love to their children is their for them but not just physically but spiritually as well. I've realize that I have a responsibility as a Dad to spiritually nurture my children just as much as I do physically. But here's the way this works my actions physically, my words, my behavior, my character will setup and example whether my children are receptive to what I try to teach them spiritually. If I'm just talking but I'm not walking what I'm trying to teach them about the bible will go in one ear and out the other. I need to make sure that I remember these two components to fatherhood go hand in hand. You can teach your children spiritually if you haven't walked it physically. In a few weeks I'll be sharing at our men's conference and I will be speaking from the movie Gladiator. In particular I'm speaking on one famous phrase and it's messing me up inside. "Your faults as a son, are my failures as a father" I never want those words or that thoughts to be true of my life. It's important that I take this scripture to heart today and live it and duplicate it in my children.

Sunday Recap (Just being real)

Changing things up from my regular Sunday recap post, hoping it encourages someone out there to hold on, stick out, and know that God will make a way.

• If you only knew how many times I've felt like I just didn't have it in me to preach on Sundays. It's not a bad place to be in because even when I thought I've had it, I really didn't, truthfully I never have had it. It's always been the strength of God that has carried me and allowed me to do what I do. Not having it means I'm depending more on who does have it and He's the one I'm preaching about every week. Yesterday was one of the "I don't have it" mornings but I've quickly been able to train my heart to recalibrate to Who does, so yesterday ROCKED!

• If you only knew how many times I've felt alone. Like I'm carrying something all by myself, am I kidding myself in thinking this could really be done? "Is there anyone else that believes as strongly as I do?" Is it supposed to be this way? The truth is yes, at least for a portion of the time. Somebody has to feel the burden, someone has to feel the pain of "what could be and should be", someone has to dream, if not you then who? You might dream alone, burden alone, even feel like it's your pain alone, but don't you dare ever run alone. You need God and you need people to help you accomplish what He has birthed in your heart to do. Yesterday we came together not as ministers, pastors or interns. We simply came together as a family, as a team of people who love God and we ran together. I took what I had prayed about, worked hard to prepare, and prayed over throughout the week and multiplied it in the leadership, then we together multiplied it in a service so it could be duplicated in homes, families and eventually a city. Your not alone in the mission, it just starts with you.

• If you only knew how many times I've felt lost, like I've missed a turn somewhere along the way and don't know where to turn next. Saturday, the day right before I'm supposed to speak into peoples lives and show them the way I felt like I lost the way. It wasn't just last Saturday, it's a lot of Saturdays. That phrase "living by faith" is not a loose term for me anymore. I listened to a message last Saturday that was passed on by my good friend Pastor Nick. A quote was mentioned that rocked my world. "The biggest room in your brain better be reserved for things you don't understand, because if you need to understand everything before you trust God or serve God then you don't understand the concept of faith"- Jentezen Franklin. Listen to me your only as lost as your faith is. You can be 100% certain in the unknown if you have faith. I allowed Saturday to fuel my Sunday.

Yes Sunday was a great day, but what it took for me to get there was priceless. Just wanted to be real. Appreciate your Pastors, the leaders of your church by praying for them, they could really use it today.

Project: Giving A New Start

What is Project Giving a New Start?
I'm excited to tell you about an opportunity that is presently taking place within Christian Worship Center of Milpitas and San Jose. Every year more and more children are showing up to their first day of school without school supplies such as pencils, folders and backpacks. With the current economic downturn we want to be able to help our community by assisting as many children as we can by providing the necessary tools to start the year right. Our interns program has recently launched Project: Giving a New Start which will collect monetary donations as well as school supplies to help the school children of our community.

How Can I Help?
There are three ways that you can help Project Give a New Start

1) Clicking the following link Giving A New Start to find out more about donating safe and securely online.
2) Follow us on Twitter or our Facebook page and pass the word around to your friends and families.
3) Lastly you can help by purchasing items that we are in need of.

The Blog for Giving A New Start can be found here

Every little bit helps, together we can invest into the future of children who are desperately in need.

God Bless

Sunday Recap Aug 16th

-One crazy Saturday night. Ever had a dream that is so real it feels like your awake? Yeah I had one of those kind of dreams. Such a powerful experience that I could not shake it entering into Sunday.

-Same time, different schedule today. I started playing some music over the sound system and just focusing on God. Before I knew it there was a group of people with me praying and stuff. It's those impromptu moments when God gets your complete attention that changes everything in your day.

-The worship team setup the service so crazy today, music was on, words were on, most of all the heart was on. When we bring our best to God as ministers, God does amazing things in our lives and the lives we are ministering to simultaneously.

- We continued our "At the Movies" Series. Santz spoke on Life Lessons from the Darkest Moments of your life. Santz spoke on when it's our darkest moment, God is actually doing his greatest work. The final question was simple and straight to the point. "Do you trust God?"

-I really believe that there is a lot of heart surgery going on in our church right now. I mean that in a good way. I guess that's why this post is so serious. I feel my heart being worked on and I can see it taking place in the lives of others. People are receiving hope, healing from hurts, past is being broken and hearts are being stirred for an incredible future. Something powerful and special is happening. Can't wait to speak next week.

Much love everyone, have an awesome week.

Google vs. God

Are we trusting Google more then we trust God? Is Google getting more hits then people are praying to God? Reading an article earlier today certainly points that way. "Google it" has become a popular catch phrase probably more then you hear "pray about it." I know God and Google are not in a search engine war, but here's my point and this is where I believe the heart of our society has gone. With Google I can find results almost immediately. With God sometimes my search results are "wait". With Google I can pick and choose which answer I like best. With God His answers are not always easy to accept. "Googling it" doesnt take much effort, while "Seeking Him" will require effort through prayer and reading the bible. So what's the point?

We want answers in life quick, want answers our way and we want them with little to any effort. But here's where Google cannot compare:

Google made the application "google earth" but God created that earth and everything in it.
Google's super powered servers cannot compare to the knowledge of God.
Google results cannot compare to the best results that God has for your life.


What else?
Today, people are facing the greatest amount of uncertainty that they've possibly have experienced their entire lives. Another fact of life is; Life will produce more questions then answers at times and during those moments only God can help. People are searching...bottom line. People are searching for hope, peace, encouragement, value and purpose Google may be able to point you to some sites to find direction but only God can make those things come into fruition in your life.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." ~ God

August 11th 2009 Journal

I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. John 13:15

When John 13 takes place it was custom to have an area for people to wash their feet. The roads were not paved and were pretty much loose gravel and dirt. There were no cars so you could imagine what the feet of of someone who wore sandals looked like back in this day. Jesus does something extremely incredible in this chapter he washes the feet of the disciples including the disciple who would betray him. After all is said and done Jesus say's "I have given you an example to follow, Do as I have done to you." So I asked myself what are the examples that we see that Christ is asking of me today.

There are three things that I see in the example of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples:

Humility

Servanthood

Forgiveness

These three areas do not come easy. Matter of fact for most people none of these characterisitcs come naturally. Jesus said follow my example so if I am to do this what must I do. I took self inventory and came up with the following:

Humility- It's not about me being right it's about what's the right thing to do.

Servanthood- It's not about me being a slave, it's about putting values on others before myself.

Forgivness- It's more for me then for the other person that has offended or hurt me.

Do as I have done to You ~ Jesus

Going throught the motions Pt. 2

Have you ever done something any old way, just to get the job done? If it's gift wrapping a gift for a party that your late for, no harm done; but if it's life and the important things in life, going through the motions won't cut it. God has given you and I the opportunity to live a grade A life (Abundant) not perfect, but it's still an A. The problem is most people live their lives comfortably with a C Average within their family, marriage, job, and entire life.

I don't want to just show up, I want to be ALL there so here are a couple of questions that I've asked myself to get myself all there.

1) What does my life look like right now?
Life is either invested or spent. Investment means there will be a return. If I'm spending there will be little to any return at all. Are you a spender or an investor of your life?

2) What are the important things that I need to keep important today?
It's easy to replace the important things in life with the urgent things of life. What are the important things you might ask? The important things are the things that are going to matter, 2, 5, 20, 100 years from now, those things easily get lost within the urgency of life.Write down a list of the top 10 things that you absolutely cannot ignore for the day. Take care of today and tomorrow will take care of itself.

3) What refuels my life and how often do I require a recharge?
I am good for nothing if I do not have rest. I'm not talking just 8 hours sleep. I'm talking about rest in my heart, mind, soul, finding this type of rest is intentional. When the refueling of my mind, heart and soul is absent in my life I'm heading for a breakdown. It's not that I've lost my passion, energy, my creativity, it's that I haven't taken time to recharge the very things that ignite those things in my life.

If you are leader in anyway, work, home, church etc. You are responsible for bringing the best you possible, this means that you are all there. Your passion, energy, and presence is critical and it's vital. Take advantage of these three questions and apply them to your life.

Going throught the motions Pt. 2

Have you ever done something any old way, just to get the job done? If it's gift wrapping a gift for a part your late for, ahh that's not too bad. But if it's life and the important things in life, going through the motions won't cut it. God has given you and I the opportunity to live a grade A life (Abundant) not perfect, but it's still an A. The problem is most people live their lives comfortably with a C Average within their family, mariage, job, and entire life.

I don't want to just show up, I want to be ALL there so here are a couple of questions that I've asked myself to get myself all there.

1) What does my life look like right now?
Life is either invested or spent. Investment means there will be a return. If I'm spending chances are I won't little to any return at all. Are you a spender or an invester of your life?

2) What are the imporant things that I need to keep important today?
It's easy to replace the important things in life with the urgent things of life. What are the important things you might ask? The important things are the things that are going to matter, 2, 5, 20, 100 years from now, those things easily get lost within the urgency of life.Write down a list of the top 10 things that you absolutely cannot ignore for the day. Take care of today and tomorrow will take care of itself.

3) What brings refuels my life and how often do I require a recharge?
I am good for nothing if I do not have rest. I'm not talking just 8 hours sleep. I'm talking about rest in my heart, mind, soul, finding this type of rest is intentional. When the refueling of my mind, heart and soul is absent in my life I'm heading for a breakdown. It's not that I've lost my passion, energy, my creativity, it's that I haven't taken time to recharge the very things that ignite those things in my life.

If you are leader in anyway, work, home, church etc. You are responsible for bringing the best you possible, this means that you are all there. Your passion, energy, and presence is critical and it's vital. Take advantage of these three questions and apply them to your life.

Going throught the motions Pt. 1

A sign that you may be to busy in life is when you find yourself going through the motions. When your busy beyond your capabilities you find your life showing up for everything, being all there for nothing. I think we've all been there, show up to work, church, family time, and not being fully there. When life management slips through the cracks, everything we show up to, are in charge of and are accountable for is average at best. Even our core competencies the things we are good at turn out average because we have just enough emotion, just enough passion, just enough energy to barely get by.

Here's where barely getting by gets you to, it get's you to A-V-E-R-A-G-E. If you want the average life, the average marriage, average job, average everything in life then just keep showing up and going through the motions, but if you want to be all there in life, if you want passion, energy and enthusiasm in life, relationships, and purpose then you can no longer just go through the motions.

I'll cover some questions in my next blog post that will help get out of going through the motions.

Been a while

It sure has been a while since I last blogged. So I just wanted to give an update on things. I've been CRAZY busy. So busy that it's been difficult to find time to relax and gather my thoughts. I plan on getting back soon though, really soon because believe it or not blogging relaxes me, settles my spirit and anchors my life back to what really counts. On another note for several weeks now I've been dealing with this ear problem. As of today I've been to the doctor three times, taken anitbiotics, ear drops, decongestants and now they are sending me to an ENT specialist. Appreciate the prayers and if there is anything I can pray for you about just let me know on the comments. God Bless and Much Love.

-Ant